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TRANSCRIPT OF “FILE ON 4” – “: THE ITALIAN FILES”

CURRENT AFFAIRS GROUP

TRANSMISSION: Tuesday 15th March 2016 2000 – 2040 REPEAT: Sunday 20th March 2016 1700 - 1740

REPORTER: Simon Cox PRODUCER: Paul Grant EDITOR: David Ross

PROGRAMME NUMBER: PMR611/16VQ5747 - 1 -

THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY.

“FILE ON 4”

Transmission: Tuesday 15th March 2016 Repeat: Sunday 20th March 2016

Producer: Paul Grant Reporter: Simon Cox Editor: David Ross

ACTUALITY OF BELLS

COX: Tonight we are in Italy in the ancient town of Cremona, with new revelations about top tennis players named in a match fixing investigation.

DI MARTINO[VIA INTERPRETER]: I think with international collaboration it would be possible to identify, possibly involve, many foreign players who are definitely part of this system. It is a problem that affects the whole world.

COX: We reveal startling new evidence about another betting scandal that the tennis authorities thought had gone away. And if you think it’s only men’s tennis that has an issue, think again. Tonight we hear from insiders in the sport who say it’s a problem that’s too big to fix.

MOORE: The nature of their sport and their business is just too big and too colossal to effectively make any changes. It’s impossible to police, it cannot be done.

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SIGNATURE TUNE

NEWSREADER: The world of professional tennis has been rocked by allegations of widespread match fixing.

NEWSREADER 2: New allegations rocking the world of professional tennis, with the getting ….

COX: Our revelations in January that Tennis’ anticorruption body ignored repeated warnings that top players were taking part in suspicious matches created headlines around the world.

NEWSREADER 3: Now that scandal in pro tennis is overshadowing the Australian Open, tennis fixers are denying the allegations ….

NEWSREADER 4: BuzzFeed and the BBC reporting today tennis officials have failed to deal with widespread corruption …

COX: Tennis tried to downplay the findings of our joint investigation, but in the end it couldn’t ignore them.

BERLINCIONI: All the players, all the people that play tennis at professional level every day knows that match fixing was a real problem.

COX: Stefano Berlincioni - an expert on tennis gambling - says most of the players he regularly talks to were pleased that the problem was finally out in the open.

BERLINCIONI: I don’t think anyone inside the tennis world was very surprised, but maybe the public that doesn’t follow anything related to betting, for them it was really a surprise because the general opinion is that this sport was clean. The majority of the players is clean so they were happy about your programme and all the media involved in this match fixing issue. Of course, the not clean players were not happy about it because this increases the probability for them to get caught. - 3 -

COX: Since our programme was broadcast, there have been repeated questions asked about the failure by Tennis’ Integrity Unit to act on the alerts they received. Last month the head of the unit, Nigel Willerton, had a bruising few hours in front of the Commons Culture Committee. Its chairman, Jesse Norman, pressed him on claims that sixteen top level players were involved.

ACTUALITY AT COMMITTEE MEETING

NORMAN: Is it really true that half of the sixteen players that were warned about then took part in the Australian Open only a few weeks ago?

WILLERTON: Well, I do not know the sixteen names that were handed over in those original documents. I was not in place at that time.

NORMAN: But you can just look into the files though? The files have got the documents in there. You had a team, they did a report. The head of the team, or one of the heads of the team then became the head of the TIU.

WILLERTON: The files that I looked at, I did not see sixteen names listed and those files have been handed to the independent review panel to look into.

COX: Having heard from tennis’ anticorruption body, Jesse Norman says the sport needs to pay more attention to evidence pointing towards potential match fixers.

NORMAN: I was certainly struck, when they came in front of the committee, that although the TIU itself had been set up in reaction to some pretty clear cases of match fixing, the people in charge of it now didn’t seem to have carried forward an understanding of, you know, who the most likely suspects were. And there have been widespread public concerns that the unit itself is not as transparent as it might be in its own deliberations and therefore you can have a proper public concern about whether or not it should be justifying these kinds of decisions internally and, even conceivably, externally.

