Tennis has been faced with accusations of match fixing for years: from the infamous match between Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello in 2007 that first introduced much of the general public to questions concerning the integrity of matches in certain smaller tournaments to suspensions levied against two players previously this year, there always is apparently something lurking beneath the activity’s surface.

Those concerns were aired again this week in an account by The Daily Beast, which again attempted to delve through the information on the market about tennis and determine just how much of a issue match fixing is for the sport.

One 2014 study cited in that story estimated that one percent of all of the tournament that is first-round might be fixed, which would mean a lot more than 20 matches a year were influenced by gamblers; other estimates and guesses have suggested that multiple matches per week might be fixed, though that’s nevertheless a really tiny portion of all professional tennis matches.

Low Pay Leads to Temptation for Lower-Ranked Players

What makes tennis therefore vulnerable to match repairing?

There are a mixture of facets, a lot of which help explain why the problem seems most prominent at the lower levels of the ranks that are professional.

First, there’s the most obvious fact that tennis ( at least in singles play) is a specific sport.

There is one individual that has to be bribed to be able to obtain them to throw a match (exactly the same issue that leads numerous to worry widespread integrity issues in boxing and other combat recreations), and there are no teammates or substitutes to pick the slack up for a player who is struggling.

That said, no one is accusing Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal of repairing matches at Wimbledon.

For one, there’s the truth that these matches have an intense number of scrutiny on them; maybe even more importantly, though, star tennis players are extremely well compensated, meaning it would price anyone trying to repair a match at that degree an excessive amount of money, if it may be done at all.

That is not to say that nobody tries. Even Novak Djokovic has told a tale to be offered $100,000 to correct a match back in 2006.

But players on the Challenger Tour or other low-ranked competitors aren’t making nearly that much cash, and may even lose cash in a given tournament after travel and coaching expenses are taken into account.

That makes them prime goals for gamblers trying to fix a match.

Spot Betting Allows Fixing Without Impacting Match Outcome

Another problem is the truth that gamblers do not have even to fix an entire match to find ways to profit.

Because numerous gambling sites and bookmakers offer betting on sets or also individual games, players can achieve agreements to permit certain events to happen at the proper times to fulfill gamblers while nevertheless playing to win overall.

‘One particular common fix would be to separate the first two sets to a predetermined script, then have fun with the third set fairly to find out which player advances,’ sports modeler Ian Dorward told Slate earlier this 12 months.

The Tennis Integrity Unit is the human body tasked with rooting out such issues, and they have often made examples of players. Each received six-month suspensions and fines for violations of anti-corruption rules, though not for match-fixing in March, Elie Rousset and Walkter Trusendi.

But regardless of what the Integrity Unit does, it is not likely to alter the culture that permits lower-ranked players to be incentivized to aid gamblers who would like to make yes bets.

That would demand a complete change in how compensation works down and up the various degrees of professional tennis, a thing that most likely won’t happen any time quickly.