Global police investigation into fixing underway, say German media

A Belgian investigation into a match-fixing group has expanded to include authorities from other countries including France, Spain and the United States, according to German media.

The amount of players implicated is around 135, including a top 30 player who could already have won "several" ATP titles, said Germany's *Welt* newspaper and ZDFSports.

A German low-ranked pro named "Max H" was identified among those players, confirming the investigation but stating he would not publicly comment. The newspaper also said the FBI has contacted Belgian authorities.

The investigation appears to be further to previously announced police arrests of 15 people, mostly Armenians, in Spain towards the start of this year, and arrests of some Armenian-Belgians in Belgium in 2018. The Spanish arrests began with a tipoff from the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), according to press in Spain. There were also accounts of arrests in other countries like the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Bulgaria, though not all were confirmed by local police.

Argentina's Marco Trungelliti has been vocal about anti-fixing efforts. (Getty Images)

The investigation involves the "Armenian betting network," Eric Bisschop, the deputy prosecutor of Belgium, said. "[It] has spread across seven countries and cheated on a large scale... [and is] very structured."

The size of the fraud in this area is unprecedented for authorities, he indicated. Most of the activity seems to occur during lower-level events.

In addition, the newspaper spoke to two players, including Marco Trungelliti, who has been vocal about anti-fixing efforts and said, "There are players in the Top 50 who have fixed matches. You cannot say it only happens at the lower levels, it happens at all levels."

Tennis accounts for a large portion of suspicious betting alerts from official gambling monitoring efforts, mostly involving lower-level events and low-ranked players.