Online abuse linked to gambling accounted for 42 per cent of verified abusive messages directed at professional tennis players in 2025, according to a joint report by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and World Tennis, highlighting the pressure facing athletes beyond the court.
The findings have gained renewed attention after British tennis player Jodie Burrage disclosed receiving death threats and abusive messages following her defeat at the Chennai Open in India on Tuesday, 3 November 2026.
Burrage, 27, lost 6-3, 3-6, 5-7 to Indian wildcard Vaishnavi Adkar in her first WTA Tour singles main-draw appearance in 16 months. She subsequently shared screenshots of threatening messages on Instagram, drawing attention to the harassment players can face after competitive defeats.
The WTA confirmed that its player welfare and Threat Matrix teams were supporting Burrage following the incident. However, the identities and motivations of those responsible for the messages have not been independently established.
The wider scale of the problem is documented in the WTA and World Tennis’s second annual online abuse report, published on 16 July 2026. Using information collected by Signify Group’s Threat Matrix monitoring service, the study examined more than 1.2 million social media posts and comments during the 2025 season.
More than 12,000 posts and comments were classified as abusive, including 3,726 categorised as serious abuse involving threats, sexual harassment, racism and other targeted attacks.
Gambling-related abuse represented 42 per cent of verified cases, up from 40 per cent in 2024. Its share was considerably higher among serious incidents, accounting for 59 per cent of that category.
The distinction matters because gambling-linked harassment was disproportionately represented among the most severe cases, rather than merely contributing to the overall volume of abusive messages. Nevertheless, the figures describe abuse detected and classified by the monitoring system, not every threatening interaction experienced by players.
The report also identified a concentration of abusive behaviour among repeat offenders. Just nine per cent of abusive accounts generated 87 per cent of messages classified as high concern, while prolific offenders accounted for 49 per cent of all detected abuse, compared with 43 per cent in 2024.
These findings suggest that targeting persistent offenders could substantially reduce the volume of serious harassment. They do not, however, establish that every abusive account is connected to gambling or that betting alone explains the problem.
There were measurable improvements in enforcement. The monitoring programme reported that 66 per cent of serious abusive posts or comments were removed, while 35 accounts linked to 12 individuals were referred to law enforcement agencies.
Investigations also identified 68 abusive accounts, compared with 39 in 2024. The report found that 89 per cent of accounts responsible for serious abuse in 2024 did not reappear in the following year’s monitoring.
Although those figures indicate progress in detecting and disrupting abusive behaviour, the absence of repeat activity does not necessarily mean offenders permanently stopped posting or that all victims were protected.
The governing bodies have urged betting operators to take greater responsibility for identifying customers who target athletes. In July, they highlighted Fanatics Sportsbook’s participation in an initiative designed to identify individuals responsible for abusive social media behaviour.
For Burrage, whose career has been interrupted by injuries and illness, the threats came during an attempt to rebuild her position in professional tennis. Her ranking stood at 474 at the Chennai tournament, well below her career high of 85 in September 2023.
The evidence points to two developments occurring simultaneously: gambling-related harassment remains a substantial contributor to online threats, while coordinated monitoring and enforcement are producing measurable results. Whether those interventions deliver lasting protection will depend on sustained cooperation among tennis authorities, betting operators, social media companies and law enforcement agencies.