Match fixing at the lower levels of tennis is about to drive a reduction in the number of ranked professional tennis players to 500. How will that work?
What do you think is the best structure? A qualifying school as in golf?
Could it result in the development of a rival tour? Perhaps an Under 23 tour?
Will it reivigorate doubles as better players switch earlier in an attempt to make a living?
How will it effect College tennis?
Nobody likes change but this may be an opportunity to change things positively
Match fixing at the lower levels of tennis is about to drive a reduction in the number of ranked professional tennis players to 500. How will that work?
What do you think is the best structure? A qualifying school as in golf?
Could it result in the development of a rival tour? Perhaps an Under 23 tour?
Will it reivigorate doubles as better players switch earlier in an attempt to make a living?
How will it effect College tennis?
Nobody likes change but this may be an opportunity to change things positively
Hi - isn't the new Transition Tour structure aimed at reducing the number of pro's to a much lower number (750 each male and female was mentioned I think) and having the separate Transition Tour to filter players through and also divert them away from a tennis career sooner. I think the aim of that was also to then spread the actual pro money on the Futures Tours to a lesser group of players and thus raise their earnings to a more manageable level.
Whether they could go further I don't know - I think the individual countries bodies have a role in filtering/supporting players from their own countries with funding which effectively pays a salary to players to sustain them as they develop their careers. Whether that works I am not sure. But clearly there are a lot of players who need the extra cash and that is a part of the issue with the betting problem,, that it is very tempting for someone not earning a great deal to dip their toes into the match fixing world and before they know it they get hooked - once the betting companies and criminals get their claws into you, there is no way out really.
I would simply ban betting on ITF level matches. It would probably be hard to police at an individual level but it would at least stop the major betting companies getting involved.
I would simply ban betting on ITF level matches. It would probably be hard to police at an individual level but it would at least stop the major betting companies getting involved.
Yes, exactly, as above - if betting is the problem, deal with betting.
Betting is forbidden for junior matches so do the same for ITF.
Or just allow result-only betting (seemingly a lot of the rigging is to do with scores within the game).
Or whatever you need to do with betting.
Players don't fix matches for the fun of it. Address the issue.
(PS and this is said by someone who has a very pleasurable little account on Bet365 (mostly on ITFs) and who would miss it. But hey....)
-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 26th of April 2018 08:54:21 AM
Bizarrely the ITF cant ban betting they dont own their own results they have sold their data. My impression is that it has been bought to facitste gamblng. Tennis needs to insure matches arent fixed for multiple reasons.
A system which basically forces players to travel around the world (or if they are lucky their own continent) with prize money that can't hope to cover their costs is ripe for abuse. Banning betting on matches (and banning the immediate update of scores, however much it would impinge on our enjoyment of following the matches)might help,though I think that genie is out of the bottle and illegal betting will take it's place if it is banned. The real issue is that players who aren't able to make a living from tennis - which includes plenty of players in the top 500 - shouldn't have to trek around the world in order to do it.
I'd like some sort of redistribution from money that goes to the top handful of players (possibly a levy on winnings to increase prize money in the 25-75k tournament range) but primarily the ITF should work to find a system that means that players don't need to leave their country (or at least their region) until they are at a high enough level that they can hope to earn some money from it.
No, the data was sold in 2012 to Sportradar specifically given its utility for the in play market for £70 million. A good deal for 60,000 live events to gamble on. I dont know how long the contract is but I am suspect the reduction is ranked players is a compromise in order to retain some sort of contract but have less meaning less matches.
Sportradar have already defended their position claiming prohibition of sale of this data is potentially illegal
Only 336 men 253 women break even before playing for coaches so their will still be a large group of vulnerable under funded players.
Sean Ingle has written a thorough piece in today Guardian worth 2 quid for that alone the update on banning of non recyclable psckagest Iceland by 2020 is just a Brucie (god rest his soul) bonus
A system which basically forces players to travel around the world (or if they are lucky their own continent) with prize money that can't hope to cover their costs is ripe for abuse. Banning betting on matches (and banning the immediate update of scores, however much it would impinge on our enjoyment of following the matches)might help,though I think that genie is out of the bottle and illegal betting will take it's place if it is banned. The real issue is that players who aren't able to make a living from tennis - which includes plenty of players in the top 500 - shouldn't have to trek around the world in order to do it.
I'd like some sort of redistribution from money that goes to the top handful of players (possibly a levy on winnings to increase prize money in the 25-75k tournament range) but primarily the ITF should work to find a system that means that players don't need to leave their country (or at least their region) until they are at a high enough level that they can hope to earn some money from it.
(apologies for all the brackets)
I agree with the idea of making the lower ranked players compete more regionally or even nationally. Having players hike across to Africa or Asia for futures events where the flight cost is more than the first prize money makes no sense to anyone. Having some sort of regional tours (golf has them for each major region, and both top level tours and sub tours) at USA, Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, Oz level would help everyone. I am sure they can come up with a ranking process to feed players up from there into the global World tour through the Challenger tour (even that could be run with regional clusters).
To make it work players would no doubt need to be aligned to a specific tour via some sort of card system like golf, to avoid them running round the world playing weaker events etc ie you commit to one tour or another over a year period.
