Betfair Suspects cheating in Wimbledon

• Author: News
• Filed under: High Stakes News, High Stakes Results, Poker
• Date: Jun 25,2009

One of Great-Britains biggest bookies, Betfair, has reported a gambling oddity in one of the first round matches of the Wimbledon Tennis tournament.

Betfair contacted the authorities because of an unusually big amount of bets. In the match between Wayne Odesnik and Jurgen Melzer the bets valued over $980,000. Normally the value of a first round match is less than $163,000.

Mark Davies from betfair said a few words for Associated Press afterwards:

“I doubt that there was any wrongdoing.” He continued explaining why the report was made: “Because of the transparency … we pass that info on to the Tennis Integrity Unit,” Davies told the press. “Then they can make a judgment. But having heard the commentary on the match, I don’t suspect that this is going to turn out to be any kind of corruption story.”

Odds changed by the commentator

During the game, the commentator claimed that Odesnik would be suffering of an injured thigh. Due to this Melzers multiplier dropped significantly. In the end Melzer did win, but Odesnik denied that he had been playing while injured. ESPN spoke with Odesnik after the match, they reported the following conversation:

“I don’t have an injury! I called a trainer after the first set when I felt a tiny something in my hamstring. He put hot cream on it during the chageover — I didn’t even call an injury timeout — and it went away. The trainer waited a game and asked me and I said it was fine. It didn’t affect the outcome of the match.
“I have no injury — I’m perfectly fine.”

The obscene amount of betting seems odd,  but hard evidence remains to be seen.

Source: 4flush