Tennis anti-corruption and anti-doping entities to merge
The Tennis Integrity Supervisory Board has approved plans to merge the anti-corruption and anti-doping divisions within a single organisation as part of an effort to enhance the integrity of the professional sport.
At present, the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TCAP) covers betting-related corruption issues, while the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP) is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to tackle doping in the sport.
Under the new system, the two entities will join together at a single location with shared services and operate independently to the sport. The Tennis Integrity Supervisory Board said it expects TADP cases to benefit from the investigative expertise from the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU).
Work is now underway to implement the detailed measures required to deliver the expanded integrity body, with the new-look organisation set to take on full responsibility for tennis anti-doping from the ITF on January 1, 2021.
The Tennis Integrity Supervisory Board will recruit a new chief executive to head the restructured organisation, with the hope of making an appointment before the end of the year. A name for the body will also be confirmed at a later date.
“We are confident there will be significant benefits from integrating these two strong programmes into a single organisation,” Tennis Integrity Supervisory Board chair Jennie Price said. “They include enhanced information sharing between the anti-doping and anti-corruption teams and the opportunity to join up education and support for players.”
Tennis is often listed as the sport with the highest number of suspicious betting cases. In July, the International Betting Integrity Association said it processed a total of 25 alerts during the second quarter of the year, which was more than any other sport but significantly lower than 44 alerts in the same period in 2018.
Earlier this month, Brazilian professional tennis player Diego Matos was handed a life ban from the sport after being convicted of multiple match-fixing offences.