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Time of India
21-06-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
New tool finds vast online abuse of tennis players
Tennis players last year received abuse so threatening that 15 cases were escalated to law enforcement agencies, according to a joint report released Tuesday by the Women's Tennis Association and the International Tennis Federation . The report, which covers the 2024 season, lays bare the scale of abuse directed at players on social media. It also offers a reminder that the detected abuse only scratches the surface. From January to December in 2024, an artificial intelligence threat analysis system analyzed 1.6 million posts and comments. It verified around 8,000 posts and comments sent from 4,200 accounts as abusive, violent or threatening. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like How a $49 Japanese Palm Gadget Gave Her Grip in Weeks Yukon Rewards Undo The report identified 458 players as targeted with direct abuse or threats, with five players receiving 26% of the posts classified as abusive. Ninety-seven social media accounts were responsible for 23% of all detected abuse. According to the data analysis, angry gamblers sent 40% of all detected abuse last year. Of the 10 most prolific accounts, responsible for 12% of all abuse detected, nine have either been suspended or have deleted their posts or had them removed by the relevant platform . One account sent 263 abusive messages in 2024, but has not posted any abusive content in 2025 to date. Live Events Of the 15 incidents reported to law enforcement agencies, four took place at the Grand Slam events and one at the Olympics . The other 10 were from tour events. Three were submitted to the FBI , with 12 investigated by other national law enforcement bodies. They led to individuals being barred from venues and having tickets rescinded. Signify Group's Threat Matrix service, which went live in January 2024, is designed to help protect players by detecting and filtering out abusive messages through a combination of artificial intelligence and human analysts. All players competing in WTA Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour events (and WTA and ITF players competing in the four Grand Slam events) are automatically covered by the service. A Signify Group representative said in an email that: "targeted abuse is defined by a player's handle being referenced in the content of a message or posted on their profile on platforms where accounts are not referenced directly. "Our system proactively gathers every mention of handles or comment on profiles and then analyzes the rest of the content of the message for abusive, threatening or discriminatory content. If there is problematic content sat alongside that account in a comment or post, our system flags it for review then passes to our human analyst team, who carefully review every AI-flagged message. They are then able to confirm if the flag is accurate or not." But targeted abuse is just the start. During last month's French Open, Jessica Pegula, the world No. 3, said that abuse always finds a way to enter her timeline, even if not directed at her. "These bettors are insane and delusional," Pegula wrote in the wake of her fourth-round defeat to French qualifier Loïs Boisson. "I don't allow DMs, and try to remember when to shut my comments off during tournament weeks." She added: "This stuff has never really bothered me much, but does any other sport deal with this to our level? I'd love to know because it seems to be predominantly tennis? It's so disturbing. "Every person on tour deals with it. It's so bad. Those are just really small snippets. I get told my family should get cancer and die from people on here on a regular basis. Absolutely crazy." Bettors and angry fans will name players in abusive comments after a loss, even if they do not message or tag them on social media when doing so. The normalization of this kind of abuse has become a major issue for the sport, and is the natural next step for people who have been blocked or cannot message the targets of their abuse directly. The International Tennis Federation and the WTA and ATP Tours share match data with providers linked to sports betting. Income from those deals goes toward the funding of the tours. Pegula, who sits on the WTA Players' Council, said on Tuesday: " 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." Caroline Garcia, the French former world No. 4 who will retire later this year, opened up about the damaging effects of social media abuse at the U.S. Open last August. She wrote on Instagram that unhealthy betting accounted for most of the abuse, and emphasized how damaging it was to players who were already emotionally destroyed after a defeat. "If someone decided to say these things to me in public, he could have legal issues," Garcia wrote. "So why online we are free to do anything? Shouldn't we reconsider anonymity online?" A Betting and Gaming Council representative told BBC Sport that the organization does "not tolerate abuse on social media, which has no place in betting or sport." In a statement, the organization said: "It is vital social media companies take swift action against users, remove offensive content and work more closely with BGC members on measures to further strengthen safer gambling. Each month, around 22.5 million people in Britain enjoy a bet, on the lottery, in bookmakers, casinos, bingo halls and online, and the overwhelming majority do so safely and responsibly." Meta, which owns social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to a request to comment. Jonathan Hirshler, the CEO of Signify Group, which developed the Threat Matrix service, said that the fact that a lot of the abuse came from a small number of accounts "means that we are able to be even more focused working with the platforms to ensure successful take down, support the tennis bodies to drive law enforcement intervention for the most egregious accounts and work with event security teams to ensure prolific abusers are unable to attend tournaments." The threat of online abuse can also tip into real-world threats. At the French Open, Clara Tauson of Denmark and Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic confronted bettors who abused them from the stands. And in March, at a practice session during the Miami Open, Iga Swiatek was confronted by someone who has regularly abused her online. The tournament gave Swiatek additional security after the incident, which a representative for the five-time Grand Slam champion described as "a direct transition from verbal aggression online to harassment in the real world."
