Betfair have been forced to take the decision to void £3.6m of illegal bets placed on a tennis match in Poland due to suspicious betting patterns. Betfair said it had acted “in the interests of maintaining integrity and fairness in all our markets” after the price on the world No4, Nikolay Davydenko, drifted out after he had won the first set against the Argentinian Martin Vassallo Arguello, ranked 87th, in the Polish Open in Sopot. Davydenko lost the second set before withdrawing with an injury in the third.

A massive £3.6m of bets had been placed on the match, which is more than 10 times the amount of money normally wagered on a tennis game of this kind. After the Guardian’s newspaper disclosure yesterday that Betfair had suspended settlement of bets, the company convened an emergency meeting before announcing that “following consultation with the men’s professional tour, the ATP, Betfair has decided to void all bets”.

Betfair announced: “Even though incidents of cheating are rare, they are still deeply concerning and damage the integrity of sport. That’s why we have taken this issue so seriously. When the Gambling Act comes into force on September 1, it will mark the start of a new zero-tolerance approach to betting cheats. It will introduce a new two-year jail sentence and give the Gambling Commission powers over betting fines for the first time, including the ability to suspend and void bets and a new requirement on bookmakers to share information with sport.”