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Bookmakers Turn Their Back on Nikolai Davydenko
// Betfair exchange does not accept stakes on the Russian tennis player’s games
Betfair, the world's largest Internet betting exchange, announced on Friday that it would not accept bets for the matches involving Russian tennis player Nikolai Davydenko. The bookmakers thought it was strange that he had lost to Martin Vassallo Arguello in the second round of the ATP tennis tournament in Sopot. In fact, the best Russian tennis player is suspected of cheating, just like Evgeny Kafelnikov four years ago. Betfair has already begun investigating the Davydenko-Arguello match’s circumstances.
Betfair betting exchange announced on Friday that it suspends accepting stakes on tennis matches involving Russia’s Nikolai Davydenko due to “apprehensions of violating game principles”. In fact, Davydenko is suspected of losing to his rivals intentionally.
These suspicions arose after Davydenko played on Thursday with Argentine’s Martin Vassallo Arguello in the second round of the ATP tennis tournament in Sopot. Davydenko, the tournament’s current winner, was considered the definite favorite. Yet, there were quite many stakes on Arguello, even before the match began. The Russian took the first set, the Argentinean took the second set, and then the Russian surrendered in the third set. Davydenko explained at the press conference that his hurt leg was causing him strong pain, and he decided to stop the match.
Belfair has already announced that it returns the stakes for that match, and has initiated the investigation of its circumstances. The bookmakers’ suspicions were raised by a surprisingly large amount of stakes (around ˆ5.3 million) and by the fact that such a good player as Davydenko lost four times in a row to much weaker rivals.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 04, 2007
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