DW
18-06-2025
- Sport
- DW
Coco Gauff calls on social media platforms to tackle abuse – DW – 06/18/2025
After women's professional tennis organizers the WTA detailed abuse against nearly 500 female players, French Open champion Coco Gauff says more action needs to be taken against online abusers. Coco Gauff, the world No. 2 tennis player, has called on social media companies to do more to tackle online abuse, describing the comments she receives as "gross." On Tuesday, the WTA Tour, which runs women's tennis, released a report that laid out the widespread abuse aimed at players online. The report noted that much of the abuse came from disgruntled gamblers, with 15 cases so serious that law enforcement was involved. Data provided by tech company Signify Group, which was detected using AI, revealed that there were around 8,000 "abusive, violent or threatening" comments sent to 458 players in 2024. More than a quarter of the abuse was received by just five players. Speaking at the German Open in Berlin, Gauff said it was a "given" that players had to deal with online abuse. "It's the worst you can get," she said. "Death threats, to your family, to yourself. I've had people DM [direct message] my boyfriend and friends about it. Racist comments, like all you can imagine. Nudity, things like that. It's a gross kind of thing that we have going on in tennis." Pleas made to bookmakers and social media companies In its report, published with the International Tennis Federation, the WTA called on the gambling industry to take action against the individuals behind the abuse. But Gauff emphasized that social media companies should also play their part. "It's something that we have to keep bringing awareness to," she said. "I would love for some of the social media platforms to get involved, not only when it comes to tennis players. Influencers, other athletes, they all get these comments, so it's something that can be addressed. "I know the WTA is doing what they can to make us feel protected, but I definitely think that a lot of these platforms can step in as well." Asked by DW whether she was confident things could change, Gauff said: "I feel like they can." "I think TikTok does a better job of filtering comments, so you don't really see it," she added. "But Instagram is, for me, the worst with the comment filtering. I see basically everything on there. I try to do it on my own account, to filter certain words, but people get creative and spell it out in different ways. Lines can blur between virtual and physical "For me, it's more about banning these accounts and banning people with the same phone number or email from making new accounts. You can block [them], but they just go and make a new account. There has to be a way to fix that system." It also emerged on Tuesday that a man accused of stalking British tennis player Emma Raducanu had been stopped from buying tickets for Wimbledon, the next Grand Slam tournament of the year. Gauff suggested that she had never experienced anything "threatening," but admitted that someone had tried to follow her home once. In Berlin, security guards are present behind the players' benches on court, with security also in attendance during Gauff's press conference. Image: Susan Mullane/IMAGO Meanwhile, the 21-year-old told DW that she had accepted an apology from Aryna Sabalenka, the world No. 1, after Sabalenka's comments following her defeat to Gauff in the French Open final earlier this month. Sabalenka had claimed that Gauff won "not because she played incredible, but because I made all of those mistakes" — a reference to her 70 unforced errors in the final. "She texted me two or maybe three days ago, she sent a text apologizing" Gauff said. "I understand things can get emotional and things can be said. I definitely appreciate the fact that she reached out because I was a little bit surprised by the whole thing. It's dirt under a rug and we should all move on." Edited by: Matt Pearson
South China Morning Post
17-06-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Death threats, cancer wish: the vile abuse angry gamblers aim at tennis players online
Angry gamblers were responsible for 40 per cent of abuse directed at tennis players on social media last year and actively targeted athletes via direct messages, a report published on Tuesday found. The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) called on the gambling industry to tackle the issue after conducting the first season-wide report outlining the scale of abuse directed at players online. Data from Signify Group's Threat Matrix service found that from January to December 2024, about 8,000 abusive, violent or threatening messages were directed at 458 tennis players via social media. 'Online abuse is unacceptable, and something that no player should have to endure,' Jessica Pegula, a member of the WTA Players' Council, said. '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.' Jessica Pegula wants gambling companies to do more to protect players from abuse. Photo: Xinhua Five athletes were subject to more than a quarter of all the abuse, and just 97 prolific accounts were responsible for 23 per cent of all detected abuse.
