Cheating in Tennis: How Cellphone Records Revealed a Massive Match-Fixing Ring (msn.com) 37
"On the morning of his arrest, Grigor Sargsyan was still fixing matches. Four cellphones buzzed on his nightstand with calls and messages from around the world.... The information on his devices would provide a remarkable window into what has become the world's most manipulated sport, according to betting regulators. Thousands of texts, gambling receipts and bank transfers laid out Sargsyan's ascent in remarkable detail..."
That's part one of a two-part story in which more than 181 tennis players are involved, and from more than 30 countries, fixing more than 375 professional tennis matches. The Washington Post reveals the years-long investigation that began when Belgium's gambling commission tipped off their federal prosecutor's office to "irregular wagers on obscure tennis matches played around the world."
The breakthrough came with geolocation data on a cellphone, cross-referenced against the the names of people who'd recently flown to that country... The bets were made in small towns in the Flemish countryside. The gamblers appeared to be acting on inside information; they consistently won even when they bet against steep odds... [Nicolas Borremans, a 45-year-old police investigator based in the Flanders region of Belgium] knew little about sports. He had never watched an entire tennis match. But even a cursory description of the case was enough for him to see how a gambling operation might be used to launder money...
Within a few months, he had traced the accounts of four men who had placed suspicious bets in Belgium, all Armenian immigrants. Their wagers were mostly small — a few hundred euros each — ostensibly to avoid scrutiny. Almost all of the bets were on low-level professional tennis tournaments, where players earned barely enough to pay for their travel. Borremans secured wiretaps on the gamblers' phones, and a team of Armenian interpreters listened in. It became clear that the gamblers were working for someone. They received detailed instructions about which matches to bet on. They weren't gambling just on the outcomes, but on specific scores for sets and games... Borremans added more gamblers to his diagram. "Money mules," he called them. Eventually, he would uncover 1,671 accounts at gambling establishments across Europe. Many were registered by working-class Armenians: mechanics, a pizza deliveryman, a taxi driver.
While the tennis tour "has in recent months issued a raft of bans and suspensions," the article points out that the scale of the gambler/tennis player network "has remained a secret until now, in part because the tour is still working on active investigations related to the operation." (The professional tennis tour has its own investigation unit "formed in part because of pervasive allegations of match-fixing in the sport," which assisted the Belgian police.)
The operation's "maestro" had tried to evade investigators. (One French player received his payment in 21 separate transfers from Armenia.) The maestro also gave the tennis players anonymously-registered SIM cards for communication. But unfortunately, the article points out, every professional tennis player "signs a contract agreeing to hand their phones over to tennis investigators at any time if required." Soon investigators were reading the mastermind's text messages — and even wiretapping his phone calls to his mother.
His phone's search history would later offer a glimpse into his life and concerns. Sargsyan scoured the internet for references to himself and his players ("maestro tennis," "match fixing tennis hossam"); he did some broader research into his world ("tennis corruption," "armenian mafia"); he searched for ways to spend his new fortune ("escort geneve," "villa rent close port mallorca") But, mostly, he searched for new bookmakers ("croatia betting shop," "usa betting," "mybet Australia").
Caught in the investigation were Sebastian Rivera, the Chilean coach based in the United States, and Slovakian tennis player Dagmara Baskova (who says she was paid 10,000 euros for each thrown match). Another French player told investigators "Since 2015, I estimate that I have accepted to deliberately lose or manipulate the outcome of 20 to 30 matches for Maestro, both in singles and doubles." Some tennis players infuriated the maestro by tipping off other gamblers about their plans to throw matches.
Leaving the courtroom for his own trial, the maestro gave this response to the Post reporter asking how he felt about the courtroom proceedings. "If the prosecutor knew what I know, there would be many more people on trial." Later the maestro was sentenced to five years in prison for fraud, money laundering, and leading a criminal organization.
