LEGGI LA VERSIONE ITALIANA DELL’INTERVISTA
A few weeks ago, I received a message on social media by a guy: “Hi Stefano, my name is Marc (invented) and I used to be a tennis player. Now I am a tennis coach. I think you are doing a great job with your match fixing investigations and if you are interested, we can talk about the situation and problems in tennis. You are only one I saw who was talking about match fixing and it is important because the situation is awfully bad now. I have been in tennis for a long time and still I am”. So, we exchanged our own knowledge for a few weeks and then he accepted this interview.
For how long have you been on the circuit now?
I played my first pro tournament more than 20 years ago and I started working with players like a coach about ten years ago. During that time, I also had the experience to travel for ATP/WTA tournaments as hitting partner/travel coach.
When was the first time you heard about match fixing?
When I started playing there was not corruption on ITF level. There were no live scores and betting markets. We had different stuff, like when players who practice together or are friends, playing last round of qualifying and one of them was getting guaranteed Lucky Loser spot, he could lose the match and get in the draw like Lucky Loser, but it was not for betting purpose. Or other situation when the coach who used to be a player before and sign in for tournament could lose to his player in qualifying or main draw. Also, there were situations when a player needed his/her first ATP/WTA point, he/she could pay the opponent to lose. Those things could happen.
I heard for the first time about match fixing about 15 years ago, there was some talk in one ATP Tournament, where Wild Card won against Top 100 in Main Draw and the rumour was that top 100 got paid to lose that match and that it was organized by a group of people (including ex-players) who bet on that match.
Do you think match fixing volume has changed in the last few years?
I think so. Many years ago, was not so widely spread and it happened only on level ATP/WTA and Challenger Tour. Since ITF made live scores on low level tournaments it became global. If we count WTA/ATP tournaments plus Challengers we get about ten tournaments in one week (approximately in high tournament season): tournaments with good organisation, hospitality, and security. Those tournaments have players inside top 200-300, most of these players have a team and they make more money than they spend. ITF has sometimes more than fifty 15k prize money tournaments per week.
Many tournaments of that level have bad organisation, players between 400 to unranked players, just one practice court for both men and women tournament (32 Main Draw + 64 Qualifying players), most of the players have no team and spend on the tournament way more money than they earn: the prize money for losing 1st round Main Draw is less than 100 Euros, but the hotel room is 130 Euros per night and stringing a racket costs 15 Euros.
Do you think the way of approaching players has changed? If so, how?
Again, I think so, the way of approaching players changed a lot. Few years ago, it was mostly Whatsapp/Facebook or social networks messages but in last 1-2-3 years it changed a lot. People who try to involve players do not name match fixing any more. They introduce themselves like sport agents/sponsors/tennis fans (arrangers are sometimes coaches or players) and they try to get close to players, to know him/her better, to know problems and interests. They started playing psychological games with players, trying to involve them with some sort of mind manipulation.
Do you think tennis authorities are doing enough against match fixing?
At ATP/WTA level the situation is quite good: security systems, credentials for players and supporting team etc…But when we talk about most of the ITF tournaments especially 15k and 25k there is nothing like that: there is no security, anybody can enter players areas and it is there that the most criminal activity happens.
Also, most of the players after their matches receive aggressive messages on social media from gamblers with the life threat. Sometimes they know their home address or send messages on phone numbers. They have player’s confidential information and players are not protected. Like I said, on a low level tournaments there is no security, anybody can enter the players site, area or hotel.
Do you have any personal experience (approached, approach to one of your players or friends) about match fixing?
I receive many messages on social networks with fixing offers. I know many players who have been banned from tennis for fixing. Most of the players with whom I worked received that kind of offers. I also know some tournament officials who have been banned from tennis and every year I experience that more and more.
What are your tips to reduce or stop match fixing?
ITF must give more security on low level tournaments: credential, player zone should be separated from strangers and spectators. In every tournament there should be some security that controls the situation and has the right to check documents and reason for being around players. They must get permissions to check people who stays around courts and who contact players. Surveillance cameras with recording for players area and around the court area would be good.
Security must be close to WTA/ATP level because ITF tournaments are very interesting for fixers, they invest money on it and ITF must protect players and the sport. For example, in football there is a scheme where crime syndicates invest money in troubled clubs to subsequently organize fixed results: now in my opinion it is starting in tennis also, especially when we have (like every week before pandemic) more than 50 tournaments a week.
Probably ATP/WTA/ITF should cooperate with bookmaker analysts to analyse betting patterns and find criminal activity, reacting faster and better. I also think that offering live score on low level tournaments without preparing security and analysing risks was not a good idea. Before doing it, tournaments must be ready to protect players and fix security.
Can you make some examples of what is going wrong at ITF Level?
