French police and Marseille prosecutors are investigating a major match-fixing operation that has touched professional tennis worldwide, with authorities now looking at 45 questionable matches across multiple countries that generated more than €800,000 in illegal betting profits.
The investigation started two years ago when officials spotted unusual betting activity during a tournament in Rodez, where a doubles team showed suspicious betting patterns and strange play. Seven people have already been charged with organized fraud, corrupting a sports participant, being part of a criminal group, and in some cases, money laundering tied to the scheme.
Widespread Investigation Reveals International Criminal Network Targeting Lower-Ranked Tennis Players
The people charged in the investigation include active and former players and accomplices from different countries, all between 23 and 29 years old. Prosecutor Jean-Yves Lourgouilloux said the criminal network deliberately targeted young, lower-ranked professional players who needed money or couldn’t turn down the chance at quick cash.
Stéphane Piallat, who heads the French police’s unit investigating gambling and racing fraud, explained that the group went after players outside the top 100 on the men’s ATP tour because they didn’t need much money to convince them to throw matches, unlike the bigger names in professional tennis.
The fixed matches show up in tournaments across Germany, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Egypt, and Tunisia. French officials said more people are likely to be charged soon, including two Bulgarian brothers who are being sought under a European arrest warrant and are believed to be running the criminal operation.
Of the seven people already charged, five are out of jail but under strict conditions that keep them from any work or involvement with tennis, while the other two remain locked up as authorities build their cases.
When investigators talked to one French player during police custody in mid-October, he described how the criminals came to him with increasingly higher amounts to throw matches. He said they started at €500, went up to €700, then €1,000, then €2,000, and finally €5,000, at which point he agreed to fix matches for them.
The criminals made at least €800,000 in illegal betting winnings from the 45 fixed matches that took place between 2018 and 2024. Prosecutor Lourgouilloux stressed that what looked like minor cheating in unimportant matches was actually a major international crime with huge consequences and serious money flowing to these criminal organizations. He said this kind of corruption demands real attention and serious enforcement to stop it.
While police in France are running their investigation, the International Tennis Integrity Agency has also been dealing with match-fixing on its own. Quentin Folliot, a 26-year-old French player who was ranked 488 in August 2022, became the sixth player hit with sanctions by the ITIA.
On December 1, 2025, Folliot got a 20-year suspension from tennis and had to pay a $70,000 fine after he was found guilty of breaking the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program 27 times. Five other players have already been punished this year for breaking the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program, but Folliot got hit with the longest ban of anyone so far.
