Bookie reports unusual betting

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:36

Betfair said the flood of wagers on Austrian number 26 seed Jurgen Melzer during his straight-sets first-round victory over American Wayne Odesnik was “very visible”.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing, but the company has informed the Tennis Integrity Unit, which is expected to look into the game to determine whether the patterns were sinister or simply reflected fans’ judgment that the little-fancied Odesnik, who was carrying an injury, was likely to lose heavily.

Betfair’s Mark Davies told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We have a memorandum of understanding with the Tennis Integrity Unit which allows them to see betting patterns of all the betting which takes place on our site and we alerted them to this.

“It was extremely visible to all our customers, the price moving in as quickly as it did. There was a lot of chat about it on our forums.

“So we would have liaised with the Tennis Integrity Unit and then they can make a judgment whether there is something more sinister in this or whether it is just a question of people being aware of a player who was already significantly under-rated carrying an injury that meant that he was likely to lose.”

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