Belgium launches major investigation into world tennis match-fixing

Prosecutors in Belgium have launched a wide-ranging investigation into alleged corruption in the lower levels of international professional tennis, local media reported on Saturday.

Flemish newspaper De Tijd reported that the Belgian federal prosecutor's office has "very concrete evidence" relating to "hundreds of suspicious bets" made online and in betting shops, not only in Belgium but also in Switzerland, Germany and Britain.

According to the paper, the investigation centres on the the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour, which is one level below the main ATP World Tour, and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Futures tournament, which is a further level down.

The newspaper said matches in Spain, Tunisia, Israel and Mexico were among those being investigated, involving players from Ukraine, Italy, Georgia, Israel, the United States, Mexico and Bolivia. None of the players is in the world top 300, and most of them are lower than 800 in the world tennis rankings.

The bets were made in 2014 and the first half of 2015, De Tijd added, and videosurveillance footage has been gathered from betting shops in the Belgian cities of Antwerp, Mechelen, Ghent, Turnhout, Bruges, Oudenaarde, La Louviere and the capital Brussels.

One example given is a bet of 7,000 euros (about 7,800 U.S. dollars) which paid out a prize of more than 100,000 euros. Multiple online bets were often made at the same time from the same IP address.

The newspaper reported: "Some gamblers are clearly uneasy when they come in and enter their bet and seem to make gestures to someone who is waiting for them outside," adding that some had "a sheet of paper in their hand or a mobile phone through which they receive instructions".

Christoph D'Haese, a Flemish MP from the centre-right N-VA party, will raise parliamentary questions with Belgium's federal justice and interior ministers about the alleged corruption, De Tijd added.

In November 2014, a former Interpol officer warned in a U.K. newspaper interview that the lower ranks of professional tennis could be prone to corruption by organised criminal groups, as the prize money on offer to players is low compared with the ATP Masters.

Chris Eaton, the director of integrity at the International Centre for Sports Security, told The Guardian newspaper at the time: "Tennis is the third most susceptible sport in the world. It goes football, cricket, tennis. We know the Challengers is a very attacked series." (1 euro = 1.11 U.S. dollars) Endit