We do not need to talk about players fixing results on their matches it is obvious. In some tournaments people transfer match results (ITF live score can have delay and can be possible to bet from court the result of the point): they use many different devices, phones, headphones, I even heard they hide transfer mechanism in shoes.
Players and coaches are also sometimes involved in those things, even some tournament chair umpires manipulate scores or delay them, being accomplices with who sit watching the match and placing bets. The main problem for me is the big interest in players who will fix the result: the way of approaching them improved a lot. Arrangers are not mentioning the real reason and they can be coaches or players contacts, or they can introduce themselves as sponsors or other legal services, so then they get closer to players and start working/manipulating them to push them slowly to match fixing.
Do you know any guy around the tour that is extremely dangerous for players?
In the past few years, I saw many dangerous people. Many examples come from Eastern Europe. The local laws give them opportunity to do more illegal activity. For example: one guy (let us call him Michael) is about 40 years old and travels whole year only on women tournaments around the world: Europe, Asia, Africa. He relates to a group of players and coaches and he always travels with some of them. In one tournament they say he is a fitness coach, the next tournament he is a businessman on vacation with his tennis friends.
He stays everywhere in the official tournament hotels, spends time in players areas-restaurant/lounges and he sits on matches during day and tries to get in touch with different players in the evening, he tries to get in touch with many players, he invites different players for dinners or social events, paying for them. Moreover, he offers players many kinds of help: borrowing them money, paying for hotel, or sponsorship.
When he gets in touch with a player, he starts asking many personal questions and asks about other players: who travels alone, which hotel players are going to stay. I’m sure that person has knowledge about psychology manipulation and he also plays sexual games with players: trying to touch, caress, kiss. He hides all that behind friendship, joke, or accident.
He got in touch with one player I know very well. Let us call her Julia. It happened in a tournament where she was alone. Michael was with a group of players and coaches that she knew from before. For a few times there was no free tables in players restaurant, so Julia sat with Michael and his company on the same table. After that, he started to talk to Julia and kept doing it the next days. He always took a sit on courts or players lounges close to her. Tried to sit in players restaurant at the same table with Julia asking her many questions about life, tennis, family.
After Julia came back home from tournament Michael tried to be in touch with her every day, texting her or calling. After few weeks Julia went to the other tournament and again, she was alone. Michael was there with the same group of players and coaches. He acted like an old friend. He stayed in official hotel with players. Michael was inviting Julia and other players for dinner in a good restaurant every evening. He paid for it, he asked few times to invite other players, he started acting more aggressive with Julia, following her everywhere on courts, touching her hands, elbow, back during conversation. Julia told him many times that she did not like it and every time he turned it to a friend’s joke.
Then he started talking about fixing results in other sports but not in tennis. He never said anything about match fixing in tennis with Julia but many times he said that in other sports all good sportsman do match fixing. A few times he offered sponsorship. Result of all that was that Julia for a few weeks got under Michael’s control. She stopped talking with her family or her coach. Nobody knew what was going on: Michael became the main person in Julia’s life who she listened and trusted. There was noy sexual interest or love from Julia’s side: it was some kind of psychological addiction.
In the end of that story coach and family got involved in that situation and they did small investigation. They found out many interested in Michael . He works with/for people who organise match fixing in tennis. Some of them are already banned from tennis (one of them is an ex-player who organises match fixing I mentioned before). Julia did not believe at the beginning to all those obvious things, but in the end, after many conversations and psychologist’s help Julia understood the whole situation and stopped every contact with Michael. Her psychologist said she got under professional manipulation.
I spoke with few female players who told me that in other tournaments Michael tried to get in touch with them with same manipulation but luckily it did not go too deep. I saw myself a few weeks ago on a tournament how Michael followed one girl who was alone. I believe that if Julia would have kept in touch with Michael for some more times, she would be involved in match fixing by psychological manipulation and grooming. There are many other stories about approaching players. One player who never had WTA ranking after she graduated in USA collage got an offer in her home country for sponsorship and promises about big money, if she starts playing tournaments with fixing results sometimes. Other players got a sponsorship and after some time the person who offered that pushed her to fix match results.
Is there anything else you want to point out as a big risk?
I know they are even trying to organise whole ITF tournaments with live streaming and live scoring, approaching players to play fixed tournaments, some officials are also involved in that. As you know tennis has a big betting market and some people try to find a way to manipulate and fix it: most of that happens on low level tournaments, where, like I said before, there are no security and controls, but at the same time there is a big interest by criminal organisations.
I would not recommend now to send players alone on tournaments: they can easily get under psychological manipulation or grooming by people that approach players for match fixing. It is the new reality of tennis: the way how they get connected to players changed so much.
I have been covering the match fixing issue for years and I still think the effort of tennis authorities is very low compared to the vastity of the issue but the information revealed by this coach should put a lot of pressure on them because apart from match fixing, psychological manipulation and/or sexual harassment/grooming can’t be tolerated in our beloved sport.
