"We get 50 to 100 death threats after every match you lose" - Fritz on betting
ATP
Taylor Fritz revealed that, unfortunately, tennis players receive up to 100 death threats after losing a match.
Recently, American Davis Cup captains Bob Bryan and Mardy Fish received fines for promoting gambling. Therefore, gambling in tennis has been a topic in the sport recently.
In general, athletes and any people connected with the sport in any way are not allowed to place bets or promote betting and since Fish and Bryan broke this rule, many players were asked about betting.
Betting on sports is something that many athletes describe as unpleasant because of what often follows up after a lost bet. Some bettors can't handle the fact that they lost a bet, which is why they then send messages to the players. Fritz spoke about that in an interview with ClayTenis.
"They just advertised a sports bet company. I know for a fact they didn’t specifically say ‘bet on tennis’ or something like that. That’s against the rules, I get that. I just think everybody in tennis is making a profit off of betting, except for the players."
The American also opened up about how betting makes the life of a tennis player more difficult, especially when they are the only people not profiting from it, and end up on the receiving end of multiple death threats.
"We get all the harassment from betting. We get 50 to 100 death threats after every match you lose. Awful messages, all the hate, and all of the negative side of gambling, but we don’t get any of the positives. It’s unfair to us."
"By no means should tennis players tell people to bet on tennis, but I don’t think it should be a problem when there is something outside of tennis. What happened to Bob and Marty is unfortunate. Times are changing, and the rules probably need to change again."
