USTA Admits to Blocking iGaming

Webzine Network World reported Monday that the United States Tennis Association blocked access to online-gambling sites during last summer’s US Open. According to the webzine, the organization used St. Bernard Software’s iPrism Web-filtering system to prevent the event’s 21,000 credentialed participants – including players, guests and journalists – from accessing Internet-betting sites.

The move reportedly came in response to a 2007 betting scandal involving Russian player Nikolay Davydenko. According to USTA Chief Information Officer Larry Bonfante, the organization intended to avert similar scandals at the 2008 event.

“We didn’t want people at the event to have access to gambling sites,” Bonfante told Network World. “Even if it’s just the perception, we just didn’t want people to have access… so we bolted it down.”

The USTA cited “ease of installation” and “flexibility in reporting” as the two qualities that sold it on using iPrism at both the Billie Jean Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows – where the annual Long Island event takes place – and the organization’s headquarters in White Plains, N.Y.

Still, according to Bonfante, there were some 17,000 attempts made to access online-gambling sites during the two-week event.

“What the rationale there was for all this, we don’t know,” Bonfante said.

phill.provance@gamblingplanet.org