Harsh Punishments for Match-Fixing Scandal
Young Dart Star Serving an 8-Year Suspension for Allegedly Altering Matches to Settle a Friend's Betting Obligations
Two Infamous Darts Players Hit with Long Bans
In a shocking turn of events, two well-known darts players, Leighton Bennett and Billy Warriner, have been slapped with severe bans from the sport following a match-fixing scandal.
Leighton Bennett, a teenage sensation once hailed the prodigy of the sport, finds himself banned for eight years. Meanwhile, Warriner faces a whopping ten-year ban. The verdict was announced on Monday.
Both players are ordered to pay an astounding £8,100 ($10,270) to cover the investigation's costs. This penalty comes soon after a hearing last month that unearthed the fraudulent activities within the sport. They have until December 14 to appeal the decisions.
Leaking Secrets, Fixed Matches
The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) alerted the UK Gambling Commission's Sports Intelligence Unit and the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA) about suspicious betting on four matches involving Bennett in September 2023. Preliminary investigations revealed that Bennett was purposely missing the darts board during one of the fixtures.
The DRA found Bennett guilty of ten offenses, including leaking insider information about matches to others and refusing to cooperate with the probe.
Gambling Debts and Fraud
Billy Warriner, on the other hand, was charged with providing insider information about Bennett's matches and orchestrating betting on these fixtures. He was also accused of acting as an unregistered darts agent. Apart from these charges, Warriner faced separate charges of abusing a darts official and threatening one of his opponents.
In a tell-all interview with TalkSport, Warriner confessed that he resorted to match-fixing to clear his substantial gambling debts. He admitted that he contacted Bennett to persuade him to manipulate the outcomes of the matches. Warriner enlisted the help of his friends to place bets on his behalf, thinking they had pulled off a clever trick until Bennett's phone was seized by authorities in January. He claims that Bennett was easily convinced to fix the matches as he had been eliminated from the competition.
General-news outlets and crime-and-justice publications are abuzz with the news of severe punishments for two darts players involved in a match-fixing scandal. After a hearing last month, Leighton Bennett, a once-celebrated player, was handed an eight-year ban, while Billy Warriner faces a ten-year ban following their involvement in fixed matches and leaking insider information.
