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Taylor Fritz believes it is "unfortunate" that Mardy Fish and Bob Bryan got fined for promoting a sports betting company as Fritz feels that "in tennis everyone but the players is making a profit off betting." In late November, the ITIA announced US Davis Cup captain Fish and coach Bryan were being fined $10,000 for promoting a sports betting company.
Under the ITIA rules, anyone associated with the game is not allowed to bet on tennis matches or promote a betting company. In recent years, tennis players have often spoken about the harassment they face after losing matches.
Fritz, the ninth-ranked player in the world, says harassment from angry bettors is a real thing and he received 50-100 death threats after losses.
Fritz: Angry bettors harassing players is a real thing
"They just advertised a sports bet company.
I know for a fact they didn’t specifically said ‘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.
We get all the harassment from betting. We get 50 to100 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 mean tennis players should tell people to bet on tennis, but I don’t think it should be a problem when is something outside of tennis. What happened to Bob and Mardy is unfortunate. Times are changing and the rules probably needs to change again," Fritz told Clay.
After the ITIA contacted Fish and Bryan for their promotion of a sports betting company, they fully cooperated with the authorities and removed the posts. Fish and Bryan are both working for United States Davis Cup team and because of that they are not allowed to promote betting of any kind. At the Davis Cup Finals, the United States suffered a quarterfinal defeat to Italy.