ITIA issues Q2 integrity report, cites 19 match alerts

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has presented a report for the second quarter of the year, issuing an update on sports betting and match-fixing breaches of varying severity.

ITIA’s continues to fight match-fixing in tennis

The organization offered its update for the second quarter of 2024, covering a sprawling network of events, and a commitment to support entry-level events hosted by the International Tennis Federation World Tennis Tour to the Grand Slams of Roland-Garos and Wimbledon, the press statement by the agency said.

ITIA brings its latest report in the context of significant shifts in the way it runs its services, as the agency has become an independent organization focused on supporting tennis events from the inside, leveraging a deep understanding of how professional and competitive tennis works, but also ensuring it keeps its impartiality in helping identify integrity breaches.

ITIA has been pushing hard to ensure that this is the case, inculcating a new set of values in 2023 to help guide ITIA team members and everyone involved in tennis to protect the integrity of the sport. Over the second quarter of 2024, ITIA has registered a total of 19 cases of betting and match-fixing abuses, based on alerts it had received.

"Every alert reported to the ITIA is recorded, assessed and followed up as an indicator that something inappropriate may have happened," said ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse, talking a bit more about the nature of sports betting and match-fixing in the game.

"Unusual betting patterns can occur for many reasons other than match-fixing – for example, incorrect odds setting; well-informed betting; player fitness, fatigue or form; playing conditions and personal circumstances," she added.

Not all alerts uncover match-fixing offenses

Not all reports led to an enforcement action on the part of the watchdog, however. Most of the alerts came from the W15 – Women’s – World Tennis Tour 15s, with seven such alerts in total. The parallel Men’s tournament yielded the second highest at four alerts.

In the meantime, the organization said that it had issued three lifetime bans from the game to Alejandro Mendoza, Jorge Panta, and Armando Belardi. Six players were suspended for offenses varying from several months to six years, among them Mohamed Ali Abibsi, Steven Nguyen, and Jasmina Tinjić.

Tennis is one of the highest-cited sports when it comes to match-fixing and sports-betting offenses committed by someone involved. Yet, ITIA and fellow watchdogs have usually found most transgressions subject to more lenient penalties.

According to another integrity watchdog, the International Betting Integrity Association, tennis is second only to soccer in the number of instances of match-fixing and betting abuses.

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