Tennis officials banned for life for betting-related offences

The Tennis Integrity Unit (ITU) on Wednesday announced that Sherzod Hasanov and Arkhip Molotyagin had been sanctioned as a result of breaches of the Code of Conduct for Officials during events on the Futures circuit.

Officials were found guilty of using a mobile phone to communicate scores of matches in which they were officiating to a third party at a tournament in Tiberias, Israel last September.

Two tennis officials from Uzbekistan have been banned for life after being found guilty of betting-related offences.

The Tennis Integrity Unit (ITU) on Wednesday announced that Sherzod Hasanov and Arkhip Molotyagin had been sanctioned as a result of breaches of the Code of Conduct for Officials during events on the Futures circuit.

They were found guilty of using a mobile phone to communicate scores of matches in which they were officiating to a third party at a tournament in Tiberias, Israel last September.

The duo were also punished for inputting scores into their PDA devices to enable a third party and/or other third parties to benefit by placing bets on matches in which they were officiating in.

ITU investigations discovered that both officials delayed inputting scores and/or fraudulently manipulated scores by adding fictitious deuce games to their devices over a period of seven months.

In addition, Hasanov was found to have counselled or procured another official and/or officials to participate in the fraudulent manipulation of the 'live scoring' system in or around January 2015 including, but not limited to, Molotyagin.

They were also punished for not reporting unlawful conduct of officials whom they knew to be fraudulently manipulating the 'live scoring' system to the Joint Certification Programme.