The DP World Tour has announced that member Marco Penge will face discipline after it was found he placed bets on multiple golf events.
According to a release on Wednesday, the 26-year-old will face a three-month ban from the tour, with a further 12-month period in which he can face an additional month ban should he breach the rules again.
“An Independent Disciplinary Panel found that the Englishman placed bets on multiple golf events in breach of Regulation 3(a)(i)* of the Programme,” the DP World Tour shared via statement. “Penge did not bet on himself or on the progress of tournaments during days when he was participating, leading the panel to find that the integrity of such events had not been compromised.”
Penge’s suspension, which came into effect on December 13, will last through mid-February, at which point he will be eligible to return ahead of the South Africa Open. He has also been fined £2000.
According to Golf.com, DP World Tour members are not permitted to gamble on tournaments under Regulation 3(a)(i) of the tour’s integrity program: “No Covered Person shall either directly or indirectly bet or instruct any other person to bet on the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of any professional or elite amateur golf event anywhere in the world.”
Notably, the DP World Tour outlined that Penge’s “immediate admission of breach and co-operation,” was reflected in what ultimately became a shortened suspension.
Betting continues across sports
As gambling has continued a stretch of normalization and legalization around the world, professional leagues are continuing to deal with the fallout across the board.
Perhaps most famously, the NBA faced a major scandal when former Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter was found to be illegally betting on and influencing the outcome of games. That included one such an incident when he pulled himself from a game after a substantial wager was placed on his player prop Unders, with his final statistics falling well short.
He’s now expected to be sentenced in the months to come and could face multiple years in prison for his actions.
