The US Open can choose whoever it wants as a sponsor. But shoving that sponsor down fans’ throats is a different story. Its partnership with prediction platform Kalshi has already raised eyebrows, and now the tournament is actively pushing Kalshi-backed content through its own channels. For fans who just want to follow tennis without being dragged into betting-style promotions, that is where the line starts to blur.

And tennis insider Ben Rothenberg has had enough, calling out the US Open for exactly that.

“These gambling-sponsored push notifications, which have been thrusted at tennis fans for days now, are deeply trashy work by the U.S. Open,” said Rothenberg on X. “They historically wouldn’t have credentialed reporters if it was our websites pushing this stuff.”

Rothenberg brought receipts. He shared a screenshot of the US Open’s own website, where a Ben Shelton-Stefanos Tsitsipas prediction piece had Kalshi’s logo splashed across it. Worse, the tournament was also sending fans notifications pushing those prediction stories.

Kalshi is not a traditional sportsbook, and that distinction makes the partnership easier for the US Open to sell. Its markets can be turned into live win probabilities before and during matches, giving fans another layer of data to follow. On paper, that sounds harmless enough. But once those probabilities are tied to money flowing through a prediction market, it starts looking a lot less like analysis and a lot more like betting dressed up as fan engagement.

The US Open page has been regularly uploading predictions throughout the 2026 edition.

If we look at the website now, predictions for the matches between Zheng Qinwen and Iga Swiatek and between Coco Gauff and Iva Jovic have already been uploaded. However, the US Open is not the only Major to show winning probabilities, as Wimbledon also uses IBM metrics to show the audience the various probabilities for a particular match.

However, the IBM metrics are an AI-generated system and are often used as a mere graphical tool during Wimbledon coverage, being updated periodically while the match is on. The probabilities shown on Kalshi are based on how money is flowing in the betting market and are therefore updated after every point is played.

Even though the US Open has taken a bold step with its Kalshi partnership, the scrutiny around betting still falls much harder on the players.

That contradiction did not appear overnight.

• In 2011, the USTA’s deal with IMG focused on broadcast rights.
• By 2014, IMG also had the exclusive right to license US Open live-scoring data worldwide, and a 2015 agreement extended those broadcast and data rights through 2025.
• Yet in 2016, the US Open was still publicly declaring a “zero tolerance” policy on gambling while restricting the use of match data for betting purposes.

So the double standard was already taking shape: the tournament could monetize data connected to the betting market, while players and others around the event were expected to stay firmly within strict gambling rules.

Players Are Still Under Strict Scrutiny for Association With Betting at the US Open

That is where the double standard gets harder to ignore. The US Open can promote a prediction-market partner, but ATP and WTA players remain tightly restricted from associating with betting-related companies through sponsorships or ambassador deals.

The scrutiny on players became apparent at the US Open itself, as Ben Rothenberg himself reported that the likes of Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka, and Serena Williams were under ITIA’s scrutiny. Several of the top players, including the three mentioned above, had attended a party ahead of the US Open, apparently hosted by DraftKings, a well-known sportsbook. Players had shared their pictures in front of the company logo, which alerted the ITIA.

While the US Open’s partnership with Kalshi is about one tournament, another prediction-based platform, Polymarket, has entered into a partnership with the ATP.

The platform is set to gain access to all match data on the Tour, including at Masters 1000 events, while also securing streaming rights for a set number of matches per year.

Players have also expressed frustration with the ongoing developments, with Jessica Pegula among the top stars to have given their opinions on the matter.

During one of her press conferences at Flushing Meadows, the American highlighted the double standards that existed between tennis tournaments and individual players regarding betting sponsorships, especially in light of the bettor abuse that tennis players suffer from.