That's part one of a two-part story in which more than 181 tennis players are involved, and from more than 30 countries, fixing more than 375 professional tennis matches. The Washington Post reveals the years-long investigation that began when Belgium's gambling commission tipped off their federal prosecutor's office to "irregular wagers on obscure tennis matches played around the world."
The breakthrough came with geolocation data on a cellphone, cross-referenced against the the names of people who'd recently flown to that country... The bets were made in small towns in the Flemish countryside. The gamblers appeared to be acting on inside information; they consistently won even when they bet against steep odds... [Nicolas Borremans, a 45-year-old police investigator based in the Flanders region of Belgium] knew little about sports. He had never watched an entire tennis match. But even a cursory description of the case was enough for him to see how a gambling operation might be used to launder money...
Within a few months, he had traced the accounts of four men who had placed suspicious bets in Belgium, all Armenian immigrants. Their wagers were mostly small — a few hundred euros each — ostensibly to avoid scrutiny. Almost all of the bets were on low-level professional tennis tournaments, where players earned barely enough to pay for their travel. Borremans secured wiretaps on the gamblers' phones, and a team of Armenian interpreters listened in. It became clear that the gamblers were working for someone. They received detailed instructions about which matches to bet on. They weren't gambling just on the outcomes, but on specific scores for sets and games... Borremans added more gamblers to his diagram. "Money mules," he called them. Eventually, he would uncover 1,671 accounts at gambling establishments across Europe. Many were registered by working-class Armenians: mechanics, a pizza deliveryman, a taxi driver.
While the tennis tour "has in recent months issued a raft of bans and suspensions," the article points out that the scale of the gambler/tennis player network "has remained a secret until now, in part because the tour is still working on active investigations related to the operation." (The professional tennis tour has its own investigation unit "formed in part because of pervasive allegations of match-fixing in the sport," which assisted the Belgian police.)
The operation's "maestro" had tried to evade investigators. (One French player received his payment in 21 separate transfers from Armenia.) The maestro also gave the tennis players anonymously-registered SIM cards for communication. But unfortunately, the article points out, every professional tennis player "signs a contract agreeing to hand their phones over to tennis investigators at any time if required." Soon investigators were reading the mastermind's text messages — and even wiretapping his phone calls to his mother.
His phone's search history would later offer a glimpse into his life and concerns. Sargsyan scoured the internet for references to himself and his players ("maestro tennis," "match fixing tennis hossam"); he did some broader research into his world ("tennis corruption," "armenian mafia"); he searched for ways to spend his new fortune ("escort geneve," "villa rent close port mallorca") But, mostly, he searched for new bookmakers ("croatia betting shop," "usa betting," "mybet Australia").
Caught in the investigation were Sebastian Rivera, the Chilean coach based in the United States, and Slovakian tennis player Dagmara Baskova (who says she was paid 10,000 euros for each thrown match). Another French player told investigators "Since 2015, I estimate that I have accepted to deliberately lose or manipulate the outcome of 20 to 30 matches for Maestro, both in singles and doubles." Some tennis players infuriated the maestro by tipping off other gamblers about their plans to throw matches.
Leaving the courtroom for his own trial, the maestro gave this response to the Post reporter asking how he felt about the courtroom proceedings. "If the prosecutor knew what I know, there would be many more people on trial." Later the maestro was sentenced to five years in prison for fraud, money laundering, and leading a criminal organization.
Or let games be games. Motivation matters. (Score:5, Insightful)
What motivations are in the system? Oh, yeah... that's totally logical. You should stop allowing that (betting). That'd solve it. Turn a game back into a game.
Next?
Re:Or let games be games. Motivation matters. (Score:4, Insightful)
The best thing you can do is punish the people involved in illegal activities to discourage others from doing it in the future. Trying to prohibit gambling will go about as well as the prohibition of alcohol. It won't stop anyone who really wants it from getting any and it would only create massive incentives for criminal enterprise.
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Under ground means it's not state sponsored and it's harder to interact with at large. Financial institutions won't be as cooperative. You'll probably have to do cash bets with REAL people or otherwise dive into crypto for your money laundering.
