The U.S. Open and the USTA signed a partnership deal with Kalshi. Because of course they fucking did. Here’s Ben Rothenberg: The U.S. Open is a Casino Now.
Invested bettors often watch tennis matches the way they might have watched greyhounds at a dog track, screaming for their chosen pick to pay off. But unlike the dogs or horses—or the dice on a craps table, whatever—the players can hear and understand everything being shouted at them. It can be a dehumanizing experience which multiplies the considerable stress of being an elite tennis player. Beyond their time on match courts, players could already feel the effects 24/7 as aggrieved online gamblers pepper vitriol at their social media accounts.
Vitriol…and worse.
Matteo Berrettini also looked particularly surprised when I told him of the Kalshi deal. Berrettini weighed the positives and negatives of betting in the sport, and as he spoke, the topic brought up many memories for him.
“Actually, my brother [Jacopo] is here: in Roland Garros, he received some messages on his phone threatening my family… They were saying, ‘Matteo is so bad, if you don’t tell him to lose, we’re going to kill your family.’ They were threatening us. Of course, we reported everything to the ATP, and they have the [threatener’s] phone number and everything.”