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Tuesday 2 February 2010

The Sting.

Today was the first time i have genuinely seen what i would call a fix. Lots of people talk about them happening, but today was a watershed day for me. The two players in question were Petar Jelenic ranked 590 in the world and Ilija Bozoljac ranked around 150, it was a first round match in Zagreb. The lower ranked player pulled a hamstring and couldnt continue. He called the trainer who came out twice. He lost his serve and was not even running for the ball, he was in pain. The odds went crazy as everybody backed his opponent. At 5-2 down he walked to the umpires chair to retire. The odds hit 1.01,and between 1.01 and 1.10 about £200k was traded.
He has a conversation with the umpire but doesnt quit. When he continues he suddenly starts running around like a new born lamb. With the other guy serving the odds are 1.20,im thinking the odds are high for somebody serving for the set against someone who is looking to quit. Amazingly the guy breaks back , holds his own serve and then breaks again to win the match. The other guy helps him by chucking in a few double faults , the last being at match point. He comes off the court looking like the cat that got the cream alright! I imagine the two of them will have a nice carve up with the profits. I won £4 on this game, but i do feel for the people that got stuffed and i will be a lot more weary of first round games in low ranking tournaments. Will anything be done about it....
We also had Mr D Istomin retire in the second set this afternoon so Betfair paid out, and guess what? He is now on court a few hours later playing in the doubles tournament.....

The £157 i won on tennis was it for me today. All the horse bets lost. Equine two bets lost £ 112.
PP another two losers costing me £126. Bet Cat one bet lost £40, and yet again my own bets were poor losing £90. Out of the three i picked Mister Stickler came second when looking like it would get home.
I have just updated with the football bet which was from Pyschic Soccer.
So a day to file in the bin and a loss of £189.

4 comments:

  1. Perspective! Tennis has a mere handful of dodgy matches a year - you say this is the first one you've ever seen, yet we all know racing has several carve ups a day!

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  2. Hi,

    Thanks for the comment. Horses are punted in and gambles are landed becuase an astute trainer has placed a horse in a race it is ready for. Whether the handicap mark is to low or it is at the peak of its fitness. But you still have other horses and yards in the same race and i am sure they are not all in it together. I have never seen a horse winning at 1.01 and get pulled up to lose. This was a blatant sting and the ATP should do something about it, not sweep it under the carpet. It will be interesting to see if it is reported in any of the newspapers tomorrow. But i understand what you are saying.

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  3. Have to agree with the anon poster. There's about 4,000 tennis matches a year, The recent enquiry into the sport found about 10 seriously dodgy ones and 40 other less so in the last 5 years. That's 50 out of 20,000 matches! There's probably 50 dodgy horse races a month in the UK alone.

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  4. WTA,

    Thanks for the comment. I am sure there are lots of horse races that are dodgy, what i am saying is how many of them go to 1.01? If they are dodgy they are held back before the line so never getting to that point in the betting market.
    By the way i enjoy your blog and you get some great results on the tennis, you will have to share your strategies !!

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