Amateur snooker player John Sutton faces six-year ban for match-fixing

Irish amateur snooker player John Sutton has been banned for six years after the sport’s world governing body found him guilty of match-fixing.

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) said Sutton’s offences are related to suspicious betting patterns on his match against Scotland’s Jamie Burnett in the qualifying stages of the International Championship in Barnsley on September 24th, 2014, which saw Burnett win 6-0.

Sutton was suspended after being charged in February. The case was heard by the WPBSA disciplinary committee in Bristol on March 24th and Sutton was found guilty, with the ruling announced on Wednesday.

The WPBSA alleged that betting by Sutton’s associates from the Terry Rogers Snooker Club in Dublin was disproportionately and suspiciously large and considerably in excess of their previous betting history, indicating that they had knowledge of or belief in the outcome of the match.