Caroline Garcia reveals huge offer she turned down from ‘system that destroys lives’
Caroline Garcia has revealed she turned down a $270,000 offer of sponsorship for her podcast as it came from a betting company, an industry she did not want to promote.
Betting companies have long been part of sports but in recent years, it seems you cannot get very far without seeing an advert for the services.
And while many see them as a way of having fun watching sport, the dangers of betting cannot be ignored with plenty of people becoming addicted and pushing themselves into financial trouble.
That is the reason why Garcia, who hosts Tennis Insider Club, said she and the team rejected a $270k offer from one of those companies.
“Today we turned down a $270,000 sponsorship offer from a betting company for our podcast,” she posted on her social media channels. “It’s a huge amount of money, especially for an independent sports show and for me, someone who just retired from pro tennis. But here is why we said no.
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“Over the past two years of interviewing players, coaches, agents, and parents, one theme keeps coming back again and again: betting has become one of the biggest sources of pressure, abuse, and hate in modern sport. Every player, from Top 10 stars to ITF grinders, has stories. DMs full of insults after a match. People demanding money back because they lost a bet. Even death threats. Not because of sport. Because of gambling.”
Garcia went on to elaborate that she did not want her podcast to anyway contribute to the industry, even if indirectly, as she said doing so would “shape behaviour” and “normalise gambling.”
“I do not want Tennis Insider Club to contribute, even indirectly, to a system that fuels addiction, destroys lives, and turns athletes into daily targets. Betting companies spend millions on sponsorships because it works. It shifts attention. It shapes behaviour. It normalises gambling. But we do not want our community pushed in that direction.
“This is not a moral crusade. I am not judging anyone who bets casually, or athletes who accept betting sponsors. I am simply choosing what we want to stand for, and what we do not want to amplify.”
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