Sunday, August 5, 2007

Tennis Match Investigated After Suspicious Wagering

Tennis has been just about the only major sport to avoid a scandal his year. Until now, that is.

ATP officials are investigating suspicious betting over No. 3 ranked Nikolay Davydenko's defeat to 87th-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello last week. Betting on the match was 10 times the usual amount, at around $7 million. Vassallo Arguello was heavily backed, and won when Davydenko, coincidentally, left with an injury in the third set.

from The Toronto Star

Officials are investigating suspicious betting patterns in a tennis match involving top seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who retired with an injury against a low-ranked opponent at an ATP tournament in Poland.

In an unprecedented move, British online gambling company Betfair voided all bets yesterday placed on Thursday's second-round match at the Prokom Open in Sopot between the defending champion and No.4-ranked Davydenko and No.87-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina.

Betfair said it received about $7 million (U.S.) in bets on the match – 10 times the usual amount – and most of the money was on Arguello to win, even after Davydenko won the first set 6-2.

read more...

Monday, July 23, 2007

Serena Williams to Pose Nude

Serena Williams will be posing nude this month, along with seven other "famous faces", in Jane magazine. Actually, in this photo of Serena, we barely see her face at all. Serena is facing away from the camera, holding a flower to cover her "bootay". For a sneak preview, check out whudat.com.

Friday, July 6, 2007

NBC renews Wimbledon deal

from John Dempsey at Variety

NBC Sports has reupped its deal to air Wimbledon, where Serena Williams reached the quarterfinals this week.NBC Sports has renewed its rights to the Wimbledon tennis tournament for another four years, starting in 2008, ponying up $12 million a year vs. $13 million in the current contract.

The license fee dropped by $1 million a year at least in part because the Wimbledon ratings tumbled in 2006 by 20% from the previous year's average.

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Maybe David Stern should have negotiated this deal for Wimbledom. When the NBA ratings dropped 31% from 2002 - 2006, Stern was still able to increase TV revenue by 22%. At least they did better than Gary Bettman and the NHL, who got the league zero guaranteed dollars from NBC.