Australian Tennis Pro Tomic Was Probed for Match-Fixing

Bernard Tomic, an Australian tennis professional, has been the subject of a match-fixing investigation, new reports revealed. The athlete’s behavior came under the microscope in 2022, shortly after authorities identified suspicious betting patterns.

Tomic Was Investigated over Suspicious Bets

The investigation in question was related to two of Tomic’s matches. The first of them took place in Turkey in late 2021. The second suspicious game was in 2022 when Tomic faced off against Roman Safiullin during the qualifiers for the 2022 Australian Open.

The latter game saw Tomic fall sick during the game. Later, he claimed that he had tested positive for COVID-19. Regulatory bodies later discovered hints of suspicious betting patterns and launched a multi-agency investigation into Tomic’s games.

For context, betting companies detected multiple winning bets, some of which had won as much as $180,000.

No Incriminating Evidence Was Discovered

According to reports, Tomic’s phone was seized by International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) agents who wished to see whether they could identify any hints about an intentional manipulation of any of the two games.

In addition to that, authorities questioned three New South Wales men who are said to have been connected to Tomic.

However, the investigation failed to establish any link between Tomic and the suspicious betting. Since there was not sufficient evidence to suggest that Tomic had been involved in any fraudulent activity, the investigation was frozen.

While new information may cause the case to be reopened, there is currently no data whatsoever that Tomic has in any capacity violated the tennis match-fixing rules.

Tomic’s current rank, for reference, is No.213. The player boasts a career-high ranking of world No.17.

A Soccer Player Is Being Investigated Currently

In other news, Sevilla FC’s 22-year-old defender Kike Salas was just arrested by the Spanish authorities alongside two other individuals. The young player is believed to have gotten yellow cards on purpose to facilitate wagering wins for other players.

The three men were eventually released from custody but the investigation continues.

Speaking of match-fixing, Sportradar, the world’s leading sports technology company, outlined a significant decline in match-fixing across Europe and Africa in its latest report. The company analyzed data from over 850,000 matches across 70 sports and identified a total of 1,108 suspicious matches. This figure represented a decline of 17% year-on-year.

While the trends were fairly optimistic, Sportradar experts noted that match-fixing is not to be underestimated. They added that the industry must remain vigilant and bring the number of suspicious games down even further.

Sweden, on the other hand, just ratified the Council of Europe’s Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, also known as the Macolin Convention. This move was applauded by the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling (BOS), although it asked privately owned companies to be included in the convention too.