ITIA Press Release, April 29, 2022
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has confirmed that Kyrgyzstani tennis player Ksenia Palkina has been banned from tennis for 16 years, six years of which is suspended. She has also been fined $100,000 (with $87,500 suspended) after admitting breaching the rules of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP).
Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer Richard McLaren ruled on the case after Ms Palkina, who had a career high WTA singles ranking of 163, admitted to match fixing offences in 2018 and 2019. Her suspension is backdated to the start of her provisional suspension (22 November 2019) and – providing she does not further break the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program rules – she would be able to resume a career in tennis on 21 November 2029.
The sanction means that the player is prohibited from playing in or attending any tennis event authorised or sanctioned by any international tennis governing body or national association for the length of her ban.
The breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program rules that Ms Palkina was found guilty of were:
Section D.1.b of the 2018 and 2019 TACP: “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit, facilitate, or conspire to solicit or facilitate any other person to wager on the outcome or any other aspect of any Event or any other tennis competition. For the avoidance of doubt, to solicit or facilitate to wager shall include, but not be limited to: display of live tennis betting odds on a Covered Person’s website; writing articles for a tennis betting publication or website; conducting personal appearances for, or otherwise participating in any event run by, a tennis betting company or any other company or entity directly affiliated with a tennis betting company; promoting a tennis betting company to the general public through posts on social media; and appearing in commercial advertisements that encourage others to bet on tennis.”
Section of D.1.d of the 2018 and 2019 TACP: “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, contrive, attempt to contrive, agree to contrive, or conspire to contrive the outcome, or any other aspect, of any Event.”
Section D.1.e of the 2018 and 2019 TACP: “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit, facilitate, or conspire to solicit or facilitate any Player to not use his or her best efforts in any Event.”
Section D.1.f of the 2018 and 2019 TACP: “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit, receive, agree in the future to receive, or conspire to solicit, receive or agree in the future to receive any money, benefit or Consideration on the basis of not giving their best efforts in any Event and/or negatively influencing another Player’s best efforts in any Event.”
Section D.2.a.i of the 2018 and 2019 TACP: “In the event any Player is approached by any person who offers or provides any type of money, benefit or Consideration to a Player to (i) influence the outcome or any other aspect of any Event, or (ii) provide Inside Information, it shall be the Player’s obligation to report such incident to the TIU [now ITIA] as soon as possible.”
