Caroline Garcia Explains Why She Rejected $270k Sponsorship Offer from Betting Company for Her Podcast
Caroline Garcia called time on her career at the 2025 US Open after her first-round exit.
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Caroline Garcia (Image via X/Caroline Garcia)
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According to former WTA player Caroline Garcia, betting companies “actively destroy the life of some people“. This she said last year after her US Open first-round exit.
Garcia stayed true to her grounds by recently rejecting a sponsorship offer from a betting company. On December 7, the 32-year-old revealed that she and her husband, Borja Duran, have turned down a $270,000 sponsorship deal from a betting company for their podcast, The Tennis Insider Club.
Today we turned down a $270,000 sponsorship offer from a betting company for our podcast. 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. 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.
Carloine Garcia wrote on X
Garcia often took to social media to detail the derogatory social media messages she received from angry gamblers. She thinks sports and tournaments partnering with betting brands have contributed to the rise in such behavior.
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. 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 behavior. It normalizes gambling. But we do not want our community pushed in that direction.
Caroline Garcia added
Garcia said the podcast aims to provide a safe environment where players can trust them to be vulnerable, share their doubts, and mental health struggles, and for this, she chose values over money. Many players from both the ATP and WTA have raised the issue of hateful messages they receive on a daily basis.
This Is Why We Turned Down $270,000
— Caroline Garcia (@CaroGarcia) December 7, 2025
Today we turned down a $270,000 sponsorship offer from a betting company for our podcast.
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.… pic.twitter.com/yIGSM0vufs
Caroline Garcia played her final match at the 2025 US Open
Caroline Garcia was 13 when she made her professional debut in 2007. At that time, she was participating in the ITF circuit. Garcia played her first WTA qualifying event at the 2010 Paris Indoors and made her main draw debut at the 2021 Australian Open, where she received a wild card. At the US Open the same year, she lost to Grace Min in the US Open Girls’ title clash.
Garcia lifted her first WTA title at the 2024 Copa Colsanitas by defeating Jelena Jankovic. She played 15 more finals and lifted 10 more titles.
The last WTA title that she won was the 2022 WTA Finals by defeating now four-time Grand Slam singles champion Aryna Sabalenka. Since then, she played two finals (Lyon Open and Monterrey Open in 2023), losing both. In Monterrey, Garcia reached the final for the last time.
In 2017, she scripted history by becoming the first player to win two biggest events in China- the Wuhan Open and the China Open. These wins helped her become a top 10 player for the first time. Garcia reached her career-best No.4 ranking in 2018.
She produced her best Grand Slam performance four years later. At the 2022 US Open, she reached the semifinals, losing that match to three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur.
In doubles, however, Garcia climbed to the No.2 spot and also took home two Grand Slam titles- at the 2016 French Open and the 2022 French Open, both with doubles partner Kristina Mladenovic.
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