Gamblers behind 40 percent of online abuse targeting tennis players
British tennis star Katie Boulter has revealed the disturbing death threats she’s received from disgruntled gamblers, highlighting a growing crisis of online abuse in professional tennis. The 28-year-old world number 39 shared disturbing messages sent to her during the French Open, including wishes for her to “get cancer” and threats mentioning “candles and a coffin” for her family.
These revelations coincide with the on online abuse by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and International Tennis Federation (ITF), which found that gamblers are responsible for a staggering 40 percent of all detected abuse targeting tennis players.
The dark side of sports betting
The comprehensive report, which utilised Threat Matrix AI to monitor 1.6 million posts and comments throughout 2024, revealed that 458 tennis players were targeted with over 8,000 abusive, violent, or threatening messages on social media platforms.?Even more concerning, five players received 26 percent of the total abuse identified, while just 97 prolific accounts were responsible for 23 percent of all detected abuse.
“I think it just kind of shows how vulnerable we are,” . “You really don’t know if this person is on site. You really don’t know if they’re nearby or if they know where you live or anything like that.”
The British number two explained that the abuse has been present since “the very start” of her career, but has intensified over time: “I think it increases in number and it also increases in the level of things that people say. I don’t think there’s anything off the cards now.”
A growing pattern of harassment
Boulter’s experience is unfortunately not unique. The problem extends beyond tennis, with Olympic gold medallist Gabby Thomas recently reporting being verbally harassed by a gambler during the Grand Slam Track meet in Philadelphia.?The man admitted to deliberately trying to upset Thomas enough to affect her performance and win a parlay bet he had placed.
In collegiate sports, the situation has become so severe that several states have banned player prop bets in response to NCAA advocacy efforts.?Tim Buckley, the NCAA’s Senior Vice President for External Affairs, emphasised that “NCAA data will only be available to sportsbooks if they remove risky bets from their platforms” and agree to cooperate with investigations.
The WTA and ITF report noted that action has been taken against the most serious cases, with 15 accounts escalated to law enforcement.?During 2024, 56 reports of concerning communication were received from 28 players, with angry gamblers accounting for 77 percent of direct abuse (private messages, emails, etc.), a higher proportion compared to open-source social media (40 percent).
Calls for industry accountability
American world number three Jessica Pegula, a member of the WTA 바카라ers’ Council, has called for stronger action: “Online abuse is unacceptable, and something that no player should have to endure. I welcome the work that the WTA and ITF are doing with Threat Matrix to identify and take action against the abusers, whose behaviour is so often linked to gambling. But it’s not enough on its own.”
Pegula added: “It’s time for the gambling industry and social media companies to tackle the problem at its source and act to protect everyone facing these threats.”
The Threat Matrix service, which went live in January 2024, now protects players and tennis family members from targeted online hate across all major social media platforms in over 40 languages. The system automatically monitors social media posts for harassment and threats, provides rapid threat assessment, alerts platforms to remove offensive content, and supports law enforcement investigations.
As Boulter prepares for Wimbledon, she anticipates the abuse will intensify, describing it as “pretty astronomical” during her home Grand Slam.?Despite occasionally responding to abusive messages in hopes that senders might “take a second and look at themselves,” the British star remains concerned about the impact on younger players who “really shouldn’t be seeing things like that or being sent things like that.”
