Alfie Burden has been handed a six-month ban suspended for one 12 months and fined £5,000 for a number of breaches of snooker’s betting guidelines.
The 40-year-old Londoner was discovered to have positioned round 86 bets on matches involving himself and different tour gamers over a interval from 2006 up till 2016.
There is no such thing as a suggestion although that Burden, twice a ranking-event quarter-finalist final 12 months, was performing corruptly or with intent to repair matches.
And the 5 bets positioned by Burden on himself from 2006 to 2007 in accumulators had been all for him to win.
Snooker’s guidelines had been tightened up in 2009 to incorporate gamers betting on any skilled matches, relatively than simply ones involving themselves.
Jason Ferguson, chairman of the WPBSA, stated “It’s a key a part of any sports activities integrity technique that gamers can not wager on their sport.
“Alfie Burden put his profession in danger by so doing and it is just by his full admissions and his cooperation with the Disciplinary Committee that he has averted a career-ending suspension.”
World No65 Burden loved one among his higher years in 2016, reaching the final eight in two tournaments – on the China Open, and European Masters.
And he additionally made his solely profession 147 most break on the English Open simply two months in the past.
Burden was a former Arsenal FC apprentice, however had to surrender soccer after struggling a badly damaged leg break at Swindon. He additionally took to the boxing ring for a debut bout three years in the past.
The complete WPBSA assertion learn as follows: “After a listening to earlier than the WPBSA Disciplinary Committee that occurred on nineteenth December 2016 Alfie Burden admitted to the next breaches of the WPBSA Betting Guidelines:
“Previous to August 2009 the WPBSA Members Guidelines acknowledged:
2.7 A Participant shall not wager or lay bets on the consequence, rating or some other side of any snooker or billiards match wherein he’s taking part in or trigger any such wager to be positioned or laid on his behalf.
Submit August 2009 The WPBSA Members Guidelines Betting Guidelines state:
2. Betting misconduct
2.1 It shall be a breach of those Guidelines for a Member to do any of the next:
2.1.1 Betting:
2.1.1.1 to put, settle for, lay or in any other case make a Guess with some other particular person in relation to the consequence, rating, progress, conduct or any otheraspect of the Tour and/or any Event or Match in occasions sanctioned by the WPBSA, WSL or WBL;
“He was suspended from taking part in in WPBSA sanctioned occasions for a interval of six months. This suspension is suspended in full till 1st January 2018 and can solely be invoked upon a confirmed breach of the WPBSA Members Guidelines, Part 2, Betting Guidelines. He was fined £5,000.
“The details of the case are that between thirtieth September 2006 and 4th February 2010 Mr Burden positioned within the area of fifty bets on snooker with an internet betting operator. Between 30thSeptember 2006 and twenty second November 2007 Mr Burden positioned 5 bets on his personal matches. In every case the wager was for him to win as was a part of an accumulator with different snooker matches from the identical match.
“Between fifth July 2013 and twenty ninth November 2016 Mr Burden positioned 36 bets on snooker with one other on-line betting operator. The bets had been primarily accumulator model bets. None of those bets concerned his personal matches, nevertheless it did embrace bets on tournaments Mr Burden competed in.”
Image courtesy of World Snooker