In January, Dayton men’s basketball coach Anthony Grant brought attention to a serious issue by openly criticizing gamblers who were sending abusive messages to his players via social media.
“I feel compelled to speak up because it’s necessary,” Grant stated to the media. “It’s disheartening to see individuals who make it about themselves and attack our young players for their personal gain.”
The NCAA has since released data that underscores the severity of this problem.
A recent study initiated by the governing body of college sports, released on Friday, reveals that nearly one-third of high-profile college athletes have received abusive messages from individuals betting on sports this academic year.
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- One in 3 high-profile athletes receive abusive messages from someone with a betting interest.
- Higher-profile events with sports betting markets attract increased volumes of abuse or threats.
- Ninety percent of harassment is generated online or through social media.
- In sports with high volumes of betting, 15%-25% of all abuse surrounding that competition is betting related.
- During March Madness, Signify covered nearly 1,000 Division I men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes, 64 teams, over 280 coaches and 120 NCAA match officials.
- Across the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, over 54,000 posts/comments were flagged by Signify’s AI 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.
- 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.
An artificial intelligence system operated by the London-based data science firm Signify Group identified approximately 540 gambling-related abusive comments during just the NCAA basketball tournaments.
With numerous gambling scandals shaking North American sports this year, the tumultuous relationship between sports and the burgeoning sports betting industry is poised to be scrutinized for many years.
