NCAA: 1 in 3 star athletes receive abuse, threats by bettors

[Blake Munroe]

One in three high-profile athletes receive abusive messages from individuals with a "betting interest," and more than 540 men's and women's college basketball players received similar abuse, including death threats, during championship tournaments in March, the NCAA said in a release on Friday.

The NCAA looked at athletes participating in sports that attract the most betting interest -- football and basketball, among others -- and found that online abuse is widespread. Signify, an artificial intelligence company and NCAA partner, covered 1,000 Division I men's and women's college basketball players, 64 teams, more than 200 coaches and 120 NCAA game officials during March Madness. The analysis, which is part of an NCAA initiative aimed at combating online abuse and harassment, found 4,000 posts or comments that were confirmed to be abusive or threatening during March Madness.

The NCAA said the data showed women's basketball players received approximately three times more overall threats than men's players and that 15-25% of abuse directed at players, coaches and officials who are involved in the most popular college sports was related to betting.

More here:

https://www.espn.com/espn/betting/story/_/id/40166862/ncaa-1-3-star-athletes-receive-abuse-threats-bettors

[Cajunhorn]

Damn. I guess I was completely naive to how pervasive stuff like that was. 

[qaertyisthatdude]

Absolute insanity

[Gerry Hamilton]

Wild, but not unexpected sadly

[John Moore]

We're not trending in the right direction

[512Horn]

Well, if they would start doing their damn jobs and covering they would have nothing to worry about…