TIU bans Emmanuel Ikakah for three months after betting on tennis
In 2018 annual report, the Tennis Integrity Unit has revealed the numbers from the previous season and improvements they have made (it wasn't enough if you ask the majority of serious tennis fans, though), tracing 264 professional encounters at all levels to stop match-fixing and corruption. The majority of those came at ITF men's pro circuit and they had banned or suspended the players like Dmytro Badanov, Federico Coria, Nicolas Kicker, Karim Hossam, Robert Farah, Patricio Heras, Oliver Anderson, Gleb and Vadim Alekseenko, Danielle Braccialli, Potito Starace and Diego Matos.
After Cristobal Saavedra-Corvalan, the second player who has been suspended in 2019 is the 36-year-old Nigerian Emmanuel Ikakah who has played only one professional match in the main draw back in 2013. Ikakah will serve a three-month suspension and pay a $500 fine after admitting to betting breaches, placing 13 bets on professional tennis matches in May 2017. He played in the qualifying rounds of two Nigeria Futures in that year although he never put stakes on himself, which made the entire case easier. An independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer Richard H. McLaren made a publication on 15 February 2019, and Ikakah was suspended for six months and fined $5,000.
Three months of the ban and $4,500 of the fine are erased due to the fact the player commits no further breaches of the TACP. This means he can not play or attend any of the professional tournaments before May 14 when he can join the Tour again. The relevant section of the 2017 TACP which relates to betting offenses is:
D.1.a: No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, wager or attempt to wager on the outcome or any other aspect of any Event or any other tennis competition.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2DQlsS4
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