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COX: Tennis’ governing bodies have launched a review into match fixing, which is expected to take at least a year to complete. Meanwhile new evidence is still emerging about possible corruption within the sport.

MUSIC

ACTUALITY IN ITALY, ACCORDION PLAYING

COX: To get to the bottom of match fixing, you really need to come to Italy, because we know that several of the gambling syndicates were based in the country and there’s actually an ongoing investigation happening now based here in Cremona, which is where I am, in the town’s medieval square. You can probably hear in the background, they’re just packing up from the weekly market. I’m overshadowed by a beautiful red stone tower of the cathedral which dominates this square. I’m just heading round the corner to Via Tribulani, to the offices of the prosecutor Roberto di Martino, who is running the investigation.

DI MARTINO [VIA INTERPRETER]: The evidence consists of chats taken from computers seized from some of the suspects. Regarding these chats, we questioned the people involved, and some of them have spoken to us and provided explanations as to what happened in the tennis world and what measures were taken.

COX: During his two year inquiry, Roberto Di Martino has amassed thousands of documents - including internet chat logs and phone conversations where gamblers apparently discuss trying to fix matches.

DI MARTINO [VIA INTERPRETER]: All the matches were played abroad in various tournaments - the most well-known ones, including Wimbledon, Roland-Garros, etc. The players involved are Italian players. They are accused of agreeing to manipulate a set of matches or to enlist other players who would also manipulate matches.

COX: The Italians are the former top 50 players Potito Starace and . According to the prosecutor, between 2007 and 2011, Bracciali would arrange the fix with gamblers and Starace would carry it out on court. He - 5 -

COX cont: was promised between 30,000 and 50,000 euros - around £40,000 for each match. Both players deny the charges. Together with BuzzFeed News and the Italian newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, we have obtained hundreds of confidential documents from the Cremona investigation files. A key figure in them is Manlio Bruni, a gambler and accountant for several Italian footballers. Through his footballer friends, Bruni was introduced to Daniele Bracciali. In July 2007, he starts chatting on Skype to the player about trying to fix a match.

SKYPE NOISES

BRUNI [READ]: For me it depends on how it develops. It is extremely important to win the first set, and if possible, to go a break ahead in the second. Would that be possible? In this case I can give you much more.

COX: Bracciali responds that ideally he would need to know the other player in order to arrange winning the first set, but then losing the match. Bruni tries to tempt him with an offer of 50,000 euros.

BRUNI [READ]: Ok, I could do 50 to begin with for tomorrow, but it is absolutely necessary that you win the first set, otherwise we could do it another time. If I have enough time, we could get you even more.

BRACCIALI [READ]: It is very important for me to know who I am playing, so I can talk with him beforehand, because I can’t tell you I will win the first. It’s not easy.

COX: They carry on discussing options, but finally Bracciali says:

BRACCIALI [READ]: 90% of me says no, but if I change my mind I will let you know.

BRUNI [READ]: Ok, no problem, but if you change your mind I would need to know as soon as possible so that I can arrange things. The ideal would be to forfeit at the beginning of the third and I give you 60. - 6 -

BRACCIALI [READ]: I know. F**k, if I knew him it would be easier.

COX: The two men were in contact for the next four years until Bruni was arrested in 2011. Bracciali denies taking part in match fixing. In the files we have seen, he told investigators he was playing along and pretending to be interested. The prosecutor, Roberto Di Martino, claims that although he only has firm evidence about two matches, there are many more that cropped up in his inquiry - including at Wimbledon.

DI MARTINO [VIA INTERPRETER]: There are at least thirty suspicious matches or matches of this kind where there is a suspicion there has been some intervention by the organisation. We can say there are only two matches for which we have very concrete evidence they have been manipulated. I learn from my investigation that many games are suspended by the betting companies. They do not pay out because the match is suspect. Now both matches with the most proof were suspended.

