Caroline Garcia Calls For Tennis To End Gambling Sponsorships After Abuse From Sports Bettors

Caroline Garcia, a US Open semifinalist in 2022, is calling on tennis tournaments to end their sports betting sponsorships after she received a series of hateful messages on social media.

Caroline Garcia shared a couple of derogatory online social media messages following recent losses

On Wednesday, Garcia shared a few of the derogatory online messages she has received following recent losses and cited “unhealthy betting” as one of the reasons tennis players are targeted online.

Garcia, a 30-year-old from France who has been ranked as high as No. 4, was seeded 28th at Flushing Meadows. However, she was eliminated by Renata Zarazúa 6-1, 6-4 in the first round Tuesday.

This are some of the messages I received lately after loosing some matches. Just a few of them. There’s hundreds. And now, being 30 years old, although they still hurt, because at the end of the day, I’m just a normal girl working really hard and trying my best, I have tools and… pic.twitter.com/q4djrfLfx9

— Caroline Garcia (@CaroGarcia) August 28, 2024

Moreover, Garcia wrote about the “hundreds” of such messages directed her way on X. One message told her she should consider suicide and another read, “I hope your mom dies soon.”

“Being 30 years old, [the messages] still hurt, because at the end of the day, I’m just a normal girl working really hard and trying my best. I have tools and have done work to protect myself from this hate. But still, this is not OK,” Garcia wrote.

“It really worries me when I think about younger players coming up, that have to go through this. People that still haven’t yet developed fully as a human and that really might be affected by this hate.”

Garcia is calling for tennis tournaments to end their partnerships with sports betting companies

Caroline Garcia also mentioned the growing trend of tournaments partnering with betting companies, speculating on whether that has contributed to an increase in hostile behavior from gamblers.

“Tournaments and the sport keeps partnering with betting companies, which keep attracting new people to unhealthy betting,” she added. “The days of cigarette brands sponsoring sports are long gone. Yet, here we are promoting betting companies, which actively destroy the life of some people.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they should be banned as people are free to do whatever they want with their money. But maybe we should not promote them. Also, if someone decided to say this things to me in public, he could have legal issues. So why online we are free to do anything? Shouldn’t we reconsider anonymity online?”

Penn announced today they became the official sports book of ESPN.
ESPN gets 117M unique visitors/month vs BarstoolSports get 8M.

In terms of search traffic, it's no where close (see pic below).

ESPN is goliath and Barstool is David.

This is a huge win for Penn. pic.twitter.com/dtPnqhKPGU

— Adam Ryan 🤝 (@AdamRy_n) August 8, 2023

ESPN, the US Open’s broadcast partner, has a $1.5 billion naming rights and vesting agreement with PENN Entertainment for the ESPN BET app. “ESPN BET Live” also airs on ESPN2 and ESPNews. The wagering advice show is only encouraging more fans to gamble.

Additionally, Grand Slam tournaments have been taking action to prevent hateful messages from reaching athletes.

French Open partnered with Bodyguard.ai, an AI program that is optional and free for tennis players

In 2022, the French Open partnered with Bodyguard.ai, a company that uses artificial intelligence to filter players’ social media accounts. Use of the AI program is optional and free for all of the hundreds of players in the tennis tournament.

“The social media accounts of tennis players attract insults, death threats and hateful and sometimes racist and homophobic comments made by trolls,” the FFT said in a statement shared with CNET.

“By connecting to this new system, they will be protected from all types of harassment. [They will] be able to [safely] engage with their fans and focus on their performance on the court.”

In December, the groups that run the US Open, Wimbledon, the women’s tour, and the lower-level ITF Tour announced that they were starting a service to monitor for “abusive and threatening content” on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X.

“I know those who write these terrible messages won’t change because of this,” Caroline Garcia continued in her social media post. “But maybe you, next time you see a post from an athlete, singer or any other person, that has failed or lost, you will remember that she or he is also a human being, trying his best in life.”

Garcia ended her post with, “Be kind. Give love. Enjoy life.”

According to ESPN’s D’Arcy Maine, Garcia’s message was met with almost immediate support from her peers, including Madison Keys, Katie Boulter, and Paula Badosa.

Jessica Pegula, ranked No. 6, agreed with Garcia’s sentiment and shared her own experience. “The constant death threats and family threats are normal now,” Pegula wrote in response to Garcia. “Win or lose.”