Key points:
- Marco Penge placed bets on multiple golf events
- The golfer has been fined and given a ban
- His acknowledgment of his breach and cooperation in the investigation helped lead to a reduced sanction
The DP World Tour has banned the English professional golfer Marco Penge for breaching the PGA European Tour’s Integrity Programme.
Penge was found by an independent disciplinary panel to have bet on a number of golf events, though none of them consisted of bets on himself or on tournaments in which he was participating.
Good to know: The disciplinary panel that heard the case consisted of Phillip Evans KC, Les Vernon and Simon Khan
The punishment for the betting breaches is a £2,000 ($2,540.88) fine and a three-month suspension for the Englishman, with an additional one-month suspension pending further breaches in the next 12 months. This started on 13 December. He can return to DP World Tour participation from 13 February 2025.
As a result of Penge not betting on himself or the tournaments he was involved in, it was found by the panel that the integrity of the events had not been compromised, while the fact that he admitted to the breach straightaway and co-operated throughout the investigation led to the reduced sanction.
Similarly, earlier this month, Ryan Rainey, who most recently played for Finn Harps from the League of Ireland was suspended by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) for six months for betting breaches, relating to a number of games in Ireland between 2021 and 2024, and worldwide in 2024.
