Spanish authorities have arrested 83 people - including 28 professional tennis players - following an investigation into match-fixing.

Europol said the Spanish Civil Guard had made the arrests after looking into alleged rigging by an Armenian criminal gang.

Authorities claim the group bribed athletes for betting purposes.

Police raids on 11 properties turned up €167,000 (£151,000) in cash along with a shotgun, more than 50 electronic devices, five luxury cars, credit cards and documents.

Game, set and match for @guardiacivil and #Europol 🎾 Together we dismantled a network bribing tennis players:

- 83 arrested

- 28 professional players involved

Find out more: https://t.co/GqGtdLUSy2 pic.twitter.com/dou4GeKtpm — Europol (@Europol) January 10, 2019

More than 40 bank accounts have also been frozen.


One of the 28 professional players took part in the last US Open, authorities revealed. However, their identity has not yet been disclosed.

Europol said at least 97 matches from lower-tier "Futures" and "Challenger" tournaments were fixed.

The investigation started in 2017 after the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) grew concerned about "irregular activities" relating to pre-arranged matches in the tournaments.

Apart from allegedly bribing players, the suspects are accused of using identities of thousands of citizens to bet on the pre-arranged games.

Image: Members of the gang allegedly attended the matches to ensure their instructions were followed

"Once they bribed the players, the Armenian network members attended the matches to ensure that the tennis players complied with what was previously agreed, and gave orders to other members of the group to go ahead with the bets placed at national and international level," said Europol in a statement on Thursday.

The EU agency said it supported Spanish authorities and provided experts to assist with the investigation in the lead up to the arrests.

It added: "International police cooperation across the European Union and beyond is a crucial factor in the fight against sports corruption."