In casino slang, a “shill” is a person who acts as an enthusiastic gambler to encourage others to do the same. For example, a gaming establishment might employ a person to play blackjack during off-peak hours because many people are reluctant to sit down at a gaming table alone. In USTA League, a “shill team” is one that is assembled for the sole purpose of losing to another team so they can advance to the Sectional Championships. Shill teams are not to be confused with a legitimate second team that is also trying to advance.
A favorable way to think of shill teams is that they are doing the other team, and the tennis ecosystem, a service. Engaging in matches without a realistic chance to win, can be a very nice thing to do. I have genuine appreciation for players that are willing to make tennis happen under those conditions.
Unfortunately, playing on a shill team is rife with opportunities to do bad things. There is no better way to tank a match than as a participant on a team explicitly assembled to lose. Without a USTA umpire or official on site, two teams in close collaboration could modify scores, the participants in the matches, or even fabricate matches all together.
I hesitated to write this post because those are very ugly things to consider. The USTA frowns on match fixing. This is the kind of situation that might inspire the organization to a knee jerk reaction. It is already enough of a challenge to have league teams in low participation areas as it is. We really don’t need to make it any harder.
I would like to propose that areas with enough players for only one team be permitted to conduct intra-squad matches or to use progressive league play as a qualification mechanism. The opportunity for fraud and ratings manipulation is certainly not any worse than the shill team situation. Players jockeying for position on a roster are unlikely to tank.
It is worthy of consideration.
I’ve played on shill teams for my local public tennis facility due to the limited number of 4.5 players willing to play USTA in my area. Unfortunately we are the “tomato cans”, ala boxing lingo. Our team is comprised of locals who want to play tennis every chance we get and the other team is often setup by a local private club pro and includes high-quality players from out of town (there’s plenty of tennis players willing to commute to another city so they can advance to sectionals).
Everyone involved is aware our public facility teams are there so the other teams can advance to sectionals and although it’s frustrating to lose most of the time, the far less appealing option is no 4.5 team tennis.
So I have some experience with being on a shill team. It was actually put together by the our commissioner for tri-level, who was a well known sandbagger. I have also had two friends also on shill teams, both for mixed leagues out of wagon wheel.
I would like to make on point. Not one person on any of the shill teams had any idea they were being set up. Not one. This was not collaborative. Obviously most on the shill team caught on, halfway through the tournament or league. This was bad actors capitalizing on how hard it is to get on teams and taking advantage of people who want to play more tennis. Shame on the managers that did this.