Top Players in Tennis Match Fixing Scandal According to Italian Prosecutor

Prosecutor Roberto di Martino revealed that top players in tennis match fixing scandal were reported as competitors who might have dropped games after arranging it with gamblers in recent years.

There is an ongoing investigation in Italy regarding the recent tennis betting scandals. Two Italian players, Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali were already charged because of breaching Italian gambling laws. However, the Italian authorities also obtained information about top players in tennis match fixing scandal.

There are chatlogs and recorded phone calls of interaction between gamblers and top players in tennis match fixing scandal. Several non-Italian players are involved, however Italian authorities focus on cheating regarding internet betting in Italy. It is also known that the Tennis Integrity Unit (ITU) repeatedly flagged matches of 16 players in the ATP World Ranking top 50 as suspicious in the last decade.

Non-Italian top players in tennis match fixing scandal are harder to investigate

Since the Italian authorities cannot prosecute the non-Italian top players in tennis match fixing scandal, Di Martino urges for further investigation against the suspected match-fixing ring in professional tennis. He mentioned “not so-called second-tier tennis players, but also players of some importance.”

He said, “Surely if these foreign players were Italian, they would certainly have been at least questioned; they should have provided some explanations. The international aspect seems more problematic than a situation involving a few Italian players. It would be possible to identify, possibly hit, many foreign players who definitely are part of this system.”

According to their report, BBC and BuzzFeed know the list of top players in tennis match fixing scandal but they decided against publishing it.