Integrity takes a grand slam when the gamblers lob

If you listen to Tennis Australia, the battle against match fixing is largely won because it “continues to take every step possible to safeguard the integrity of the sport”.

It seems strenuous efforts will be made in Melbourne over coming days to confront the menace, with an army of international tennis officials and police monitoring every move of the players. Which would all make perfect sense if Rod Laver Arena was where the real threat lay.

A year ago former Australian Open boys’ champion Oliver Anderson was charged with match fixing. At an earlier minor Traralgon tournament Anderson threw a set to an opponent ranked 900 places below him, a decision he will regret for the rest of his life and which was committed for the gain of a few thousand dollars.

If ever an opportunity neatly summarised the immediate action needed to tackle the scourge of match fixing, a threat that tennis because of its singular participant focus is particularly vulnerable to, this was it. Anderson’s case had the three generic ingredients that exacerbate the match-fixing threat: low prizemoney tournaments, players at either end of their ­careers, and the ever-present opportunity to place a bet.

Of course, TA didn’t need the Anderson scandal to learn what it already knows about the threats to the sport’s integrity. In the past year he was one of five Australian players sanctioned for integrity breaches by the Tennis Integrity Unit, a shameful national record that might be unmatched worldwide over recent years.

The continuing examination by the International Review Panel of the response of tennis to historic and current corruption would also not have escaped TA’s notice. It would have observed reports of match fixing’s rising influence in other sports both here and abroad, and noted the federal government’s inquiry headed by James Wood QC into the need for a national sports corruption agency.

TA is also fully aware of the increased social-media abuse players receive from disgruntled punters. In short there’s never been a year like 2017 to point out the enormous problem that match fixing has become.

So a year on from the shocking revelation that an Australian tennis champion threw a set, where are we? What has TA, the organisation entrusted by the tennis fraternity, the Australian sporting public and government to maintain the best interests of a time-honoured sporting code, done to curb the threat that is patently obvious at minor tournaments?

Contrary to its PR blurb the answer is a big fat zero. If the past 12 months was an on-court test of will then those who seek to gain financially through the corruption of tennis cleaned up TA 6-0, 6-0, 6-0.

For the uninitiated, a smorgasbord of betting options is made available to punters as a result of TA being granted a sports controlling body approval by the gambling regulator, in this case the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation.

The approval is granted once the commission is satisfied that the sporting body has the necessary resources and procedures in place to manage integrity risks that might arise from betting. TA’s approval by the VCGLR allows it to enter “partnerships” with betting companies, but it’s worth considering what this entails.

The vast bulk of professional tennis involves lowly ranked players competing in little-known and often non-broadcast tournaments in faraway places, so who actually bets on these contingencies? Apart from a small number of professional punters, the bulk of the turnover comes from problem gamblers, money launderers and, occasionally, those seeking to earn a dollar from a match fix. Everyone in the industry knows this. But because turnover is all the gambling industry is interested in, don’t expect them to demonstrate any conscience about what is an endless meal ticket.

The Anderson case demonstrated clearly and unmistakably the rot that has set in when tennis permits betting on all manner of contingencies, including individual set results, at minor tournaments. The most recent report from the Tennis Integrity Unit once again highlighted the much higher risk within lesser tournaments like Traralgon: 92 per cent of match alert reports last year came from the secondary circuit.

Anderson was one of many to fall from grace well away from a grand slam court. A quick bet on a set result at juicy odds took no more than a couple of taps of a phone screen. Unbelievably the first bet, a sizeable wager on a player ranked 900 places lower than the former Australian champion, didn’t trigger a suspicious activity report by the local gambling business involved. It was only the subsequent bet exposing the company to a much larger loss that had it contacting Victoria Police. Says a lot for the corporate morality of the gambling industry but these are the fruits of TA’s partnerships.

A year on from Anderson being charged, TA claims it is doing everything it can. Except, that is, for the bleeding obvious. The circumstances of the case scream out a necessary reform louder than any centre court utterances: curb the operation of betting companies, particularly on minor tournaments. Stand up to gambling companies. Protect the sport.

The sad, inescapable and ugly truth is that TA has reduced itself to nothing more than a pimp for the gambling industry. And a pretty cheap pimp at that, content with a 5 per cent cut of turnover arising from the betting that its agreements facilitate. Nothing has changed in the past year because tennis is in too deep, its slavish and mindless cohabitation with a soulless industry devoted only to the ceaseless growth in turnover destined to destroy more promising young careers.

The fact that TA has not varied the agreements it has in place to limit betting on minor tournaments suggests it traded away that right when signing the agreements. If that is the case it represents an appalling dereliction of the responsibility given to it that is directly compromising the integrity of the sport it is charged to protect. If that is the case the position of all board members involved is surely untenable.

Tony Robinson served as minister for gaming in the Brumby government in Victoria from 2007 to 2010.