Study: ‘Angry bettors’ drive NCAA athlete abuse
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David Purdum, ESPN Staff Writer
Abuse by “angry sports bettors” is one of the most common types of harassment college athletes receive, making up at least 12% of publicly-posted social media abuse, according to a new analysis conducted on behalf of the NCAA.
The NCAA partnered with data science company Signify Group, which analyzed social media accounts for more than 3,000 college athletes, approximately 500 coaches, 200 event officials and 165 teams during the 2024 College Football Playoff, men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, men’s and women’s College World Series and volleyball and gymnastics championships.
The NCAA, which will publish the full findings Thursday, released an excerpt on sports betting to ESPN on Tuesday.
The study defined “angry sports bettors” as individuals who “engage in problematic and intrusive communications due to match events and results contradicting bettors’ predictions.” Athletes received abusive messages before, after and during events. Sexual abuse, racism and homophobia were among other categories of common harassment, according to the study. Signify analysts found some abusive posts that did not overtly mention gambling still had ties to betting.
The analysis flagged 743 abusive or threatening messages referencing betting or match-fixing allegations, with 73% of them occurring during March Madness, the most popular event with American bettors. Women athletes received approximately 59% more abusive messages than men, the analysis found.
The issue occurred even in sports that are less popular with gamblers, including softball, where 24% of abusive messages flagged were from angry bettors.
The NCAA emphasized that the analysis covered only public-facing threats, not private messages, where, according to Signify executives, harassment is likely worse.
Signify’s research on social media harassment in global sports found that angry sports bettors drive as much as 45% of all abuse surrounding some major sports tournaments.
The NCAA shared a handful of examples of abusive messages sent during March Madness, including one directed at a high-profile men’s basketball player before a tournament game that read, “Yo no big deal but if you don’t get 22 points and 12 boards everyone you know and love will Be dead.” Other examples included requests for money.
“It’s clear to us too … as the prevalence of sports betting went up, so did the prevalence of sports betting-related abuse,” Clint Hangebrauck, the NCAA’s managing director of enterprise risk, told ESPN.
Eighteen of the 38 states that offer legal sports betting, as well as the District of Columbia, prohibit licensed sportsbooks from offering college prop bets, a ban the NCAA supports. Gambling regulators in states with such bans have reported fewer issues of harassment, according to Hangebrauck.
“I don’t want to draw too many conclusions from that,” he said, “but it does seem like it’s having a positive effect.”
Signify used artificial intelligence to flag potentially abusive social media posts that tagged athletes, coaches, teams and officials on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. The company’s data scientists reviewed the posts and flagged those that met the criteria for harassment or abuse. Some were deemed serious enough to be referred to authorities, the company said.
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
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