Fancy a flutter on Roger Federer to win the French Open for the first time in ten attempts this spring? Perhaps it might be better to keep your money safe and that is not meant as a criticism of the world No 1 from Switzerland, who would give his right arm to triumph at Roland Garros.
It is just that the French do not want anyone betting on their championships this year, or any other year, if they use an online account and the French tennis federation (FFT) has chosen to take legal proceedings against three companies saying that “a sporting ethic is at risk”.
The FFT has filed a complaint in courts in Paris and Liège, Belgium, claiming that internet betting companies stain the reputation of the clay-court championship and use it unfairly as a means of making money. Jean-François Vilotte, the FFT’s director general, said: “It is an issue as important as the fight against doping.”
The three companies concerned are Betfair, Ladbrokes and Bwin as the FFT presses for a court injunction to stop their betting activity on the grand-slam tournament. It also seeks a fine of ¤50,000 (about £37,600) a day to be paid into its coffers for any prospective violations, Jean-Louis Dupont, the FFT’s lawyer, added.
When the FFT monitored the BNP Paribas Masters Series tournament in Bercy, Paris last November, it found that bets made during the week totalled more than ¤500 million. If a matchfixing scandal should break at the French Open, they argue, it would undermine the value of a tournament that turned over ¤118 million last year.
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In response, Mark Davies, managing director of Betfair, the online gambling company heavily involved with the tennis authorities over the setting up of an Integrity Unit to counter the threat posed by match-fixing and illicit gambling, said: “It is not clear to me under whose jurisdiction they see online betting lying and how they would enforce any court decision in their favour against a company based in, say, Costa Rica.
“Targeting EU-licensed companies, which are highly regulated, to leave punters betting only with unlicensed operators across the web, would completely miss the point, and it is difficult to believe that reports can be right since a policy of this kind would imply a worrying lack of understanding of an important issue.
“Targeting us, as the only betting operator which is completely transparent and, where needed, shares all its betting information with the ITF and ATP would be plain bizarre. I would be astonished if any sensible regulator wanted to go down this route.”
Ian Ritchie, the chief executive of Wimbledon, said that the All England Club would monitor the case but that the sport was pressing ahead with the formation of an Integrity Unit and the need for “a common set of regulations that are properly enforceable”.