Professional men’s doubles shuttler Ong Yew Sin has not ruled out gambling losses as a possible factor behind the online threats he recently received from an unknown individual.
Yew Sin said he initially ignored the negative messages sent to his social media inbox. However, the situation escalated when the same individual began sending repeated threats that targeted both him and his partner, Teo Ee Yi.
The world No. 35 pair had suffered a first-round exit at the Indonesian Masters on Tuesday after losing to Taiwan’s Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan. Following the defeat, Yew Sin decided the threats had crossed a line and chose to make the messages public.
“There are usually comments like this, such as people questioning why we lost,” said Yew Sin.
“But this time, it went further. The person said they wanted to come and hurt me and Ee Yi.
“When I saw the message, I had to think carefully about whether to post it and how to handle it. In the end, I shared it so people would know this kind of thing is happening.
“Honestly, I didn’t want to post something like this, but there were simply too many of these comments.”
Yew Sin believes gambling-related frustration could be driving such extreme behaviour.
“I think it could be because of gambling losses. In other sports too, when your favourite team loses, you might feel angry, but you don’t go and threaten players.
“For those involved in betting, losing money creates very different emotions. People end up lashing out at athletes, and that is something very negative,” he said.
Yew Sin is still considering whether to lodge a police report over the threats. Previously, Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Fadil Marsus urged national players who receive threats to their safety to report such incidents immediately so authorities can take appropriate action.
