I didn’t know that sports betting is so prevalent until I’ve heard about the case of the Russian tennis player Nikolay Davydenko – he became, what they say, tennis’ fall guy when organizers became ”curious” about matches that appeared to have betting patterns. In other words, it seemed suspicious that someone of Davydenko’s caliber (he’s a consistent top 10 player) can lose to someone unranked so early in a tournament and then win the next tournament he enters. Could it be that he’s rigging his own results? He has since been cleared from all charges.
Sports handicapping is the process of predicting the result of a competition, and in the world of sports, tennis is possibly among the least profitable in terms of winnings. But it is a reality; I remember the 2004 movie Wimbledon where James McAvoy (the brother of Paul Bettany’s character) always bets against his brother during tournaments. Well, things like that happen in real life and it may be a source of entertainment for spectators but the athletes should not be a part of it. Imagine if Federer purposely lost that epic Wimbledon final because his girlfriend took a big bet in favor of Nadal? You get the picture.