Executive Editor of Sports Illustrated Jon Wertheim Talks Influencers at US Open

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:07)
He's executive editor and senior writer for Sports Illustrated, a correspondent for 60 Minutes, a tennis commentator, the author or co-author of 10 books, including Glory Days, The Summer of 1984, and The 90 Days That Changed Sports and Culture Forever, Strokes of Genius as well, Veteran Adol in the Greatest Match Ever Played, and many more. Jon Wertheim is here with us at the US Open. We speak to him each year. It is a highlight of our US Open coverage and he's back. Jon, welcome. Welcome. Good to have you with us this year.

**Jon Wertheim** (0:34)
Good to be here. Kind of toasty out here.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:35)
It is toasty.

**Jon Wertheim** (0:36)
Pleasure to be with you.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:37)
Listen, imagine if you had to be out there playing five sets without any shade.

**Jon Wertheim** (0:41)
Unthinkable.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:41)
Yeah, unthinkable. Hey, we're going to talk tennis, but I think one of the hottest topics here is prediction markets. You were outspoken earlier this week. We learned on Monday that Kalshi and the USTA were teaming up, would be the official prediction market partner of the US Open. Here's what you posted in response. We have a full screen here.
This is such a disappointing decision, US Open. Not a week goes by when the Tennis Integrity Unit that you helped fund fails to announce a match-fixing scandal and you take sponsorship money from a platform predicated on profiting from inside information. No way to spin this as a positive.

**Jon Wertheim** (1:18)
Yeah. I mean, I think, yeah, I'm not naive. I realize it's 2026
We are where we are with this kind of money flooding the sports marketplace. I just think tennis is a unique situation, right? Individual sport, it's very corruptible and that is not theoretical. I mean, there are all sorts of, not a week, literally, like I said, not a week goes by when there isn't some sort of press release about a match-fixing scandal. The players get the brunt of this. They can't take any of this revenue. They can't use the product. I mean, imagine if somebody said, hey, Heineken's our sponsor, but if anyone drinks Heineken, they're suspended. I mean, there's something problematic about taking money from a product. It's so problematic. The athletes themselves can't use it, but the institutions can benefit. But I distinguish between individual sport and a team sport. Tennis has this corruption problem, and also these players get the brunt of the abuse. The WTA, the women's tour in particular, their entire task force set up to deal with death threats from angry bettors. And now the USTA, which is not a standalone tournament, but it's a federation, a national federation, is getting in bed with a prediction. I mean, again, I also differentiate between sports betting, between draft, you know, whatever, Fan Bull and Draft Kings, and Kalshi and Polymarket. I did a 60 Minutes piece on Polymarket a few months ago, and I'm sure you guys know this, but I think people just think, oh, you know, who, hey, Tommy Paul's gonna win, Tommy Paul's gonna lose.
I think people that have played on that know it's begging for insiders with inside information to manipulate the market. All of these sort of the kooky bets that someone that knows something, it leads to violence, it's not as regulated as sports betting. I mean, it's just, it's so, honestly, it's just, for lack of a better word, it's so lame for the USTA to be doing this. It's beyond hypocritical, it's just irresponsible. And again, I'm not the, the town, you know, I get it, it's 2026, I understand what the reality is. Tennis Channel, where I work, take sponsorship. Sports Illustrated has its own betting platform. I mean, I'm not holier than now about this. I just expected more from the USTA.

**Molly Smith** (3:18)
But, so you're mentioning here sports betting platforms that making the distinctions with prediction markets here, though it's maybe a little bit of a squishy line between them. WTA, haven't they had a partnership with Fandle now for five years?

**Jon Wertheim** (3:30)
Yeah, and there are all these data. The euphemism is data rights, but nobody cares about first-serve percentages for the sake of analytics. This is all about betting. It's really problematic. Again, tennis is so easily corruptible and corrupted. If the integrity of competition goes, you're left with pro-wrestling.
This is the foundation of all sports.
For a tennis institution to just align themselves like this, it's really problematic. The WTA and the ATP have these deals. They'll say, listen, active players can't have these sponsorships, but some of this money from data rights goes into the pension, so players are in fact betting. I think that's kind of a difference without a distinction.