Greek tennis player Konstantinos Mikos has been slammed with a lifetime ban by the Tennis Integrity Unit.
The 25-year-old has been found guilty of committing four offences of the sports Anti-Corruption programme. According to an investigation conducted by the TIU, Mikos was found guilty of using two betting accounts to place bets on tennis between March 2012 and December 2013.
It has also been revealed that Mikos offered Alexandros Jakupovic money to influence the outcome of his match at during a Greece F20 tournament in November 2013. Jakupovic was also banned from the sport in 2015 for breaking rules on match-fixing.
Mikos reached a ranking high of 933rd in 2014 and has never won a pro title. He hasn’t played a competitive match since losing in the qualifying rounds of a Greek F6 event in April 2016. During his career, the 25-year-old won 25 out of his 101 main draw matches.
According to the ban, Mikos is now prohibited from playing or attending any tournament that is sanctioned by the ITF.
List of offences Mikos has been found guilty of
Section D.1.a: No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, wager or attempt to wager on the outcome or any other aspect of any Event or any other tennis completion
Section D.1.d: No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, contrive or attempt to contrive the outcome or any other aspect of any Event
Section D.1.e: No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit or facilitate any Player to not use his or her best efforts in any Event
Section D.1.g: No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, offer or provide any money, benefit or Consideration to any other Covered Person with the intention of negatively influencing a Player’s best efforts in any Event
The fight continues
Last month the European Sport Security Association (ESSA) found 45% of suspicious betting patterns occurred in tennis during the first quarter of 2017. The body said it has reported 27 cases of suspicious activity to relevant bodies, of which 12 were for tennis.
“The figures for quarter one follow a similar trend to previous reports,” said Mike O’Kane, ESSA chairman.
“We know that tennis, in particular, has been working hard to address this situation and we await with interest the imminent publication of the Independent Review Panel’s interim report.”
In 2016 the Tennis Integrity Unit received 292 alerts regarding unusual betting on matches, a 18% increase on the previous year.
