Darts duo hit with lengthy bans following guilty match-fixing verdicts
Leighton Bennett and Billy Warriner punished after Darts Regulation Authority probe unearths suspicious activity in four games last year
The Darts Regulation Authority (DRA) has issued lengthy suspensions and four-figure fines to both Leighton Bennett and Billy Warriner for several charges, including match-fixing.
Bennett, 18, has been banned for eight years and Warriner for 10 years, with both players accepting the charges. They have also been ordered to pay £8,100 in costs.
Bennett was dubbed as one of the sport’s rising stars after winning the 2019 BDO World Youth Darts Championship when he was just 13 years old.
The offences in question date back to September 2023, when four Modus Super Series games involving Bennett were investigated after the International Betting Integrity Association flagged suspicious betting patterns.
The four fixtures included matches against Mindaugas Barauskas and Benjamin Drue-Reus on 6 September (in which Bennett lost 4-1 and 4-0 respectively), as well as another match against Barauskas and Ryan Harrington two days later.
Though most of the bets were placed online, some were wagered in retail betting locations in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, where Warriner lives, and Retford, Nottinghamshire, where Bennett resides.
DRA investigator Steve Richardson outlined how 47 bets were placed online, with £3,096 staked and £15,484 won – a 500% return of £12,579. Only one bet out of the 47 wagered lost.
The authority investigated the matter, in collaboration with the Gambling Commission’s Sports Betting Intelligence Unit, before determining that both players had a case to answer over what the governing body viewed as “serious breaches”.
After being charged in August, Bennett and Warriner were both found guilty at a hearing on 18 November.
The DRA stated: “Bennett was found guilty of 10 charges for fixing the four matches, provided inside information on the matches, of failing to assist an investigation and for signing a contract with an unregistered agent.
“Warriner admitted 19 of 21 charges for being concerned in fixing the four matches, providing inside information and organising betting on the matches, four counts of failing to assist the investigation, two counts of acting as an unregistered agent and betting on darts.
“In addition, he pleaded guilty to an unrelated incident at a darts event where he was abusive to an official and threatened his opponent.”
Both players have until 14 December to appeal the verdict.