COX: The first of the matches where the prosecutor claims he has concrete evidence took place in 2009. According to the confidential Cremona files, Potitio Starace had accepted a promise of 50,000 euros to lose by withdrawing injured after the first set. The documents allege that Starace received 15,000 of this payment a few months later at a tournament in Lugano in Italy. The second match was in April 2011 in Barcelona. Prosecutors claim that Starace was offered 25,000 euros to lose or double that amount if he won the first set and then lost the match. Days before the game, Bruni and Bracciali discuss whether the player has agreed to throw the match.

BRACCIALI [READ]: He told me he’s going to think about it and will let me know later. I think he’s going to do as always, but let’s see.

COX: Later Bracciali tells Bruni:

BRACCIALI [READ]: I convinced him, ok.

COX: Then he asks Bruni how much he is willing to pay.

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BRUNI [READ]: Tell him 25 and 50 with the first one. I don’t think that’s the problem, but if you want, tell him even more. But if he just gets defeated, we don’t gain much.

COX: Starace withdrew and forfeited the match after winning the first set. He denies fixing this match or any other. What’s astounding about this case is that the Association of Tennis Professionals – or ATP - had received alerts about suspicious matches involving Bracciali and Starace going back years. In 2008, investigators working for the ATP completed a year-long inquiry into match fixing, triggered after a game between the Russian Nikolay Davydenko and the Argentinian Martin Vassallo Arguello a year earlier. As we first revealed in January, betting investigator Mark Phillips says they identified a number of players involved in suspicious matches.

PHILLIPS: From our point of view there were many, many matches in there that were, you know, almost as suspicious as the Davydenko match.You would have one player would win a set and then they would go a break of serve up and then, almost as soon as that happened, there would just be a flood of money for the other player, who would then miraculously win eight games in a row or something like that, and that was the main pattern of the 45 matches.

COX: And when you were looking at the matches, were you identifying players who were cropping up repeatedly?

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. Players were obviously being thrown to the top of the list through that analysis.

COX: Mark Phillips and the team of investigators handed over their evidence to the newly formed Tennis Integrity Unit. They had identified 28 players involved in suspicious matches - including Bracciali and Starace - and recommended they be fully investigated. Mark Phillips said there was also a smaller group that stood out.

PHILLIPS: We thought somewhere in the region of ten players was the core of the problem really that tennis faced at that time. The evidence was very strong - as strong as we’d seen really. It was as conclusive as you can get.

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COX: Armed with this evidence, the new Integrity Unit had the powers to seize phones and computers of any player they suspected of corruption. If they had done this in 2009, they might have found the internet chat logs between Bracciali and the gamblers discovered many years later. So what did the Integrity Unit do? Here’s what the head of the unit, Nigel Willerton, told Jesse Norman, chairman of the Commons Culture Committee.

ACTUALITY AT MEETING

WILLERTON: The Tennis Integrity Unit at that time did not take any action.

NORMAN: Did not take any action, no.

WILLERTON: It kept the material for intelligence purposes, but there was no new investigations conducted as a result of the material that was given over, that is correct.

NORMAN: And you didn’t go back and check to see whether any of those people should be suspects worth monitoring as part of the work you were doing since you came into the TIU four years ago?

WILLERTON: I have not, sir, no.

NORMAN: That is astonishing. You have got these people there, the centre of a potential ring of gambling and fraud, and you haven’t even satisfied yourself as to who they are even. I mean, I would have lists of them. I would have these wanted posters up in the office.

COX: The Cremona prosecutor has a list, and we can reveal that within his investigation files are the names of 29 international players repeatedly discussed by the gamblers. They include the names of two players who have been in the top 20 in the world. They appear in an internet chat log between two gamblers who refer to the players as their ‘horses’. - 9 -

GAMBLER [READ]: One of my horses is in the final and the other one is in the semi-final.

GAMBLER 2 [READ]: Let’s try to do a scam.

