Match fixing: Serbian player Stefan Milićević banned for 24 years by the ITIA

A 24-year ban and a $70,000 fine: the International Tennis Integrity Agency has sanctioned Serbian player Stefan Milićević, 29, whose career-best singles ranking was world No. 1,338, reached in August 2014. The ban took effect on 9 October and runs until 8 October 2050. Milićević will be 53 on the day he can play a professional tournament again.

The breaches cover the period from 2022 to 2024: six fixed matches, five of them played by Milićević, and six attempted fixes. The player was also charged with recruiting, or attempting to recruit, other professionals into a corrupt network, “resulting in a number of other players fixing matches”, the ITIA wrote in its statement.

The sanction was issued by default: the agency says it tried to contact Milićević seven times, through several channels, without an answer. He was charged with a major offence on 24 September 2026; with no defence presented, the ban became effective on 9 October.

One of the heaviest bans, short of a life ban

Twenty-four years top the agency’s recent scale: twenty years for France’s Quentin Folliot in November 2025, twenty for the Dominican Jasel Beltre in May 2026, twelve for China’s Pang Renlong in December 2025. Only the life bans issued in older cases go further. The $70,000 fine remains well below the record $250,000 imposed on Karen Khachatryan in 2020.

What it means for punters

I read this sanction from the bettor’s side. A player ranked beyond world No. 1,300 competes on the secondary circuit, far from the main draws we cover here: none of the matches in this case touches a fixture Bankroll Atlas follows. The case shows the price of a career spent fixing matches, and how seriously the agency now polices the lower rungs of professional tennis.