Snooker’s governing body introduces corruption hotline

clinic helvetica, order sans-serif;”>Snooker’s governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association has introduced a hotline so that professional snooker players can report incidents of match fixing.

The players will attend a meeting in Germany where the European Tour Championship is taking place. The meeting will inform players how they can report any suspicious activity or approaches in relation to match fixing.

The initiative will be introduced after the three times World Champion John Higgins found himself embroiled in a match fixing allegation.

Speaking at a press conference the WPSBA disciplinary chief David Douglas said, “It is a hotline and email service for the players that is anonymous or otherwise.”

“The players can use it to report suspicious activities or to inquire about information about the rules and regulations,” added Douglas.

The disciplinary chief believes that the new measures will help tackle corruption within the sport and encourage players not to get involved in illegal dealings.

“It is a case of the WPBSA being pro-active and making sure we are not arrogant to think that corruption is not a part, or could not be a part, of the sport,” said Douglas.

The WPSBA integrity unit will also monitor and pool information into a data base which they will share with legal betting organisations. The snooker governing body hopes that this will allow the betting industry and the WPSBA to notice any unusual betting practices.