Betfair Voids All Bets on ATP Amidst NBA "Rogue Ref" ScandalIn an unprecedented move, British online gambling company Betfair voided all bets Friday placed on Thursday's second-round match at the Prokom Open in Sopot between defending champion and No. 4-ranked Davydenko and No. 87-ranked Martin Vassalo Arguello of Argentina.
The reason: Tennis officials are investigating suspicious betting patterns on a match in which top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia retired with an injury against a lowly-ranked opponent at an ATP tournament in Poland.
Betfair said it received about US$7 million in bets on the match — 10 times the usual amount — and most of the money was on Arguello to win, even after Davydenko won the first set 6-2.
Arguello won the second set 6-3 and was leading 2-1 in the third when the Russian retired. Davydenko said he aggravated a left foot injury in the second set. He received medical attention from a tournament trainer before deciding to quit.
Betfair, which has had an agreement with the ATP since 2003 to share information on any irregular betting activity, said it was concerned with the volume of wagers coming in on Arguello from the start.
"We think the market quite clearly wasn't fair," Betfair managing director Mark Davis said. "The prices seemed very odd. ... It seemed to us manifestly unfair, something not right in that market.
"As a result, in the interest of fairness and integrity and in consultation with the ATP, we have decided to void the market and return all stakes to punters (bettors)."
Trusted online bookmakers like Betfair are now acting on the side of caution and demonstrate the importance of working with sports leagues in determining potential "collusion" through gambling enterprises.
In the US, the NBA is reeling from a betting scandal that appears to have been aggravated by the professional basketball league's unwillingness to work with online betting operations in determining suspect betting patterns.
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com
Originally published August 3, 2007 10:31 am ET
