Tennis tournaments are played all around the world throughout most of the year, making it one of the most popular sports for regular gamblers to bet on.
A source at one of the world’s largest multi-platform gambling operators told the BBC that more than £100m is bet on tennis matches worldwide each day.
The spread of bets is roughly even across men’s and women’s tennis, tipped slightly higher in favour of the men’s game because more matches take place on its Challenger tour, according to this source.
In the United Kingdom, 13% of all sports betters gambled on tennis in 2023, meaning the sport ranked fifth behind horse racing, football, golf and boxing, according to a YouGov survey, external.
But 16% of tennis gamblers spend over £200 per month on bets, according to the data, and 34% of them use websites which offer loyalty schemes for regular customers. That means some UK tennis gamblers spend big and spend regularly, meaning the stakes are higher when they lose.
That perhaps provides an indication as to why the abuse Boulter and other players suffer is so often focused around betting.
Signify work with around 30 players on moderating their private messages, and the proportion of abuse that comes from ‘angry gamblers’ is 77%.