Naomi Osaka was locked in a tense second-round match against Liudmila Samsonova at the WTA tournament in Montreal last month. Osaka, a two-time U.S. Open champion, was down two match points but managed to win.
With every point, the screen on the DraftKings website flashed, and the numbers changed. Plusses and minuses bounced around, reflecting the odds of each player winning the match. When Osaka finally won, the screen moved rapidly to the next matches, enhancing the gambling opportunities from the tournament. The scene is repeated all day and night every day as matches are played across all levels of professional tennis.
Betting on tennis is nothing new. But as the U.S. Open, the final major of the season, begins at the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., on Sunday, gambling has become more prolific. Is it good for the game? It depends on whom you ask.
“I think anything that gets eyes on our sport, that makes money for our sport, in the long run is good for it,” Tommy Paul, ranked No. 14, said in an interview earlier this year. “We’re not the only sport that’s like that. I just think that the other sports, like football, are doing a much better job of making money off it than tennis.”
Cameron Norrie, ranked No. 36, agrees.
Gambling “keeps a lot of interest in the sport,” Norrie, who plays fantasy football with his friends, said in an interview in February. “It keeps the viewing high, and not just big matches, so I think that’s good.”
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