A Spanish tennis player, sentenced to four years for 'courtsiding'

The Spanish tennis player Gerard Joseph Platero Rodríguez has been punished with a four-year penalty and a $ 15,000 fine after being accused of 'courtsiding', a practice that consists of transmitting information from a tournament to make massive bets live.

Platero thus becomes the first player to be punished for this infraction, although the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) announced that they would reduce his sanction by six months if he did not commit more infractions.

The events took place in the ITF Pittsburgh tournament in July 2019 when Platero, without an ATP ranking, went to the courts to transmit the results of the matches to third parties, something forbidden on a tennis court. Additionally, Platero was found to have placed 75 online bets on tennis matches in June 2019, while the TIU highlighted Platero's null cooperation during the investigation.