The Tennis-Twitter-Gambling Connection

One of the world's favorite games, tennis, is laying down the law amidst fears that insider information on matches may result in illegal sports betting.

The US Open is the pride and joy of American Tennis. It's where the greatest tennis players in the world converge to do battle for a Grand Slam tournament.

But tennis has been racked by scandal in recent times. Numerous sports betting controversies and match-fixing rumors abound.

Now the USTA is making waves by prohibiting any online activity - especially via Twitter that would unfairly provide a basis for insider sports betting.



The inside edge revealed
So things like player health, inside interviews, sentiments not publicly expressed and the like will be banned from being spread around to a global audience.

Twitter has been banned from use on the courts because of such fears. It's the sharing of this sensitive information that is a direct contravention of the rules. It is quite popular on US congress floor, however...

The dogs are out
Just as the police have the Internal Affairs division, so too does the USTA have the Tennis Integrity Unit.

The Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center boldly displays the warning against using Twitter during matches.

At the heart of the concerns are the sport's anti-corruption rules. Some tennis aces are already up in arms about the warnings, such as Andy Roddick. Roddick posted the following Tweet:
"I think its lame the US Open is trying to regulate our tweeting," Roddick posted in a message on his Twitter site. "I understand the on-court issue but not sure they can tell us if we can/can't do it on our own time."

But it's the integrity of tennis that the officials are trying to protect and on that score they're not willing to budge an inch.
The passing of insider or sensitive information for the purposes of sports betting - directly or indirectly will be construed as active engagement in contravening the USTA's rules.

These anti-corruption measures are in place with several organizations including the WTA, ATP, the International Tennis Federation and the Grand Slam Committee.

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