GAMBLER [READ]: I have the pass as a member of his staff. I met him in Argentina. If he goes on for a couple of turns, he’s mine. I met him. We are friends now, I’m about to become his coach. Slowly my horses are coming to Papa.

COX: A source close to the inquiry told us that gamblers describing tennis players as their horses could be for two possible reasons - that these players brought the gamblers luck or that – more darkly - they were under their control, as they had found this same term had been used in inquiries into football match fixing. Roberto Di Martino says there is enough evidence to pursue the international players in his files, which would mean their phones and laptops being seized.

DI MARTINO [VIA INTERPRETER]: No, I cannot name names; it would be absurd to do so. Especially in situations where there is no hard evidence yet. Let’s say that things become alarming when there are many of these smoky situations. If there were one single situation in which shadows were cast on important tennis players, in the top twenty, but the problem is that there are many situations, then it cannot be an accident, it cannot be a coincidence.

COX: Although he wouldn’t identify the players, along with BuzzFeed News we have discovered who they are. We are not revealing their names as we don’t think it’s fair as they haven’t been investigated. But Roberto di Martino says they should be.

DI MARTINO [VIA INTERPRETER]: Surely if they were Italian there would be an investigation. The problem is that these are matches that take place abroad. The possibility of proceeding against them is limited, because the penalty for sports fraud in Italy, at least at the

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DI MARTINO cont: time, was very limited. But if these foreign players were Italian, they would certainly have at least been questioned. They should have provided some explanations.

COX: Have you been cooperating with the Tennis Integrity Unit and have they taken much interest in your investigation?

DI MARTINO [VIA INTERPRETER]: Yes, they came twice. The last time was a few months ago. I felt they had a greater interest in the events involving the Italian tennis players, but this is a problem of an international nature.

COX: So when they talked to you, they weren’t interested in the international cases, just the Italian ones? That’s right?

DI MARTINO [VIA INTERPRETER]: Yes. Let’s say, as a tennis fan, the international events seem more problematic than those situations in which, after all, only a few Italian players were involved. I think with an international collaboration it would be possible to identify, possibly involve many foreign players who are definitely part of this system. It is a problem that affects the whole world. One senses the manipulation of matches is certainly done very frequently. And interestingly, they are not only so-called second-tier tennis players, but also players of some importance.

COX: The Tennis Integrity Unit know the names of these international players as the Cremona Prosecutor handed over his files months ago. Several of them featured in our previous investigation as players the TIU had been repeatedly warned were competing in suspicious matches but they had failed to take action against them. We wanted to interview the head of the Tennis Integrity Unit, Nigel Willerton. He refused, but in a statement he told us:

READER IN STUDIO: The independent review which the sport has commissioned will have a wide remit - to investigate all and any allegations of corrupt practice, including those that pre-date the existence of the Tennis Integrity Unit. It will also take note of media reporting and commentary.

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COX: The TIU said they are investigating Starace and Bracciali, but they didn’t say whether they were looking at any of the other players mentioned in the Cremona files. We showed our evidence to Jesse Norman, the chairman of the Commons Culture Committee. What do you think about the fact that we’ve got evidence that once again Tennis was warned about top level players, that they should be investigated, and they seem to have taken no action?

NORMAN: I mean, there’s a general question, which is, is the purpose of the Tennis Integrity Unit to protect the image of the sport or to catch the wrongdoers? And there can be a tension between those two things, because of course if it is clear there is wrongdoing and discovered and properly disciplined, then that can temporarily at least raise public concerns. But of course, what it does do is to reassure people over the longer term that the sport is clean and well run.

COX: There’s a sense, when you hear from Tennis, that a lot of this is a problem in the past. I wondered when the heads of Tennis appeared before your committee, did they say it was a historic or a current issue for them?

NORMAN: I think they were relatively clear that it is both a current and a historic problem when they spoke to us. They seemed to be aware that the rapid rise in betting alerts indicated the currency of the current problem, and of course there’s been plenty of other evidence that there is current match fixing in tennis, and you would expect that, particularly given the way in which the futures market has developed in terms of betting on tennis games. So I think there is a clear current concern about this.

