Tennis Betting = Stalking?

A little more than four weeks ago, one-time English sensation Emma Raducanu ventured back into the headlines again — this time not for a change of coaches or another wrist surgery, but potentially something far more dangerous and often overlooked: stalking victimisation.

About the same time the news hit, an email started circulating in journalists’ inboxes: “The Junior Grand Slam Curse” was the supposedly enticing subject line. The statistics presented to support the curse thesis were interesting, yet unremarkable. Most people covering tennis realise that due to endless practices, unforgiving tournament schedules, parental stress and more, a low percentage of players — about six percent of Junior Grand Slam winners — have won a Grand Slam as an adult. Moreover, nearly 35 percent never broke into the Top 100.

The most insightful sections of the email were nearly buried: each stat had to be credited to bettingexpert and the material was provided by Better Collective A/S, a Denmark-based sports betting firm that owns and operates such gambling information sites as Betarades, Soccernews, Action Network, Playmaker HQ and VegasInsider. In this information age, the source’s significance is undeniable. Gambling on tennis leads to not only match-fixing and various online abuse against female players especially, but also results in acts of vengeance against players — including stalking. Now gambling lobbyists and public relations practitioners are so entrenched in the system, they travel the world with the tour and gather facts for journalists to pass on to the general public, including sports gamblers.

The tennis garden at Indian Wells in Palm Springs, California, lit up in the desert.

At the top of the women’s draw, Aryna Sabalenka (WTA No. 1) and Iga Swiatek (WTA No. 2) pushed through, while woman of the moment, Mirra Andreeva (WTA No. 11) took out Dane Clara Tauson in two sets. Meanwhile, the Americans have fared well so far, with Coco Gauff (WTA No ), Jessica Pegula (WTA No. ) and Madison Keys (WTA No. 5) advancing to the fourth round. Fan favourite Jasmine Paolini squeaked through three-set win against Veronika Kudermetova (WTA No. 51) and the ever-surprising Sonay Kartel (WTA No. 83) is the only Brit left standing, but she faces Sabalenka later today.

On the men’s side, the Tennis Channel can’t stop replaying and fans can’t stop talking about the shot Bulgarian Grigor Dmitrov (ATP No. 15) hit in the prone position, six-pack abs on court, to ultimately defeat the gobsmacked Gael Monfils in three sets. American men have fared about as well as the women, with the elatively unknown Marcos Giron (ATP No. 48), Tommy Paul (ATP No. 11), Taylor Fritz (ATP No. 4), Ben Shelton (ATP No. 12) and Brandon Nakishima (ATP No. 33) moving into the fourth round. Jack Draper (ATP No. 14) is the only British man left, after Jacob Fearnley (ATP No. 81) unable to survive the first round and Cam Norrie exiting Cali in the third round.

One of the many betting sites — this one cleverly ripping off the Tennis Channel logo — with player stats and odds ready to supply for sports betters.

The link between tennis betting and stalking has been growing steadily, but ironically, it was the men’s tour to take the first action in 2018, hiring the London-based Theseus, a risk assessment and management firm, in 2018, to identify and resolve serious threats with police and others. At the time, the WTA was also in talks and wound up not only hiring Theseus, but also Threat Matrix — an AI-equipped security firm — to monitor players’ public-facing social media, as well as their direct messaging, for abusive and threatening content.

Less than a year after the ink was dry on a renewed 2024 contract, Alice Tubello, a 23-year-old Challenger-level French tennis player, filed a legal complaint with Paris prosecutors after receiving more than 300 abusive messages following a quarter-final defeat in Peru. Along with online abuse and Facebook identity theft, bettors physically came to her home seeking revenge. “I've even had punters come behind the fence on my property,” Tubello said. While tournaments have heightened security, Tubello added that she could not guarantee the same level of protection at home or for her family. “They touched my family, I will not give up,” the player told the Associated Press.

Tennis athletes received roughly 12,000 abusive online posts and comments between January 2024, when the WTA added another security firm, Threat Matrix to its roster of vendors and October 2024, a month after Tubello filed her complaint, according to data collected by the ITF, WTA, USTA and the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Approximately 48 percent of abusive messaging came from “angry gamblers” with Threat Matrix monitoring around 2.5 million posts worldwide in 39 different languages.

French player Alice Tubello, 23, not satisfied with the level of security provided by the tours filed a complaint with Paris prosecutors over gamblers’ online abuse and physical invasion of her home.

While stalker scenarios differ for myriad reasons, including gambling addiction, the goal remains the same for each player: to make them feel vulnerable and to establish power over anyone who propagated a perceived slight. Stalkers see themselves as the victims of being led on or toyed with and they usually have repetitive thought patterns that are like earworm — they become so preoccupied with their target, they’re can’t sleep, eat or work. At that point, stalkers can’t or don’t recognize or respect the feelings or boundaries of others. But stalkers are not generally lonely, socially awkward and generally undesirable people — many are charming and seemingly “average” love addicts or gamblers most others would never guess have an unhealthy obsession.

The UN recently classified unwanted online contact as a type of gender-based violence: technology-facilitated gender-based violence, a mouthful of words that “results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological, social, political, or economic harm, or other infringements of rights and freedoms.” Despite the UN’s recent voice on the matter, however, the tennis associations have long known the consequences of gambling on both people and players. But do they know how deeply embedded it has become on tour? Stats and quotes from bettingexpert.com have allegedly made it into articles featured in prominent media outlets such as The Athletic, what remains of Sports Illustrated, and other sport-specific magazines. Why then would the tours spend so much money to track, trace and prevent “ technology-facilitated gender-based violence” and its consequences and still allow betting companies to offer “information and analysis” that fuels addiction?

It’s a potential question for Emma Raducanu… or Caroline Garcia (WTA No. 71), who has alluded multiple times that 2025 would be her last year on tour if the harassment didn’t stop… or Rebecca Marino, a Canadian who quit professional tennis because of people “berating” her on social media.

Madison Keys escorted from a Wimbledon back court after her 2021 victory over fellow American Lauren Davis.

The answer — as most everything these days — lies in the monetary value of industry. When it comes to global betting popularity, no sport touches football (soccer), but tennis consistently ranks as one of the most bet-on games in the world. At an overall value of $3 trillion, around 12 percent of bookmaker revenue comes from tennis — up to 18 different markets per match, ranging from winner odds to serve and forehand percentages. People who lose money often focus their vitriol on players.

In addition to reclassifying online harassment, the UN found that “the sports ecosystem presents many barriers to tackling [the issue], including a lack of accountability, transparency and a defensive mindset,” it published in a handbook targeting violence against women and girls in sport. “Many sports federations have prioritized the integrity of the sport’s image and economic profit over the individual.”

Things we love about Indian Wells: the Social Media. While 2024’s put players in personnel jobs around the tournament site, this year’s had pros coaching fans and on the rituals, gestures and quirks of the live game. If only ATP and WTA could hire that agency.

Things we don’t love about Indian Wells: that it reminds the rest of us that winter is not over yet.