Ukrainian tennis player Dmytro Badanov was banned for life and fined $100,000 after an investigation found him guilty of fixing tennis matches. An independent hearing officer with the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) discovered the 30-year-old fixed the outcome of two matches on the ITF Futures Tour. He was also found guilty of betting linked to the matches in question.
The first incident occurred in Tunisia in 2015, at the F 23 Futures. Badanov lost in the first round to Boris Fassbender of France in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.
The second fixed match took place a year later in Cairo at the F 26 Futures event. Again he lost in straight sets, this time to Kirill Kivattsev of Russia, 6-0, 6-2. It was his second of what would be seven consecutive straight-set losses in the opening round, though none of the other contests were disputed.
“The lifetime ban applies with immediate effect and means that Mr. Badanov is prohibited from competing in, or attending, any tournament or event organized or sanctioned by the governing bodies of the sport,” the Tennis Integrity Unit said in a statement.
Tsunami of Corruption
It has long been suspected that there was corruption in the lower levels of professional tennis, and suspicions of players intentionally losing matches has been a concern for at least a decade.
The BBC and BuzzFeed reported two years ago that they were in possession of substantial documentation that suggested a coverup by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) of possible illegal betting going on. They looked specifically at a 2007 match between Martin Vassallo Arguello and Nikolay Davydenko.
Ranked 87th in the world at the time, Arguello won the match when fourth-ranked Davydenko withdrew citing a left foot injury. Both players were cleared of any wrongdoing, but several sportsbooks refused to pay on winning bets due to allegations of fraud.
News stories pressured the TIU to appoint an independent review panel to investigate the allegations of corruption, and two years later they released a preliminary report on a “tsunami” of integrity issues they found.
Fixing the System
Most of the problems came from the lower levels of the sport, such as the ITF Futures Tour, where Badnov played. Nevada sportsbooks don’t take wagers on these matches, but plenty of internet sites do.
“Only the top 250 to 350 players earn enough money to break even. Yet there are nominally 15,000 or so ‘professional’ players,” the report explained, “[who] may be particularly tempted in relation to matches that they intended to ‘tank’ for unrelated reasons, or in matches that they believe they can win even while contriving to lose games, sets, or points along the way.”
That made the tour, and others like it, susceptible to match fixing. The report cited 38 alerts to the TIU from betting companies about potentially suspicious activity in the first quarter of 2018. Only two of those came from the ATP and World Tennis Association, while the rest were from lower levels.
Online gambling sites have recently been recognized as key to stopping match-fixing in tennis and other sports, as they can most easily recognize unusual betting volumes in lower-profile competitions that often indicate illicit activity.
The report concluded to fix the problem “fundamental reform is required,” including expanding the TIU to include tennis and gambling experts, and setting up independent oversight.
