Sport New Zealand says it's reasonable to assume New Zealand athletes are being targeted by match-fixers.
Sport New Zealand's chief executive Peter Miskimmin Photo: photosport
Badminton officials are investigating match-fixing attempts after a player reported being approached at last week's New Zealand Open in Auckland.
Sport New Zealand chief executive Peter Miskimmin said he is not aware of any other particular incidents but he accepts that match fixers are operating in New Zealand.
"This is a global issue where people are trying to manipulate sports for personal gain," said Miskimmin.
"There is a world wide fight going on and we'd be silly to think it's not happening in New Zealand."
"What we seeing here is really strong evidence of someone trying to manipulate a young athlete," said Miskimmin.
"Everything worked perfectly well in terms of the processes and policies in place and I can only commend Badminton New Zealand for not only the steps they've taken but also the stand they're taking around what they have to do and how vigilant they have to be."
Miskimmin said badminton was not on its own in dealing with the issue and all sporting organisations in New Zealand are vulnerable to betting influences both on and offshore.
"We are working with all our codes to ensure they have the awareness, the mechanisms and the education for atheletes and coaches in their systems to deal with this issue."
"It is a good wake-up call to all New Zealand sports to put the policies in place to protect their players from this sort of integrity issue."
