ITIA hands two more match-fixing bans, this time to tennis players
Professional French tennis players Jules Okala and Mick Lescure have been given lifetime bans by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after both players were found guilty of match-fixing following investigations that commenced in 2014. Apart from the ban, Okala and Lescure have also been slapped with fines and are banned for life from playing in or attending any ITIA sanctioned events.
This is the second major ban being handed out in the tennis world in the span of a week. ©Erwan Hesry/Unsplash
Okala was found to be in violation of three sections of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme (TACP) guidelines more than once. The 21-year-old flouted section D.2.a.i of the 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018 TACPs on three occasions, which deal with reporting match-fixing approaches to authorities, and sections D.1.d and D.1.e of the 2017 TACP twice, which deal with contriving to affect the outcome of a match and influencing or soliciting other players to do so. For a total of seven violations, the former World No. 338 was banned for life and fined $15,000.
Former World No. 487 Lescure was found guilty of violating two sections of the TACP guidelines on multiple occasions. The 29-year-old breached sections D.1.d and D.1.e of the 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 TACPs, the same as Okala’s second set of charges. The player was in violation of the prior on seven occasions, while he violated the latter twice. The ITIA handed him a lifetime ban for his actions and handed him a $40,000 fine.
Larger investigation might be underway
Both players are now permanently forbidden to play in or be in proximity of any officially sanctioned tennis events, as ruled by independent anti-corruption officer Charles Hollander KC. Apart from the penalties imposed by the tennis body, ITIA revealed that the two players were also involved in a larger law enforcement investigation in Belgium and France.
These bans are the second major ones handed out by the ITIA in the space of less than a week. The entity has handed temporary suspensions, lifetime bans and issued fines for numerous players, coaches and even a few match officials prior to this.
ITIA suspends Bulgarian Official for Betting
Last week, chair umpire Stefan Milanov was suspended for six months by the ITIA after breaching similar TACP guidelines to do with match-fixing. A fine of $10,000, with $5000 suspended, was also issued against the Bulgarian. Milanov was found guilty of betting on tennis on multiple occasions, including a match which he himself was officiating.
A six-month suspension was announced for Milanov by the ITIA that will disallow the Bulgarian to officiate in or even be in proximity of any officially sanctioned tennis event till May 14, 2023. Milanov breached section D.1.a of the 2022 TACP guidelines that prohibits all people under ITIA from directly or indirectly placing bets on any outcomes in tennis matches.
Tennis investing in anti-corruption
In October this year, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) struck a deal with global sports integrity watchdog Sportradar. The Swiss-based entity was granted a license that saw it gain access to ATP’s tennis data. Sportradar’s deal with the ATP is two-pronged: on the one hand, it will provide a direct feed to the chair umpire’s scorecard to bookmakers for data integrity, while on the other hand, it will use its much vaunted fraud detection systems to aid both bookmakers and the ATP in detecting red-flag transactions in the market.
