Caroline Garcia had an outstanding career as a tennis player. French born in 1993, she was number 4 in the ranking in 2018, won eleven titles and was a semifinalist at the US Open 2022. It was precisely in Flushing Meadows, last August, where she chose to play her last match. Since then she put her energy as a communicator, heading the podcast Tennis Insider Clubwhere he invites his former tour companions to talk in depth.
In the last few hours, the former player made headlines for an unusual decision in these times. Garcia said he turned down an ostentatious sponsorship offer from a betting house and explained why. “Today we turned down a $270,000 sponsorship offer from a betting company for our podcast. That’s a huge amount of money, especially for an independent sports show and for me, someone who just retired from professional tennis. But here’s why we said no,” Garcia began.
He continued: “Over the last two years of interviewing players, coaches, agents and parents, one topic has come back again and again. Betting has become one of the biggest sources of pressure, abuse and hatred in modern sport. Every player, from the top 10 stars to the ITF’s top players, has stories. Direct messages full of insults after a match. People demanding their money back because they lost a bet. Even death threats. Not because of sport. Because of the game. No. I want you Tennis Insider Club contribute, even indirectly, to a system that fuels addiction, destroys lives and makes athletes daily targets.”
He continued: “Betting companies spend millions on sponsorships because it works. It diverts attention. It shapes behavior. It normalizes the game. But we don’t want our community to be pushed in that direction. This is not a moral crusade. I’m not judging anyone who bets casually or athletes who accept betting sponsors. I’m simply choosing what we want to defend and what we don’t want to amplify. Our mission is to tell real stories from within tennis, inspire people and grow the sport in a way “That’s healthy for athletes and fans. Gambling money would take us in the opposite direction. And if we expect athletes to trust us enough to be vulnerable on the podcast, to share their fears, doubts and mental health battles, then we need to show them that we choose values over money.”
Garcia, who came to work with Argentine coaches (Juan Pablo Guzmán and Emiliano Redondi), recognized that US$270,000 is a lot of money, but preferred another path. “Building something long-term, honest and good for the sport is worth more. We will find partners who believe in that vision, who want to grow with us and not exploit the pressure that athletes already face,” said the former European tennis player.
Match fixing and betting have been a severe problem in the world of tennis for years. Of course, paradoxically, many tournaments and associations have betting houses as sponsors, but active players are not allowed to advertise in the field. Garcia’s post had millions of views and positive reactions from accounts linked to the sport of rackets.
Garcia debuted as a professional in 2007, at age 13, on the ITF Circuit in France. She played her first WTA qualifying event at the Paris Indoors in 2010, and her WTA Tour main draw debut came as a wild card at Australia 2011. That year, still as a junior, she was runner-up at the US Open. She won 11 WTA singles titles and reached 16 finals. On September 10, 2018, he reached number 4 in the ranking, the highest of his career. In 2022 she won the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati and the most important title of her career was the Masters tournament, the WTA Finals in Fort Worth, where she defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the final.
