New Delhi, June 17 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and International Tennis Federation (ITF) on Tuesday published the first-ever season-wide report outlining the scale of abuse directed at players on social media, citing 8,000 posts/comments sent from 4,200 accounts as abusive, violent or threatening.
British no. 2 Katie Boulter has also opened up about the death threats and abuse she has received on social media. "It becomes more apparent every single time you go on your phone. 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," she told BBC Sport.
The report findings are taken from Signify Group’s Threat Matrix service, which went live in January 2024, protecting players and tennis family members from targeted online hate, as well as threatening and violent direct communication.
As per the report, "Between January to December 2024, 1.6 million posts and comments were analyzed by Threat Matrix AI. Analysts then verified c8,000 posts/comments sent from 4,200 accounts as abusive, violent or threatening. Action has been taken against the most serious and prolific of these, including 15 accounts escalated to law enforcement.
It said, "During the year, 458 players were targeted with direct abuse or threat, five players received 26 per cent of the total abuse identified, while 97 prolific accounts were responsible for 23 per cent of all detected abuse.
In a joint statement, WTA and ITF said, "Given the evidence highlighted by Threat Matrix, the tennis bodies now call for a constructive dialogue with the gambling industry to tackle the individuals that engage in prolific or highly threatening online abuse connected to sports betting."
The report said, angry gamblers sent 40 per cent of all detected abuse across the year. 10 prolific accounts (majority being angry gambler related) were responsible for 12 per cent of all abuse -- of these, nine have either been suspended, posts permanently deleted by the platform, or the user has removed their posts.
15 cases of egregious and highly threatening abuse have been investigated and evidence provided to law enforcement for assessment and action -- four related to Grand Slams, one from the Paris Olympic Games, and 10 were from across the tours. Of the 15 cases, three have been submitted to the FBI and 12 to other national law enforcement bodies.
It said that relevant account details have been shared with event security teams (both Tours and Grand Slams) to ban these individuals from access to venues and rescind tickets. This has also included threats to men’s and women’s players detected by Threat Matrix during Grand Slam events .
"Today’s report covering the first year of the Threat Matrix service shows the scale of the problem and, crucially, the actions being taken to protect our athletes. From law enforcement escalation and platform intervention to banning abusers from our events, perpetrators must understand that they will face consequences for their actions.
“Given the clear evidence highlighted by Threat Matrix on the link between angry gamblers and prolific online abuse and threat, we are calling for a constructive dialogue with the gambling industry to help tackle this issue," a spokesperson for the WTA and ITF said.
American tennis star Jessica Pegula, member of the WTA Players’ Council, added, "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 behavior is so often linked to gambling. But it’s not enough on its own. 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.”
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