Unfortunately, many world governments are perfectly happy to tax people on winnings and could careless the damage being done by all the legalized gambling. A lot of gamblers have addiction issues and legalizing it makes things worse by making access easier.
Whatever t
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The Romans gambled on fights in the colosseum, also ancient Greece as well.
I don't think the concept of competitive sport has existed without gambling alongside it.
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Why bother with it if you can't benefit from an outcome?
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I totally agree. That was what I said.
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A less drastic solution would be to identify sports competitions most vulnerable to gambling-related abuses and ban gambling on results of those competitions.
I mean, you couldn't bribe the Brazil national football team to throw a knock-out match at the World Cup. Or for an example closer to tennis, you couldn't get Djokovic to throw a Grand Slam final. It's a lot harder to fix high-profile sports events (although not impossible). OTOH these low-level tennis tournaments are very vulnerable to match fixing. P
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You probably don't have much of an addictive personality. Many gamblers get a "rush" from the act of gambling, especially in casinos with all their games.
I can see how sports betting would be interesting for people that really enjoy watching sports, because they have an illusion of "knowledge" that they think gives them an edge. It certainly makes the game "matter" more if you have money riding on the outcome.
For me personally, gambling more or less just fills me with anxiety and I'd rather just enjoy the g
Five years is not enough (Score:2)
Is every "B-Tier" sport mired in controversey? (Score:4, Insightful)
Cycling was shown that everybody was doping.
Chess had an alleged cheating scandal.
Tennis now has their own fixing scandal.
What else are we gonna find? Bowlers are corking their balls? Billiard players on the take? Lumberjack competitors using juiced saws?
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if only the people so obsessed with this topic actually cared about women's sports instead of using them as a cudgel for cultural grievances
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If we left it to them to sort out themselves, we'd be accused of being indifferent to their plight.
Besides, I'm sure plenty of parents really do care about the issue, especially with scholarships on the line. If sports had zero money involved, then sure, who cares? Many young people that are playing these sports enjoy the sport, yes, but the better ones are hoping for a scholarship and sponsors, aka get money for their talents.
An easy fix would be for there to be an open bracket that anyone could compete in
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If only people with penises would stick to the sporting events designated for people with penises...
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You forgot men dominating in women's sporting events.
I have not seen any men participating in women's sports that were wearing black leather, high heels, and carrying whips.
Wrong kind of dominating?
/sarcasm
Match-fixing was done in professional sumo (Score:2)
Match-fixing was done in professional sumo
Re: Is every "B-Tier" sport mired in controversey? (Score:2)
Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but the regulating body of professional snooker just handled down several multi-year bans/suspensions for several Chinese players due to match fixing. And there have always been allegations against other players like John Higgins, etc.
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I was being a little pithy but it really is a pattern I've noticed
Thank you for the snooker info as it's a game I looked into after watching a video of Ronnie O'Sullivan on Youtube and it's one of these things thats a much bigger deal in England so was interesting to look into. I thought there might be shenanigans as it seems like there is a big betting market behind it over there.
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What else are we gonna find? Bowlers are corking their balls?
Try swimming, see how many swimmers were diagnosed with asthma and taking asthma drugs, which, just happens to help you breathe more effectively.
All I can think about (Score:2)
After reading the summary, all I can think about is that Seinfeld episode where Bob Cobb, who conducted the Policement Benevolence Association Orchestra, kept insisting that everyone call him "Maestro" all the time.
If this can happen in tennis ... (Score:2)
US sports leagues have recently climbed in bed with the online gambling industry. The draftkings ads are everywhere.
If this can happen in tennis it can happen in baseball, basketball, football and hockey. The last thing they need is another blacksox scandal.
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What do you mean *can* happen? Did you see the officiating on Thursday Night Football? The refs were doing all they can to help KC out and KC still lost. It was awesome seeing them lose, by the way.
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