New Zealand Badminton Open targeted by match-fixers

The New Zealand Badminton Open has been targeted by match-fixers. Photo / Getty

New Zealand Badminton officials are investigating match-fixing attempts after a player was approached at last week's NZ Open.

In what is believed to be an isolated event, the player involved rejected the approach and filed a report of the incident.

"An incident did occur," Badminton New Zealand chief executive Joe Hitchcock confirmed to the Herald.

"We're very fortunate that the player concerned has been through a sport integrity education program that we run in partnership with the Badminton World Federation.

"The athlete did exactly the right thing; we've then followed all the process and policy around reporting the incident, making sure we take the next steps forward to protect that athlete and also to make sure that we take all the steps we can to prevent it from continuing to happen at that specific event."

The Open was held at the North Shore Events Centre last week, and Hitchcock could not confirm whether the approach was in-person or via the internet.

Once the report was filed, the process was aided by an official from the Badminton World Federation, who provide on-site support at Grand Prix gold level events. Hitchcock said that consultation with partners of the event provided satisfaction that the incident was isolated.

"Through those partnerships [we were] able to act quickly, we were able to determine that there was minimal risk in this piece, from what we've been told from those partners.

"Obviously it's really concerning for us, it's something that we don't want to think is part of the game, but the reality is that it's part of sport."

Hitchcock believes that badminton has the right protocols in place so that players are able to identify approaches from potential match-fixers.

"We try to front-foot it as much as we possibly can, because if they're educated and understand the process then they're much better equipped to deal with those sorts of things.

"The education program from the International Badminton Federation started in 2015 at the Junior World Championships, it's part of a program that all national players for New Zealand are exposed to, and we try to expose them as early as possible.

"It's a multi-faceted approach to sport integrity and education which covers off a raft of different pieces - match-fixing being one of them.

"Sport New Zealand has done a really good job of building awareness and support around sport integrity. We've got a really strong sports sector in New Zealand - it's something that's really important to keep New Zealand sport clean."​