Gambling In Tennis

Concerns have been rumbling on since August about gambling's influence upon pro tennis.

The fear is that, "it is obvious to anyone with some experience of the normal Betfair market behaviour and the appropriate odds for a tennis match that certain low-level ATP matches are being fixed, with corresponding irrational market patterns."

The highest ranked player to admit to being propositioned with a bribe has been the current world #3 Novak Djokovic. He was offered $250,000 to throw his first-round match at the St. Petersburg event in Russia last year, with the offer alledgedly coming from the Russian or Ukrainian mafia. Djokovic skipped the tournament.

Okay, it's two men hitting a yellow ball back and forth, but it's a symptom of a much wider disease. The annual takings of criminal gangs around the world are roughly equivalent to Britain's GDP, or twice the world's combined defence budgets.

"Gambling on Tennis - the usual suspects" will be broadcast tonight from 7pm on Radio 5Live.