SHARE:
Jacksonville Law Firm Drafts Anti-Gambling Rules for Tennis
Upsets happen frequently in sports, but something seemed odd the day Nikolay Davydenko, then the fourth-best tennis player in the world, lost to 87th-ranked Martín Vassallo Argüello of Argentina. Playing in an August 2007 tournament in Poland, Davydenko won the first set easily, even as online bookmakers were being inundated with bets on Argüello. Then Davydenko, nicknamed “Iron Man,” complained of a sore foot and withdrew, forfeiting the match to Argüello. Betfair, a British online gambling house, termed the match “irregular” and voided all the bets, which it said were 10 times heavier than usual and mostly in Argüello’s favor.
 Martín Vassallo Argüello’s upset win over fourth-rank Nikolay Davydenko, who forfeited the match after complaining of a sore foot (above) in 2007, set the stage for new anti-gambling rules. [AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski] |
A crush of negative press followed, with Davydenko taking most of the criticism. Professional tennis got clobbered, too. Some players were quoted as saying they had been approached by gamblers and knew of other players who had been asked to throw matches.
Tennis’ major governing bodies ordered an investigation, which found no evidence of match fixing. But investigators also recommended safeguards they said the sport should implement and urged the sport’s four major governing bodies to enact the same set of rules and punishments concerning gambling. Previously, the groups — one each for the men’s tour, the women’s tour, the grand slam tournaments and the Davis Cup competition — had different and potentially contradictory rules and penalties.
The new, uniform rules, drawn up by attorneys from Jacksonville’s Smith Hulsey & Busey and enacted this year, aim to eliminate any gray area about gambling in tennis. Players, their close associates and tournament personnel are barred from betting on any match. The new penalties are clear, too, says Stephen Busey, Smith Hulsey & Busey’s chairman who helped write the anti-corruption rules: “No gambling — or face a lifetime ban.”
 “To send the right message, we had to get everyone on the same page.” — Mark Young, CEO of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Americas, Ponte Vedra Beach |
Busey says the sport’s governing bodies have also agreed to form a “tennis integrity unit” to investigate gambling accusations. “The governing bodies saw that the sport’s reputation was at risk,” he says, “and so they wanted to react very strongly and vigorously and create a perception that they are self-policing — and that’s what they did.”
