(Reuters file)
Tennis
accounted for nearly three quarters of all the suspicious betting alerts
issued last year, according to a report published by the European Sport
Security Association.
The organisation, established by regulated
bookmakers to monitor suspicious betting patterns and guard against
match fixing in sport, said 73 of the 100 events that raised concern
involved tennis.
"The start of 2016 has seen a worldwide focus on alleged match-fixing in tennis," wrote chairman Mike O'Kane.
"The data in our Q4 integrity report reflects
previous quarters and, whilst tennis constituted the largest proportion
of suspicious betting alerts identified by ESSA members, it should be
noted that the vast majority of tennis events are fair," he added.
Tennis governing bodies set up an independent review
panel last month following media reports criticising the Tennis
Integrity Unit (TIU) for not adequately investigating some 16 players
repeatedly flagged over suspicions they had thrown matches in the past
decade.
The review will take at least a year to investigate
allegations of corruption in tennis and the effectiveness of existing
procedures.
Match-fixing allegations by the BBC and online BuzzFeed News broke before last month's Australian Open.
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