By Nick Harris 20 September 2010 Snooker players will be banned for life for any infringement of “Draconian” new betting rules intended to make the sport “cleaner than clean, whiter then white”, according Barry Hearn, the chairman of World Snooker. Hearn was speaking as he launched a new integrity unit, to be overseen by the […]

The following statements have been released by the WPBSA and Pat Mooney after the verdict in his ‘match fix’ tribunal. . WPBSA Statement A hearing under the auspices of Sport Resolutions UK on September 7 and 8, 2010, heard of charges which John Higgins admitted through his lawyers before the hearing. The charges were 1. Intentionally […]

8 September 2010 There follows, in full, the ruling made today by Ian Mill QC in relation to the John Higgins ‘match fix’ case. We are also running a news story. But in short, Higgins has been cleared of the most serious charges of fixing or intent to fix matches (charges dropped), but has been […]

By Nick Harris 5 September 2010 The cricket ‘spot-fixing scandal’ took its latest extraordinary twist this evening when the Pakistan batsman, Yasir Hameed, released a statement detailing how the News of the World – and specifically its investigations editor, Mazher Mahmood – had misrepresented Hameed’s views, had offered to pay him £25,000 to talk about […]

By Nick Harris 18 May 2010 As snooker’s governing body, the WPBSA, continues its inquiry into claims by the News of the World that John Higgins agreed to fix frames, a new analysis of the video evidence against Higgins published by the NotW suggests the footage has not only been cut and edited without full […]

By Nick Harris 13 May 2010 The Football Association will review how the Gambling Commission handled and dropped a suspected case of match-fixing before deciding whether to proceed with its own action after both bodies were lambasted as “inept” and labelled a “total disgrace” by a senior official from one of the clubs involved. The […]

By Nick Harris 9 May 2010 As John Higgins faces new allegations today of betting-related misconduct, sportingintelligence can reveal that a phone call at the centre of the fresh claims was assessed at the time by the relevant gambling authorities and deemed “clean” and not worthy of further investigation or action. The front page of […]

By Nick Harris 26 April 2010 Forest Green Rovers of the Blue Square Conference have said they are “amazed and disturbed” that the Football Association was apparently not involved in an investigation into suspicious betting patterns surrounding a game they played a year ago today – on 26 April 2009 – against Grays Athletic. Rovers […]

By Nick Harris 22 April 2010 Britain will hold a general election on Thursday 6 May. The current Labour government under PM Gordon Brown will either retain power or be replaced by David Cameron’s Conservative Party or Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats. Another scenario is a hung parliament and a power-sharing regime; key posts could be […]

By Nick Harris 26 March 2010 (NB: Story update on 27 March at the bottom). Anti-corruption investigators will be paying close attention to four particular matches in Italy’s Serie B this weekend after betting was suspended by most bookmakers earlier today on two games amid rumours of fixed draws, while betting on two further games […]