MUSIC

COX: Now the Cremona investigation isn’t the only story about tennis and betting in Italy. There’s another case which very few people have heard of and I’ve been looking at over the years and it’s never quite seemed to add up. I’m heading two hundred miles south from Cremona to the town of Arezzo, where someone has agreed to meet me who I think can help me get to the bottom of the story.

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ACTUALITY AT CLUB

CESARONI: This is the oldest club in town since 1952 and it was called the Circle Tennis Arezzo, but after Federico’s death in 2009, they entitled the Circle to his memory.

COX: And then down here I can see there’s some ….. Pictures of Paola Cesaroni’s son, Federico Luzzi, and his film star looks stare out from photos all around the tennis club. How old is he in this one?

CESARONI: Yes, he was there in which he was Italian, European and World Champion in the under 14 categories, so he is a teenager.

COX: Back in 2008, Federico was one of five Italian players who were fined and suspended after a bookmaker gave the ATP a list of players who had been betting on matches, breaking the rules banning players from gambling on the sport. At first Federico tried to keep it from his mum.

CESARONI: Federico has been very nervous for two or three months before telling his family something was boiling under the water, because there was an investigation and they catch one by one. And me, his mother, I was very angry with him. I said if there is a rule, you cannot break a rule. It is right what ATP did. I’m very sorry for you, but you must think about what you did.

COX: The Italians decided to challenge the decision. Their lawyers had seen documents which they say showed the ATP knew of other bigger name players who also had betting accounts, but they hadn`t been punished. By the time the case reached a US court a year later, Federico Luzzi had suddenly died from leukaemia. His mum, Paola, took up the mantle and pursued the case.

CESARONI: The ATP was very angry with the five players and their families, because we were as David and Goliath, you know, we were small and the ATP is a great association. So the ATP did everything against us just to let the five the only - 13 -

CESARONI cont: players penalty committed and protect the others, because I think not all the players are equals against ATP rules.

COX: This time it was advantage Goliath, and in 2011 the players and the ATP signed a confidentiality agreement, banning either side from talking about the case. But Paola Cesaroni has told File on 4 previously secret details about the scale of betting uncovered by the ATP.

CESARONI: What we knew about from our lawyers was that at least one hundred players were involved in.

COX: So there were a hundred players they found were betting, but they only took action against the five Italians?

CESARONI: Yes - the lawyers know that someone alerted the others. Every account were closed in 24 hours, immediately. So the proof were destroyed. The lawyers told us that from the ATP came the signal to close. Some names are so important for the world of tennis that they have to be protected in any way. This is my opinion.

COX: I could hardly believe it - a hundred players breaking the betting rules, including big names. It would have been devastating for the game’s reputation. We asked the ATP about this, but they didn’t answer our questions about the case. The players’ lawyer in Italy, Cerico Pelligrini, couldn’t go into detail because of the confidentiality agreement with the ATP, but he conceded betting had been an issue.

PELLIGRINI: There was a big problem about the wagering. All the players were used to bet on the tennis matches, but just Italian players, not so important players were selected and also sanctioned.

COX: We have been told that there were over ninety other players who had had betting accounts, but only five were disciplined.

PELLIGRINI: I cannot answer about this. I’m sorry. - 14 -

COX: Right. Why do you think, as the lawyer for four of those players, that they were sanctioned and action was taken against them?

PELLIGRINI: Maybe the ATP would to say to all the world of the players, you don’t have to bet on the tennis matches.

COX: So they were an example to other players?

PELLIGRINI: Maybe yes. For sure that kind of sanctions were very, very strong, very heavy.

COX: Among the five Italian players who were sanctioned were Daniel Bracciali and Potito Starace, now facing much more serious charges of conspiracy to fix matches. We contacted Potito Starace, but never heard back from him.

