London: Spanish tennis player Gerard Joseph Platero Rodriguez has been suspended from the game for four years and fined $15,000 after being convicted of courtsiding at an ITF tournament held in Pittsburgh in July 2019. Platero is the first player to be charged with such offence.
Courtsiding is the prohibited practice of transmission of live scoring data from a match to a third party for betting purposes. At an ITF tournament held in Pittsburgh in July 2019, Platero acted as a courtsider, an investigation said. He was also found to have placed 75 online bets on tennis matches during June 2019.
The integrity unit said he also failed to ‘engage or provide any form of co-operation’ during its investigation. The Tennis Integrity Unit said Wednesday(September 30) that six months of the ban were suspended on condition that no further rule law-breaking of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program was committed.
