ITIA Bans Professional Tennis Player Over Betting

Professional athletes are never allowed to take part in betting. These laws are designed to keep the integrity of professional sports, although it’s fair to say that it still gets broken fairly often.

In latest news, the International Tennis Integrity Agency has banned Italian pro player Andrea Rita for breaching its betting rules.

After a thorough investigation, Rita admitted to breaching the rules 4 times between 2018 and 2020. Some of the breaches included wagering on tennis matches and failing to report a corrupt approach. The penalty for this will see Rita banned from all forms of professional tennis until mid-2025.

A Continuing Problem for ITIA

Tennis betting breaches are becoming a mounting issue for ITIA. Before Rita, France’s Maxence Broville was banned for 7 years for similar indictments. Another French player—Leny Mitjanam—was previously banned from participating in pro tournaments over betting for 10 years.

And it’s not just players – officials have caused the ITIA a lot of troubles too. Damjan Dejanovic, a Bosnian official, has been suspended in relation to corruption charges. Bulgarian official Stefan Milanov was suspended for 16 years for similar charges.

It’s becoming clear that there might be a need for another kind of strategy, as the mounting bans might soon become an epidemic.