SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) has confirmed that Youssef Hossam has been issued with a lifetime ban from professional tennis following his conviction on multiple match-fixing and associated corruption charges.
Hassam was issued with the lifetime sanction after a disciplinary hearing held in London in March.
The TIU found that between 2015 and 2019, Hassam had ‘conspired with other parties to carry out an extensive campaign of betting-related corruption at the lower levels of professional tennis’.
21 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program were identified during the investigation, including eight cases of match-fixing, six cases of facilitating gambling, three failures to report corruption approaches, two cases of soliciting other players not to use best efforts and two failures to cooperate with a TIU investigation.
Hassam has been suspended from all professional tennis since May 2019 over concerns about his involvement in corruption.
Earlier this year, Brazilian tennis player Joao Olavo Soares de Souza received a lifetime ban after he was convicted of multiple match-fixing offences as well as a number of associated corruption offences.
In addition to the lifetime ban, Souza has also been issued with a $200,000 fine after he committed ‘numerous breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP)’.
