Tennis has a betting scandal?

These guys have quite the racket

(source)-A new report by BuzzFeed and the BBC charges "widespread match-fixing by players at the upper level of world tennis." The report charges that a collection of 16 players, all of whom have reached the world Top 50, have participated in match-fixing, and that more than half of those players are in the field this week at the Australian Open. The report did not name any names, but charged that tennis's governing bodies have repeatedly ignored evidence of match-fixing.

It's been a while since there's been a good match fixing scandal. Nothing quite like long Sportscenter segments and special Outside the Lines editions where serious Bob Ley talks about the dangers of gambling only to have it somehow circle back to Pete Rose. I think my favorite kind of match fixing is in African soccer leagues where they make up results on games that never happen to swindle people out of their hard earned money. Or any game that happens in Sicily Even those games aren't as fixed as any Lakers playoff game.

Anyway, looks like there's not a ton of info on this just yet. The report only says there are 16 top-50 players involved in fixing matches at unknown tournaments. So, pretty vague. It does say that the corruption comes mostly from crime syndicates in, you'll never believe this, Italy and Russia. Crazy, I know. Djokovic says he was approached with $200,000 to throw a match once and refused. Honestly, that's on the mob. If you're going to go after a top guy like that, you need to offer him a bigger piece of the pie. That offer must have come from the Russian mob, since I know the Mafia would never disrespect someone like that.

The report kept saying there are billions of dollars in tennis betting, but doesn't say that the fixed matches were in Grand Slams. I don't really know what the gambling scene is over in Europe, but if you bet on non-Grand Slam tennis tournaments, you've got a serious problem. It's one thing to fix those tournaments, since it'd be easier to get away with, but to bet on them and not be affiliated with either mob is a red flag. I think page one of the gambling addiction handbook says if you bet on a tennis tournament no one has ever heard of, and the match doesn't involve Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, or Murray, you're probably addicted to gambling.