Bingham will not fight ban for breaching betting rules

Stuart Bingham will not contest his six-month suspension for breaching snooker’s betting regulations but has denied ever placing a bet on any match he was playing.

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association last week ruled Bingham, the 2015 world champion, had gambled close to £36,000 on matches – some of which he was playing in – over a period of 12 years.

The 41-year-old said in a statement: “Although I have had legal advice confirming that I have good grounds for appeal, I have decided not to do so in order to bring this matter to a close.”

Bingham accepts he was in the wrong by betting “relatively small amounts” on an internet account he used which belonged to long-term friend and adviser Gary Purkiss.

However, he refutes the WPBSA disciplinary committee’s findings that he had access to a telephone account that Purkiss used to place bets, which included some of Bingham’s matches.

He said: “I accept entirely that I have breached the association’s rules which relate to betting on snooker and I am truly sorry that I have done so.

“I did not attach sufficient importance to those rules and I now realise that was a mistake. I would occasionally have a bet whilst watching the streaming [on the internet account]. These were relatively small amounts.

“However, the disciplinary committee also concluded that I had over a long period indirectly used a Stan James telephone account that Gary had operated since approximately 2002.

“The significance of that is that Gary had placed some bets on matches in which I had played. In the absence of any direct evidence, the committee arbitrarily concluded that I was responsible for 50 per cent of the betting on that account [including the bets on my matches].

“I categorically deny that this was the case. I have never bet on a match in which I was playing.”