English golfer Matt Fitzpatrick has blamed sports betting for an increase in abuse aimed at his fellow players, particularly when competing in the US.

This is not the first time athlete abuse has been pinned on sports betting, with a barrage of online hate hurled at tennis players last year blamed on gambling.

As reported by both the UK’s BBC and Ireland’s RTE, Fitzpatrick made the remarks while attending a press conference ahead of The Open Championship, which tees off at Royal Birkdale on Thursday 16 July. 

“I would say every golfer that’s played a professional tournament has had a message of abuse from someone that is related to gambling,” the major winner said.

“You go and type in a player’s name who maybe isn’t playing well, maybe someone who’s favoured to play well, you type the name into Twitter (now X) and you’ll just see their name followed by abuse after abuse after abuse.”

Concerns around betting-related athlete abuse can be divided into two types:

• Abuse received post-match due to a losing bet. This was particularly highlighted around tennis last year, with the the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) revealing in June 2025 that 458 female players received abusive messages over the past year.

• Spectators heckling or abusing players during a tournament, perhaps to influence the outcome of the event and help their bet win. This is the type of abuse that Fitzpatrick highlighted, with the golfer believing he and his fellow players are sometimes subject to this by certain spectators to put them off their swing and help win a bet.

Fitzpatrick remarked: “For me, it’s definitely becoming a problem and the issue is, particularly in golf, it would be very easy to influence a bet, whether it’s shouting on someone’s backswing, shouting on a putting stroke.

“It’s really easy. Obviously that is really hard to monitor, but it is definitely an issue.”

No benefits, but all the abuse

Golf, like other sports, has built up strong commercial links to gambling over the years.

All the major golf tournaments have struck sponsorship deals with gambling companies at one point or another – bet365 partnered with the PGA Tour in 2022 and OlyBet partnered with the DP World Tour in 2023.

Similarly to other sports, the rules for individual golfers are a little more complex.

On the face of it, golfers can sign brand ambassadorial deals with betting companies, and many have done so. 

For example, Jordan Spieth became FanDuel’s first official golf partner back in 2021, while Bryson DeChambeau signed an exclusive deal with DraftKings a year earlier.

However, some of the rules don’t make things easy. PGA Tour players can partner with gambling firms, but can only do so in the US if the company in question is iGaming-focused and not sports betting-focused.

In cases where firms are sports betting-first, the deals must be international in nature – e.g. a partnership with a firm like bet365 would have to focus on the company’s European visibility, not its US ones.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the DP World Tour – officially the PGA European Tour – takes place in countries with differing rules on gambling promotion.

But varying national laws on gambling advertising means that they cannot wear gambling brands on their person at tournaments like the French Open or Italian Open due to marketing restrictions in these countries – sports betting sponsorships are completely banned in Italy, for example.

Golf betting is big business for gambling firms. Last year, Ladbrokes, Coral and bwin owner Entain revealed that The Masters ranked as its fourth biggest betting event of that year, behind the Grand National, Super Bowl, and UEFA Champions League final.

Players find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place here. 

National restrictions across Europe and the US severely limit their ability to benefit from this betting revenue via sponsorship deals, but as Fitzpatrick and others have claimed, they still receive the short end of the stick in abuse from angry punters.