ACTUALITY AT TENNIS COURTS

COX: But while we were at the tennis club in Arezzo, we bumped into Daniele Bracciali. He trains at the club every day. Not surprisingly, he didn`t want to be interviewed, but he stressed his innocence. He added that the time it would take to resolve the case meant that whatever the outcome his playing career was over anyway.

MUSIC

COX: All of the betting evidence we have looked at so far is in the men’s game, but we can reveal problems within women’s tennis too.

EXTRACT FROM NEWS REPORT

NEWSREADER: Now one of Britain’s most prestigious women’s tennis tournaments has got underway in Barnstaple today ….

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NEWSREADER 2: Three of Britain’s top four stars are taking part, alongside other players ranked well inside the world’s top hundred, and the town itself also benefits, as Seth Conway reports ….

COX: In 2011, the Barnstaple tournament in Devon was big news.

REPORTER: Side by side on courts 1 and 2, the exciting future of British women’s tennis. Heather Watson, Britain’s number two, and Laura Robson ranked 4 entertain crowds not seen before on the opening day of this tournament now in its fourth year.

COX: It was the first time the rising stars had faced each other. Also there were the lower level players, competing to scrape a living - ideal territory for fixers.

MOORE: The player was in her room, had just arrived in, was settled down and trying to consider what to do next. She heard footsteps outside which then stopped.

COX: Alan Moore was a manager for one of the players who had just arrived at her hotel in Barnstaple.

MOORE: She waited for a couple of moments and then there was a knock. As she was opening the door, there was a person of East European origin, but they spoke in English about her upcoming match and what she should do in this match.

COX: And what were they suggesting that she did?

MOORE: Their main suggestion was that, because she was playing a slightly weaker player, that she should consider how many games she would win in the match. It wasn’t to lose overall, it was to make sure the score was as they wanted. She told the person to take a jump and closed the door.

COX: And was that the end of it? - 16 -

MOORE: Sadly no. At the venue itself then she was approached by a coach and at that time there was a figure mentioned. The sum was in the four figure range.

COX: So it would have been in the thousands?

MOORE: Yes. The player told one of the officials that she had been approached and the coach left the venue, so I would presume that the officials shooshed him away in some sense.

COX: Presumably something must have happened to them. If they’re a professional coach for a professional tennis player then they would have been punished, I presume.

MOORE: I heard nothing more of it and, I mean, I kept up to date and even that coach I saw again at a number of tournaments. I haven’t checked in the past number of months, but last year he was still working with players on the tour.

COX: We know who the coach is and that they are still working in the game. But this wasn’t a one off. Alan Moore has managed over forty female tennis players during his career. He says more than half of them have been asked to throw a match – often for betting, but sometimes so other players could gain valuable ranking points. We asked the Tennis Integrity Unit if they had investigated this approach at Barnstaple. They didn’t give us a detailed response to this, but said they act on all evidence of corruption.

ACTUALITY OF TENNIS MATCH

COX: It’s not just minor tournaments where female players are being targeted by fixers from inside the game. In October 2013, Alan Moore went to the Kremlin Cup in Moscow - one of his final tournaments as a manager.

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MOORE: It will be one of the bigger ones in the women’s tour. You would have a lot of the top ranked players who would make their way to Moscow for it. There’s very good prize money and it’s generally quite a well-run event. Top class players will turn up for it.

COX: One of his players was approached - again by someone from the tennis world - and asked if she would guarantee winning only a certain number of games.

MOORE: When the approach was made, it was in an area where there was a mixed zone, where people would mix freely, so you would have some cafes and small restaurants and the approach was made in this cafe area.

COX: And did the player know who this person was?

MOORE: They said that they recognised the person. This person would have been involved as a hitting partner, as a coach, as a travelling partner. However, they wouldn’t divulge anything more than that. However, they did report it to the officials on the day.

COX: Did anything happen?

MOORE: As far as I know, no, because the person was still there for the evening session.

