Interwetten board spokesman Dominik Beier: "We are portrayed as the bad guys - this is a double standard"
How can you permanently solve the problem of betting fraud in tennis? We spoke to Interwetten CEO, Dominik Beier.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Dec 18, 2019, 09:30 pm
More than 135 tennis players are said to be involved in a betting scandal - the ZDF reported in cooperation with the world . In consultation with professionals, smaller amounts should have been bet on manipulated games. Betting providers are often portrayed as the problem with betting fraud stories, but a large part of the tennis area is dependent on revenue. "The market for betting companies is large - it would be the wrong way to completely exclude them," says ATP board director Herwig Straka. The ITF also benefits to a large extent from cooperations with betting providers: it receives payments in the millions because it sold its data to the Swiss company Sportradar, which in particular passes on live scores to betting providers. We spoke to Dominik Beier - Spokesman for Interwetten for one year and previously worked for Sportradar for seven years.
Mr. Beier, as soon as the topic of "betting fraud" arises, the betting providers are usually in focus. Are you the bad guys?
Dominik Beier: For us, such reports are also a curse. Because we could also be injured - in which case we did not notice any irregularities. For us, the greatest good is integrity. Betting fraud is no longer an issue. It has to be said that it has developed well in recent years. If you look at football: less and less is happening.
What is going wrong in tennis?
You have to improve communication approaches in tennis. And support players who do not have such a high income. For example about solidarity payments. A Roger Federer would not feel it if he earned 200,000 euros less a year. This money could be distributed to players who find it difficult to cover their travel expenses at all. This is how our social system works: that the richer give something to the poor. You have to try to improve the system with everyone involved. However, if there is always a cross-shot from associations or the ITF, it is difficult. The ITF, ATP and WTA have been unsure what to do for years. They like to take the advertising, data and streaming money, but the money does not reach the players.
As a betting provider, are you trying to have appropriate conversations?
Alex Antonitsch (Kitzbühel tournament director and tennisnet editor, editor's note), for example, has repeatedly tried to involve us in these discussions. But so far there has been little interest from the ATP and ITF. We are all in the same boat. But we always like to be portrayed as the bad guys - that's a double standard. Without the money from betting providers, many tournaments would struggle to make ends meet.
You said at the beginning that the situation had improved in football. What have you changed there?
For one thing, the control systems have gotten better. You can see faster if there are irregularities somewhere in terms of operations. Then alarm systems go off and the games are removed from the program. In football there is a network of betting providers, around 400. If you usually bet 1,000 euros on a game and suddenly it is 10,000, a bell will ring.
What else?
Much is being done for further training. From an early age, players in academies and youth teams were prepared for what would happen if they cheated. They would risk their careers, their very existence. And commit a crime. Third, the level of income is so high almost everywhere that the temptation is no longer so great. This combination has very limited everything.
The "Tennis Integrity Unit" is unfortunately not in a good light. Argentinian Marco Trungelliti, for example, testified in 2018 as a key witness against fraudsters, was subsequently hostile by many and left alone by the TIU and ITF .
It's like the police. If you have good people and a high reputation among the population, a good police force will work well. So it is with integrity. You have to equip the right people with the right resources. But that's not a sprint, it's a marathon. With tennis players who are currently 24 of the 25 years old, it will be difficult to develop mindfulness. You would have to start earlier, for 12 and 13 year olds. And with the coaches. It is a long term project.
What would happen if you completely prohibited tennis betting?
Then there would still be a market somewhere. If you prohibit it from a licensed provider, it will offer a dubious provider. And illegal data transfer is pretty easy in today's digital world. You have to keep the offer as attractive as possible and channel it into the legal market. It has always been a problem in the gambling or sports betting market if you restrict something - because then a black market develops. And then you can’t control it. Turning away from the subject makes the problem worse. Then you have no control at all.
Tournaments are now prohibited from concluding new contracts with betting providers.
Here we are again on the topic of competitiveness. If a few hundred thousand euros are missing from betting providers, the smaller tournaments in particular will find it difficult to finance themselves. The bigger ones earn enough with viewer and TV revenues, whereby they also receive high amounts for data, live streams and so-called betting rights. TV rights are also financed by betting providers through advertising. Ultimately, the big ones would survive, the small ones would be destroyed. I feel sorry for the tournament organizers. And once again it testifies to the double standard: the ITF is happy to take the money, but it is withheld from the tournaments. Tennis has no overall strategy in this regard. If you were to talk to the parties involved - players, associations, betting providers, industry suppliers, the media - on how to tackle the next five or six years together, that would be a holistic approach.
Last week, a video went round in which a beginner played a 15,000 tournament and didn't score a single point. He had a plan to bet against him. As it became known on Tuesday evening, the ITF now wants to ban betting on the 15,000 tournament . Does that bring anything?
As I said, there will still be a market through dubious and illegal providers. Such an action and decision is therefore very questionable in my opinion and does not fight the origin of the problem, but temporarily extinguishes a small fire somewhere. In the long term, this is a quick action and a wrong reaction for tennis.