CLEVELAND — In the wake of harassment of student-athletes by sports bettors, the NCAA recently studied how NCAA championship participants were the subject of abuse and threats. Something that has been on the rise with the spread of legalized sports betting.
The study found that one in three high-profile athletes receive abusive messages from someone with a betting interest. That higher-profile events with sports betting markets attract increased volumes of abuse or threats. It found that 90% of harassment is generated online or through social media, and in sports with high volumes of betting, 15%-25% of all abuse surrounding that competition is betting-related.
During March Madness, in particular, it looked at nearly 1,000 Division I men's and women's basketball student-athletes, 64 teams, over 280 coaches and 120 NCAA match officials. They found across the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships, over 54,000 posts/comments were flagged for potential abuse or threats and reviewed by human in-house analysts.
Of those 54,000, 4,000 were confirmed as abusive or threatening and reported to the relevant social media platforms, with some elevated to law enforcement.
More than 540 abusive betting-related messages were directed at men's and women's basketball student-athletes, including death threats. Another interesting aspect is that women's basketball student-athletes received approximately three times more threats than men's basketball student-athletes.
Student-athletes are not the only group experiencing these threats and abuse. Game officials, administrators and other athletics employees have been harassed related to their respective involvement in competitions.
In March Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach JB Bickerstaff spoke about the threats he himself has received.
"I personally have had my own instances with some of the sports gamblers where they got my telephone number and were sending me crazy messages about where I live and my kids and all of that stuff so it is a dangerous game,” Bickerstaff said.
He said he's pulled starters from a game with a sizeable lead, a normal coaching move, but he'll be yelled at by some fans in the seats who are concerned that without those players, the team won't cover the spread.
"It brings added pressure it brings you know a distraction to the game that can be difficult for players, coaches, referees."
It was an issue Dayton Men's Basketball Coach Anthony Grant brought up in January of 2023 in the early days of sports betting when some of his players received messages of hate from gamblers upset about recent losses. Grant emotionally reminds fans that these are just kids.
“It sickens me,” Grant said. "They have families. They don't deserve that."
Ohio took the immediate step of passing legislation last year, giving the commission the authority to ban gamblers who make threats. And earlier this year Governor Mike DeWine teamed up with the NCAA to convince the Commission to eliminate prop bets on college players in an effort to reduce the pressure on them. Moves that the NCAA highlighters have been followed by other states like Vermont, Maryland and Louisiana. That’s good, said local sports psychologist Dr. Jack Lesyk, who works with athletes of all ages.
“I mean college athletes are under a lot of pressure, you know both trying to maintain their academic record and also trying to perform well on the field,” Lesyk said. “And they’re not prepared, they’re not skilled how to cope with it.”
That’s why the NCAA has also recently started a number of programs to help protect student-athletes in this rapidly changing landscape. But while many student-athletes have been impacted, few have been willing to publicly come forward. Something the Ohio Casino Control Commission is looking to address.
“That may only scratch the surface,” said Ohio Casino Control Commission Spokesperson Jessica Franks of the NCAA study. “Some of these athletes they may not want people to know or they might not want to be identified as having received these kinds of harassment or threats,” she said. “We’re in the process of working to get an app developed where athletes can report harassment anonymously to help us gauge how prevalent is this so that we can obviously direct resources and awareness to this issue.”
