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Match fixing is pretty common in lower-level tennis and ITIA was established in 2021 to handle these issues. In the latest update, two tennis players, Nastja Kolar of Slovenia and Alexandra Riley of the United States, have been banned from the sport for life and fined for their involvement in a match-fixing scheme. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced the sanctions after finding them guilty of multiple breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program.
According to the ITIA, Kolar, and Riley committed a total of 40 offenses between 2015 and 2020, which included contriving aspects of matches, wagering, facilitating wagering, courtsiding, conspiracy, and failing to report corrupt approaches.
Courtsiding is a prohibited practice that involves transmitting live scoring data from a match to a third party for betting purposes. As of 14 March 2023, both players were provisionally suspended from the sport impending the investigation, and now have been permanently banned.
Most of the offenses Riley was found to have committed were fixing individual points and games. “The ITIA offered absolutely no factual evidence during the hearing as to any impact or effect Ms. Riley’s alleged offenses had ‘on the reputation and/or integrity of the sport’,” her counsel added in her defense. However, this remains nullified as ITIA has refuted the defense and have banned Riley for life.
Kolar, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 178 in singles and No. 140 in doubles on the WTA Tour, was fined $175,000 which was almost all her earnings from the sport and banned for life for 25 offenses. On the other hand, Riley was fined $50,000 and banned for life for 15 offenses.