COX: What Tennis had said to us when we’d first broadcast our reports on this was that this is a historic problem, it’s not happening now, we’ve dealt with it. What do you make of that?

MOORE: It is happening regularly and consistently and it’s going to be impossible to stop. It’s not a historical problem, it’s an ongoing problem.

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COX: And we had seen this for ourselves. Federbet, a betting monitoring organisation, sent alerts about 20 matches in the last quarter of 2015, and a third of them were for women’s matches. These weren’t just small fry tournaments either. Federico Baranca, the Director General of Federbet, told me about a suspicious match at a leading event on the women’s tour, where there were lots of bets placed that the match would be won in a under a specific number of games.

BARANCA: The average of the bets on under and over it’s 1,000 euro and on this match we have 100,000 euros. How is possible? What was very funny, that a lot of the bets they were coming from the native city of one of the two players, and also considering another thing, that a lot of bets, they were coming from same IP.

COX: You mean the same computer?

BARANCA: Yes, yes.

COX: And do you know what sums were bet on that? Was it …?

BARANCA: It was a lot of money. The bookmaker had a loss of about more than 200,000 euros.

COX: On that match, bookmakers lost over 200,000 euros?

BARANCA: Yes more, altogether much more. It’s impossible that it was normal.

COX: So has anything changed since we first reported on this in January at the start of the Australian Open? Well, in this first tournament there was a suspicious doubles match reported to the Tennis Integrity Unit. And tennis gambling expert, Stefano Berlincioni, says despite the global attention on corruption, suspicious games are cropping up all the time, particularly in the ITF Futures - the third division of tennis.

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BERLINCIONI: I was told that recently there is around a few ITF tennis tournaments a former tennis player from Eastern Europe that is offering a lot of money to players to throw matches. The amount is completely out of the market from 5,000 to 10,000 to throw an ITF match. These are crazy amounts offered and so players can be much more tempted. Unfortunately, it keeps happening and we can notice a few matches every week, very very suspicious matches, and I am referring to the lower level of tennis, ITF level, so they still feel untouchable, because they know that if they keep doing things like they did in the past, they will never get caught.

COX: And he says fixers are even bold enough to try and influence the previously untouchable .

BERLINCIONI: I was told that a Davis Cup captain was approached by arrangers to fix tennis matches. Of course, I’m referring to lower level of Davis Cup, but still bets are offered and so the arrangers tried to approach this captain, but they received a no from him, so as far as I know all the matches in that tie were regular.

MUSIC

COX: The past week hasn’t been great for tennis, with Maria Sharapova caught doping and Rafael Nadal threatening to sue a French politician who accused him of doing the same. When it comes to match fixing, tennis is beefing up its Integrity Unit with more investigators and a betting analyst - eight years after it was recommended they first get one. Those inside the game believe the Tennis Integrity Unit has to do more. Former manager Alan Moore says with hundreds of suspicious matches to investigate, the sport has to radically reform if it’s to get a grip on match fixing.

MOORE: There’s only so much you can do and try to protect until you see that it’s not going to change. If you look at the amount of people playing the game, the amount of matches that are taking place, the nature of their sport and their business, it’s just too big, too broad and too colossal to effectively make any changes. It’s impossible to police – it cannot be done.

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COX: But the new evidence we have uncovered shows that even now the Tennis Integrity Unit doesn’t appear to be pursuing leads which Italian prosecutors say should definitely be investigated. The Commons Culture Committee is six months into an inquiry into the governance of sport. And the Committee’s chairman, Jesse Norman, says tennis needs to up its game.

NORMAN: There is a clear, current concern about this. Let’s not forget that when you look at these sports betting alerts, tennis is the overwhelmingly preponderant sport that’s connected to those. They are on notice that they need to be on the top of their game in reacting to it. We’ll have to see how the independent review goes and the recommendations it makes, but one would certainly expect that the dramatic increase in the number of alerts would be accompanied by a pretty significant rise in the level of funding.

SIGNATURE TUNE