A recent NCAA study found that men’s basketball players receive the highest rate of gambling-related harassment among the organization’s body of student-athletes.
Between Sept. 30 and Oct 5., the NCAA conducted a Student-Athlete Needs, Aspirations and Perspectives (SNAP) study providing feedback from student-athletes about a variety of issues impacting their daily lives. The NCAA and sports employment platform Teamworks delivered the survey to 6,789 students across 163 institutions.
Among the topics of the latest survey, which was limited to student-athletes in their sophomore year or above, Division I student-athletes were asked whether they had ever received negative or threatening messages from “someone who bet on your game,” and if they had ever had a student on campus tell them that they won or lost a bet placed on their team.
Men’s basketball leads the pack
The results showed that men’s basketball players receive the most negative or threatening gambling messages. More than one-third (36%) of Division I men’s basketball players reported experiencing social media abuse related to sports betting within the last year, double the 16% of FBS football players.
The men’s basketball rate was also more than five times the 7% average across all Division I men’s sports athletes who reported receiving negative or threatening messages from fans who bet on their game.
“One of the first things student-athletes told me when I became NCAA president was that they were being harassed online by people who are following or betting on their games,” said NCAA President Charlie Baker in June. “From day one, it’s been a priority to study this issue, monitor the public interactions, protect student-athletes and allow them to focus on being students and competing at the highest level on the court with their teammates.”
The NCAA’s data also included FCS football players, with 3% of the group receiving gambling-related threats. The results mirrored baseball players at 3%. Men’s soccer closed at 2%, while negative messaging for track & field athletes was less than 1%.
NCAA student-athletes also feel pressure on campus
Meanwhile, the study also found that students on campus direct messaging toward athletes. For men’s sports, 9% of the respondents reported a student on campus telling them that they won or lost a sports wager they placed on the team they play for.
NCAA data found that 29% of the respondents who received messaging from students on campus were men’s basketball players, while 26% were FBS football players.
Rates were much lower among women’s sports athletes, with only 1% of all Division 1 women’s student-athletes reporting receiving betting-related harassment on social media.
College player prop markets draw concerns
Abuse and harassment directed toward student-athletes has been attributed to the popularity of player props, with the NCAA taking steps to ban props for college markets. Baker voiced his concerns about college player props in 2023 and a year later urged regulators, including the Ohio Casino Control Commission, to pull college props.
“States and gaming operators that continue to offer these bets are putting student-athletes and competition integrity at risk,” said Baker. “The NCAA runs the largest integrity monitoring program in the country, and we educate hundreds of thousands of student-athletes about the damages of sports betting, but regulators, lawmakers and gaming operators can and should do more.”
Recent NCAA gambling infractions
The concerns about player props follow the NCAA banning six men’s basketball players at three different schools for manipulating their own performances for betting.
In all three cases, the violations involved betting-related game manipulation and/or student-athletes providing information to third parties. The NCAA said that some of the student-athletes knowingly provided false or misleading information to investigators.
The NCAA also banned three former Fresno State basketball players for performance manipulation and continues to investigate other potential infractions in men’s basketball.
Previous NCAA gambling abuse study
Earlier this year, the NCAA teamed up with Signify to monitor public comments directed at the social media accounts of players participating in March Madness. The NCAA monitored 2,032 players and 346 coaches and more than one million posts throughout the tournament.
The analysis led to the initiation of 103 investigations into the abusive and threatening messaging, with 10 incidents referred to local law enforcement. The NCAA is also combating gambling-related abuse with a campaign, Draw the Line. In August, the organization partnered with Venmo to offer abuse reporting for student-athletes.
