KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The NCAA is the first sports governing body to announce its participation in IC360’s Bad Actor Program to tackle online betting-related abuse and harassment.
- The college sports body joins DraftKings, Kalshi, Novig, and founding member Fanatics Betting & Gaming in the initiative.
- NCAA President Charlie Baker has been vocal about the harms that sports betting cause to student-athletes and college sports.
As the NCAA continues its efforts to tackle betting-related abuse of college athletes and other sports personnel, it is the first U.S. sports governing body to announce its participation in the Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360) Bad Actor Program.
As part of the collaboration between the association, the betting monitoring firm, and data company Signify Group, the college sports organization said on Thursday, that it will “aggressively” pursue and report instances of online abuse and harassment as part of wider monitoring efforts across its sports and leagues.
The NCAA will report incidents during championship events to IC360, allowing participating betting operators to cross-reference customer accounts and take action against violators when warranted.
“Athlete harassment has no place in college sports,” said NCAA President Charlie Baker. “The NCAA is committed to working with stakeholders across the sports betting ecosystem to eradicate this horrific behavior that plagues sports far too often, and that is why the NCAA is the first sport governing body to participate in the Bad Actor Program.
“The NCAA has led efforts to better understand and address online harassment, and we are proud to support new tools that increase accountability for those who target student-athletes, coaches and officials.”
NCAA joins hands with sportsbooks, prediction markets
IC360 and Signify unveiled the Bad Actor Program in June, with Fanatics Sportsbook as the first participating sportsbook. Fanatics pledged to suspend or permanently ban any users found to have sent abusive or harassing messages.
Fanatics Betting and Gaming CEO Matt King urged his company’s competitors to sign up to help ensure that banned bettors cannot simply open accounts at other sportsbooks.
Since then, more sportsbooks and sports prediction market operators have joined. IC360 confirmed to SBC Americas that as of Friday the Bad Actor Program has five U.S. members:
- DraftKings
- Fanatics
- Kalshi
- NCAA
- Novig
Meanwhile, in Canada, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) also joined the Bad Actor Program this week to utilize IC360’s tools on its PROLINE online sportsbook. An IC360 spokesperson told SBC Americas this week that the company is in discussions with most of its existing sports and betting partners about joining the program.
IC360 has had a partnership with Kalshi since March, and the company unveiled a collaboration with sports-focused prediction markets exchange Novig on Oct. 19.
NCAA President Baker previously called out Kalshi
The NCAA previously locked horns with Kalshi and sought to distance itself from the company’s college event contracts.
However, Baker told the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in early 2026 that the NCAA wanted to work collaboratively to develop “a potential future marketplace that has the necessary safeguards to protect student-athletes, consumers and college sport competitions.”
The NCAA and two CFTC registrants are now teammates of sorts when it comes to combating student-athlete abuse.
How does the Bad Actor Program work?
IC360 and Signify established the Bad Actor Program amid what data suggests is a general pattern of increasing harassment, abuse, and threats of college sports personnel via social media and other online platforms related to sports betting.
The initiative analyzes reports of abuse from athletes and uses Signify’s AI-driven Threat Matrix to identify individual offenders on platforms including:
- TikTok
- X
- YouTube
As abuse and threats towards athletes, organizations, or teams are detected, the Bad Actor program blacklists related social media accounts and shares information with leagues, sports betting operators, and other parties. It escalates some serious cases as needed, including potentially referring them to law enforcement.
College sports says it has a betting abuse problem
The NCAA’s participation reflects the desire of the organization, its president, and its players to combat a documented rise in harassment of student-athletes.
Baker called for changes to what kind of betting is allowed on college sports on several occasions over the last two years. Most prominently, he strongly advocates for a ban on college player prop bets, arguing that allowing wagers on specific elements of student-athletes’ individual performances poses risks to both athlete welfare and sporting integrity.
The NCAA’s 2025 GOALS study found that 51% of Division I men’s basketball student-athletes reported receiving social media abuse, and 46% received negative or threatening messages from someone who bet on their game. Other studies have also illustrated the problem.
“Online harassment monitoring and student-athlete surveys have provided crucial data on the volume, nature and sources of online abuse — particularly harassment tied to sports betting activity — and have supported reporting and enforcement actions when threatening conduct has been identified,” said Clint Hangebrauck, NCAA Managing Director of Enterprise Risk Management.
“The Association will continue its work with Signify and other stakeholders to monitor online harassment across NCAA Championships, and we look forward to leveraging the Bad Actor Program to strengthen accountability and further protect college sports from threats and abuse.”
