Unusual betting patterns on match raise eyebrows
WIMBLEDON, England — For the second time at a tennis major, a doubles match involving Spanish player David Marrero has been flagged for suspicious betting behavior, a possible sign of match-fixing.
A men’s doubles match at Wimbledon last week — Marrero and Fernando Verdasco’s loss to João Sousa and Leonardo Mayer — was reported to anti-corruption investigators after a bookmaker observed suspicious betting.
Pinnacle Sports observed “a series of bets from accounts with a history of wagering on suspicious matches” in the hour before the match began. It was first reported by the Australian Broadcast Corp.
Sam Gomersall, sports integrity manager for Pinnacle, said the late shift in odds which these wagers created was a “clear indication” of suspicious activity.
The Australian Broadcast Corp. report did not name the players in question, but Pinnacle confirmed the suspicions were raised by Marrero’s doubles match. Pinnacle also said this was the lone match to be flagged for suspicious activity at Wimbledon or last month’s French Open.
Neither Marrero nor Verdasco could be reached for comment. Though monitoring of betting markets is often used to detect possible match-fixing, such data alone is not enough to lead to a conviction.
Marrero previously attracted suspicion over unusual betting patterns during the 2016 Australian Open, when such abnormally large bets were placed against Marrero and Lara Arruabarrena in a mixed doubles match that Pinnacle suspended betting 13 hours before it began. The pair lost 6-0, 6-3.
In a 45-minute stretch shortly before the match began, wagers pouring in moved Sousa and Mayer, who started as 17/10 underdogs, from roughly 7/9 favorites to 4/9, or from a 56.5 percent chance of winning to 69 percent. Sousa and Mayer won 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-1.
The Tennis Integrity Unit, designed to investigate suspicious activity, would neither confirm nor deny it is looking at the match.