Australian Open: first day hit by match-fixing claims

The start of the Australian Open tennis tournament has been overshadowed by claims that some of the world's top players may have been involved in match fixing over the last decade.

Sixteen competitors who have featured in the top 50 in that time have been implicated, according to an investigation by the BBC and Buzzfeed News. The players, whose names have not been released, allegedly include several winners of Grand Slam titles over the past ten years. Eight of them are said to be competing in Melbourne.

Secret files are said to outline a number of suspicious match results and unusual betting patterns from international syndicates. They include the results of an inquiry set up by the Association of Tennis Professionals in 2007, after a game involving Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello.

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Both players were cleared the following year, but the investigation raised serious concerns about match-fixing, reports the BBC.

"The enquiry found betting syndicates in Russia, northern Italy and Sicily [were] making hundreds of thousands of pounds betting on matches investigators thought to be fixed. Three of these matches were at Wimbledon," it says.

According to Buzzfeed, the report was "shelved" despite "compelling evidence about a network of players suspected of fixing matches at major tournaments".

It continues: "The leaked files show that investigators implicated 28 players in suspected fixing and urged that they face a full disciplinary investigation. But... tennis authorities took no action against them."

The claims are backed up by "analysis of the betting activity on 26,000 matches and interviews across three continents with gambling and match-fixing experts, tennis officials, and players," Buzzfeed adds.

The investigation was sparked by a research paper in the Journal of Prediction Markets in 2014. "We find prima facie evidence of the betting markets being affected, with an average of 23 matches per year likely being manipulated or outright fixed each year," the study's authors wrote.

Buzzfeed journalist John Templeton analysed data from 26,000 matches and says he discovered a group of players displaying abnormally poor performance in matches that had attracted unusual betting patterns.

"I identified 15 players who lost heavy betting matches startlingly often," he writes.

The reports also claim players are being offered $50,000 (£35,000) or more by corrupt gamblers for fixing a match, a significant amount for journeymen players.

The temptation for lower-ranked players to accept is high, adds BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller.

"Players outside the top 200 are unlikely to earn much more than £40,000 in prize money each year, and that is before coaching, travel and hotel expenses are taken into account," he says.

The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), set up by the sport's various governing bodies in 2008, has insisted it has a "zero-tolerance approach to betting-related corruption".

"All credible information received by the TIU is analysed, assessed, and investigated by highly experienced former law-enforcement investigators," director Nigel Willerton told the BBC.

However, the corporation's Nigel Fuller says there are question marks over the effectiveness of the body. "The TIU has a full-time staff of just five and relies on intelligence from players and betting companies to alert them to potential corruption," he says. "It is highly debatable whether enough resources are directed towards the TIU."

Infographic by www.statista.com for TheWeek.co.uk.