Reuters
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Study shows less online abuse of athletes during March Madness
June 11 - The NCAA recently released a study that indicated a decrease in social media abuse targeting student-athletes, including from sports bettors, during March Madness. According to the study, athletes were targeted in 15 percent of March Madness-related abusive posts and comments flagged by data science firm Signify Group during the 2025 men's and women's tournaments. That was a significant drop from the previous year's tournaments, when 42 percent of March Madness-spawned abusive posts and comments were directed at student-athletes. Per the NCAA's report, Signify Group gleaned this year's data by using its "Threat Matrix" technology to monitor the social-media accounts of 2,042 players, 346 coaches, 136 teams and 269 game officials and selection committee members. More than 1 million posts and comments directed at these groups on X, TikTok and Instagram were logged and analyzed by Signify's artificial intelligence. That led to 54,096 posts and comments being flagged for potential abuse or threat. Of those, Signify's human analysts confirmed 3,161 as "abusive or threatening." Signify investigated 103 social media accounts for their malicious activity and referred 10 of them to law enforcement. "By supporting the NCAA in demonstrating that abusers can be identified and will be reported to law enforcement -- where criminal thresholds are broken -- it is possible to see a deterrent effect in play," Jonathan Hirshler, Signify Group's CEO, said in a statement. Other findings from the study: Abuse stemming from sports bettors decreased by 23 percent, all abuse directed at those on the women's March Madness side dropped approximately 83 percent and all abuse directed at those on the men's side increased by 140 percent. While the 140 percent increase in men's tournament total abuse and the significant drop in abuse directed at student-athletes overall might not appear to jibe, the difference is in the sharp increase of this year's abuse being directed at adults -- such as coaches and the NCAA Tournament selection committee chaired by North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham. --Field Level Media
NBC Sports
10-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
NCAA says online abuse related to sports betting declined during this year's March Madness
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Online abuse related to sports betting decreased during the NCAA's March Madness basketball tournaments compared with the prior year, but people involved in the competition still received more than 3,000 threatening messages, the NCAA said Tuesday. The NCAA hired Signify Group to monitor messages directed at athletes, coaches, game officials, selection committee members and others with official roles in the tournament. Signify used both artificial intelligence and human analysts to confirm the threats and, when necessary, report them to law enforcement. Overall, abuse related to sports betting was down 23%, the NCAA said in a news release. The men's March Madness bracket was notable this year for the scarcity of upsets, with all four No. 1 seeds advancing to the Final Four and Florida, a popular pick to win it all, claiming the national title. On the women's side, three top seeds made the national semifinals and No. 2 seed UConn, among the pre-tournament favorites, won the championship. The NCAA's analysis found that overall, abusive statements directed at people involved in the men's tournament increased by 140% — much of it directed at the selection committee and coaches — while abuse related to sports betting was down 36%.
