The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) set up to tackle the threat of match-fixing is under-funded and struggling to cope with a rise in the number of suspicious betting alerts, British Members of Parliament said on Wednesday.
The London-based organisation, established and funded by Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Grand Slam Board to police the sport, survives on $US2 million ($A2.78 million) per year.
It has only six full-time staff, TIU director Nigel Willerton told MPs at a Culture, Media and Sport select committee hearing, while he said the number of betting alerts had risen from 14 in 2012 to 246 last year.
Tennis was rocked on the eve of this year's Australian Open when a report by the BBC and online BuzzFeed News alleged authorities had failed to deal with widespread match-fixing and that eight of the 16 players flagged were playing in the first grand slam tournament of the year.
The game's governing bodies categorically denied the allegations, but have set up an Independent Review Panel (IRP) to investigate its anti-corruption procedures.
The review, which could take up to a year, may well look at whether the TIU is armed to tackle the threat of corruption.
A report published last week by the European Sport Security Association (ESSA), established by regulated bookmakers to monitor suspicious betting patterns, said 73 of the 100 events that raised concern last year involved tennis.
While being grilled by select committee chair Jesse Norman, Willerton, head of the TIU for three years, said his organisation had to monitor 120,000 matches across the world each year and needed the "eyes and ears" of the tennis family to help flag up any suspected match-fixing.
Share
