A star-studded party thrown before the US Open at a New York venue has landed on the desk of tennis's integrity watchdog, after photos surfaced showing some of the sport's biggest names posing in front of a DraftKings-branded backdrop. Serena Williams, Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka, and Caroline Wozniacki were among those who attended the pre-tournament bash at Crane Club in New York City on August 27, according to the New York Post.
The gathering has since been flagged to the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which is now looking into the circumstances and details of the event, as reported by the New York Post. The party was thrown by Miami nightlife entrepreneur Dave Grutman, who posted an Instagram carousel showing tennis players posing before the DraftKings-branded setup, captioning it, “Hosting @draftkings welcome players party is my favorite!!!” according to the same report.
Grutman, who runs Groot Hospitality, counts DraftKings among his partners and has built out a tennis-adjacent business empire in recent years. His hospitality portfolio includes Gekko, Casadonna, Komodo, and LIV Nightclub, and it also holds a partnership with heritage tennis brand Prince, per the Post's reporting citing tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg. Grutman describes himself as an obsessed tennis fan and has close ties with prominent players, regularly providing them with perks in Miami and elsewhere, Rothenberg's reporting notes.
Who Was in the Room
The guest list at Crane Club reportedly went well beyond the marquee names. Also in attendance were Mirra Andreeva, Eva Lys, Anna Kalinskaya, Matteo Berrettini, Alexandra Eala, and Taylor Fritz, the Post reports. Wozniacki, notably, now works as an ESPN commentator, adding a media-accreditation wrinkle to the list of covered persons who showed up.
Kalinskaya told the outlet that she attended simply to catch up with friends and did not know DraftKings sponsored the party. Under the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program's rules D.1.b and D.1.q, covered persons — a category spanning players, coaches, tournament officials, and accredited support staff — are barred from facilitating, encouraging, or promoting tennis betting operators, and separately from endorsing or being sponsored by one.
A Regulator With a Track Record
The agency isn't wading into unfamiliar territory. Established in 2021 by the ATP, WTA, International Tennis Federation, and the Grand Slam Board, the ITIA operates as an independent global body charged with investigating corruption, match-fixing, and betting violations across the sport, and it has already made an example of high-profile figures for similar conduct.
In November 2022, the ITIA also addressed a case involving U.S. Davis Cup coaches Bob Bryan and Mardy Fish and social media promotions tied to DraftKings. Then in February 2024, Miami Open tournament director and former world No. 4 James Blake was fined $56,250, with a suspended $131,250 fine and an 18-month probation, for unintentionally violating betting sponsorship rules, as reported by CBS News. ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse characterized Blake's violation at the time as a matter of perception rather than active corruption, per that report.
Those precedents suggest the agency draws a distinction between intentional commercial endorsements and unintentional appearances at branded events. Per the Post's sourcing, players reportedly received no appearance fees to attend Grutman's party, and Rothenberg's reporting suggests that detail points toward private warnings, rather than fines, as the likely outcome for the Crane Club attendees.
A Familiar Complaint From Players
The episode revives a grievance American players have voiced for years. Back in 2022, the issue was part of a wider debate over betting-related sponsorships and the treatment of players.
That tension has only sharpened this year. World No. 3 Jessica Pegula publicly condemned governing bodies for profiting from gambling entities like Kalshi, the Manhattan-based prediction market that struck a commercial partnership with this year's US Open, while players face social media harassment from bettors regardless of match outcomes, according to Yardbarker. Pegula's complaint captures the broader friction at play: individual players and accredited staff face strict personal compliance rules even as the tournaments themselves lean further into betting-industry money.
According to the New York State Gaming Commission, the state publishes statewide sports-wagering weekly reports and monthly revenue reports.
Crane Club itself is a venue in New York City, operated by Tao Group Hospitality in the former space of Del Posto, where chef Melissa Rodriguez previously worked. Crane Club features wood-fire cuisine. The US Open's broader commercial machine dwarfs any single party's optics, underscoring just how central sponsorship revenue has become to the tournament's bottom line. Whether the Crane Club investigation results in warnings, fines, or nothing at all, it lands the sport's oldest sponsorship contradiction — enforcing individual restraint inside an increasingly betting-funded ecosystem — squarely back in the spotlight during the season's biggest event.
