Tennis was faced with accusations of match fixing for years: from the infamous match between Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello in 2007 that first introduced much of the public to questions in regards to the integrity of matches in a few smaller tournaments to suspensions levied against two players earlier this year, here always seems to be something lurking underneath the sport’s surface.

Those concerns were aired again this in a story by The Daily Beast, which once again attempted to delve through the information out there about tennis and figure out just how much of a problem match fixing is for the sport week.

One 2014 study cited in that story estimated that one percent of most first-round tournament matches might be fixed, which would mean more than 20 matches a year were affected by gamblers; other estimates and guesses have actually suggested that numerous matches each week could be fixed, though that’s nevertheless a really tiny percentage of all expert tennis matches.

Low Pay Leads to Temptation for Lower-Ranked Players

What makes tennis therefore vulnerable to match fixing?

There are always a mixture of factors, lots of which help explain why the issue seems most prominent at the lower levels of this ranks that are professional.

First, there’s the obvious fact that tennis (at least in singles play) is an individual sport.

There clearly was only someone that should be bribed to get them to throw a match (exactly the same issue leading many to worry widespread integrity issues in boxing as well as other combat sports), and there are no teammates or substitutes to pick up the slack for a player whom is struggling.

That said, nobody is accusing Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal of fixing matches at Wimbledon.

For just one, there is the actual fact why these matches have a rigorous quantity of scrutiny if it could be done at all on them; perhaps even more importantly, though, star tennis players are extremely well compensated, meaning it would cost anyone attempting to fix a match at that level an exorbitant amount of money.

That’s not to say that no body attempts. Also Novak Djokovic has told a tale of being offered $100,000 to fix a match back 2006.

But players on the Challenger Tour or other low-ranked competitors aren’t making nearly that much money, and could even lose cash in a given tournament after travel and mentoring expenses are taken under consideration.

That produces them prime targets for gamblers seeking to fix a match.

Spot Betting Allows Repairing Without Impacting Match Result

Another problem is the very fact that gamblers don’t also have to repair an entire match to find ways to benefit.

Because numerous gambling web sites and bookmakers offer gambling on sets or games that are even individual players can achieve agreements to allow certain activities to happen at the right times to satisfy gamblers while still playing to win overall.

‘One particular typical fix would be to divide the very first two sets to a predetermined script, then play the 3rd set fairly to figure out which player progresses,’ recreations modeler Ian Dorward told Slate earlier this year.

The Tennis Integrity product is the body tasked with rooting out such dilemmas, and they have often made examples of players. In March, Elie Rousset and Walkter Trusendi each received six-month suspensions and fines for violations of anti-corruption guidelines, though not for match-fixing.

But no matter what the Integrity Unit does, it really is unlikely in order to change the culture which allows lower-ranked players to be incentivized to help gamblers who want to make sure bets.

That would require a complete change in how compensation works up and down the different amounts of professional tennis, something which will most likely not take place any moment quickly.