A Dangerous Liaison: Casanova’s Betting Affair Ends in Tennis Ban

For tennis players, love means nothing. But betting means a lot. Argentinian player Hernan Casanova’s affair with gambling has led to the 32-year-old receiving a two-month ban from the sport.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced the sanction last week, noting that the player admitted to betting on numerous tennis matches between 2023 and 2025.

In a press release, the ITIA highlighted that none of the bets involved Casanova’s own matches. He accepted his punishment, which also includes a $2,000 fine, of which $1,500 is suspended.

The player has career earnings of over $320,000, reaching a high of No. 221 in the men’s singles rankings in 2022. The suspension will see the player banned from all tournaments until April this year.

ITIA’s Strict Betting Rules

The Tennis Anti-Corruption Program prohibits:

• Betting on any professional tennis match worldwide
• Facilitating or encouraging betting by others
• Failing to report corrupt approaches
• Manipulating match outcomes or elements within matches

In Casanova’s case, he fell foul of the first rule, gambling on other tennis matches, with no suggestion he was fixing the results of his own contests.

On Friday, he posted on Instagram, “I clearly accepted my mistake and suspension.” He claims he placed bets “for fun.”

He warned young players about the dangers of becoming involved in betting, adding, “These are going to be two difficult months. I want to share this so that the kids who are just starting out in professional tennis read and get well informed about the anti-corruption program, because the smallest mistake comes at a cost.”

Low-Ranked Tennis Players Targeted by Match-Fixers

Tennis is a sport often targeted by match-fixers, ranking only behind soccer for global incidents of corruption. Players outside the top echelons of the game often struggle to earn enough money to sustain the costly lifestyle of travelling the world to play tournaments.

Users on Casanova’s Instagram account have accused the Argentine of engaging in match-fixing. In a video of a defeat to Gianluca Mager in an ATP Challenger match, users commented, “Match fixing fraud,” and urged authorities to “investigate this son of b...”.

Casanova’s last match was a 1-6, 0-2 first-round loss and retirement against Taiwan’s Chun-Hsin Tseng in the Rosario Challenger. Tseng went on to reach the semi-finals, where he lost to another Argentine, Román Andrés Burruchaga.

Following the tournament, Burruchaga alleged that he received death threats from bettors, warning that if he did not lose to Tseng, then they would target him and his family. Fellow player Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo also said he received threats ahead of his match against Argentine Valerio Aboian, to whom he lost in straight sets.

Players Often Tempted By Extra Cash

Last year, several players were caught up in a match-fixing scandal. Low-ranked players were offered thousands of dollars to throw matches.

Commissioner General Stéphane Piallat, head of the French police’s racing and gambling investigations unit, said, “We’re talking about young, lower-ranked players who can be bought for not much, because they can’t make a living from the sport or because, at that age, it’s hard to resist the lure of easy money.”

French tennis player Quentin Foillet was banned for 20 years after an investigation revealed he had fixed at least 11 matches. The 26-year-old is also accused of recruiting other journeymen players to engage in corruption.