TODAY’S top tennis players blame the rise of gambling for the increase in cyber-bullying, saying they constantly receive death threats and are helpless as big gambling companies snatch up huge sponsorship deals throughout the sport.
A number of women’s players, including Madison Keys, Nicole Gibbs and Eugenie Bouchard, shared their experiences with online trolls to CNN.
“I don’t think people realise,” Keys told the network. “For all these matches, we get death threats.”
Late last year, the budding American star posted on Instagram a confrontation with a troll, who relentlessly lobbed slurs and derogatory comments at Keys, calling her a “monkey” and saying she’s the “cancer of tennis.”
“The amount of abuse we get after losing a match is ridiculous,” Keys said in the post, which featured several screen grabs of the troll who commented on over a dozen pictures. “As if we’re not trying as hard as we can to win matches. Maybe stop betting on tennis matches so you can just enjoy good tennis.”
Male tennis players such as Australian Sam Groth and American Taylor Fritz also acknowledged they’ve received abuse on Twitter.
“Sad this has become the norm for everyone … win or lose,” Fritz tweeted in response to another player’s tweet about trolls.
In 2015, gambling companies confirmed multi-year sponsorship deals with the International Tennis Federation’s biggest events such as the Davis Cup, Fed Cup and this month’s Australian Open, which created an uncomfortable dilemma within the tennis world.
Players told CNN the deals with Betway and William Hill, which now endorses the Australian Open, is encouraging tennis gambling.
“The irony is not lost on me,” said American Nicole Gibbs, who upset No. 25 ranked Timea Babos in the first round of the Australian Open said. “It’s unsettling to say the least. But what can you do? If those are the sponsors that pay big money, then I’d rather have a job than not.”
WARNING STRONG LANGUAGE
Like Keys, Gibbs posted screen grabs last year of abusive tweets she received following a straight-sets loss in the first round of the 2016 Moscow Open. Trolls berated her and even told her to “kill yourself.”
Gibbs told The Australian last year that playing in front of signs of betting-company sponsorships is “unsettling.”
“It is really disturbing to me,” Gibbs said. “When I go to a tennis tournament and it is sponsored by one of these betting sites that I know my social media traffic is coming from after I take a bad loss.”
Things are starting to turn. Tennis Australia announced it would no longer offer William Hill on-court sponsorship at the Australian Open, and the International Tennis Federation nixed a three-year deal with Betway to move away from betting sponsors.
“Our aim is to protect players from these sorts of abuses,” ITF president Dave Haggerty said.
This article originally appeared on The New York Post
A number of women’s players, including Madison Keys, Nicole Gibbs and Eugenie Bouchard, shared their experiences with online trolls to CNN.
“I don’t think people realise,” Keys told the network. “For all these matches, we get death threats.”
Late last year, the budding American star posted on Instagram a confrontation with a troll, who relentlessly lobbed slurs and derogatory comments at Keys, calling her a “monkey” and saying she’s the “cancer of tennis.”
“The amount of abuse we get after losing a match is ridiculous,” Keys said in the post, which featured several screen grabs of the troll who commented on over a dozen pictures. “As if we’re not trying as hard as we can to win matches. Maybe stop betting on tennis matches so you can just enjoy good tennis.”
Male tennis players such as Australian Sam Groth and American Taylor Fritz also acknowledged they’ve received abuse on Twitter.
“Sad this has become the norm for everyone … win or lose,” Fritz tweeted in response to another player’s tweet about trolls.
In 2015, gambling companies confirmed multi-year sponsorship deals with the International Tennis Federation’s biggest events such as the Davis Cup, Fed Cup and this month’s Australian Open, which created an uncomfortable dilemma within the tennis world.
Players told CNN the deals with Betway and William Hill, which now endorses the Australian Open, is encouraging tennis gambling.
“The irony is not lost on me,” said American Nicole Gibbs, who upset No. 25 ranked Timea Babos in the first round of the Australian Open said. “It’s unsettling to say the least. But what can you do? If those are the sponsors that pay big money, then I’d rather have a job than not.”
WARNING STRONG LANGUAGE
Like Keys, Gibbs posted screen grabs last year of abusive tweets she received following a straight-sets loss in the first round of the 2016 Moscow Open. Trolls berated her and even told her to “kill yourself.”
Gibbs told The Australian last year that playing in front of signs of betting-company sponsorships is “unsettling.”
“It is really disturbing to me,” Gibbs said. “When I go to a tennis tournament and it is sponsored by one of these betting sites that I know my social media traffic is coming from after I take a bad loss.”
Things are starting to turn. Tennis Australia announced it would no longer offer William Hill on-court sponsorship at the Australian Open, and the International Tennis Federation nixed a three-year deal with Betway to move away from betting sponsors.
“Our aim is to protect players from these sorts of abuses,” ITF president Dave Haggerty said.
This article originally appeared on The New York Post
