A new study by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has revealed high levels of sports betting abuse towards student athletes.
The organization, which includes more than 500,000 college athletes across three divisions, says 36% of Division I men’s basketball student athletes reported experiencing social media abuse related to sports betting within the last year. A further 29% reported having interacted with a student on campus who had placed a bet on their team.
Among young football athletes in the Football Bowl Subdivision, 16% reported receiving negative or threatening messages, with 26% reporting they have interacted with a student who had bet on their team.
A total of 7% of Division I men’s sports athletes reported receiving negative or threatening message from fans who had bet on the game. While these figures present a stark issue, the research found that rates were much lower among women’s sports athletes.
However, the same cannot be said for tennis. In June, tennis governing bodies, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) urged the betting industry to act against gambling-related abuse of players.
NCAA to bring out another study looking into student athletes
“That happens all the time. I got one from a previous game before. They do it all the time,” former Butler men’s basketball student-athlete Pierre Brooks II said after an EPIC Global Solutions session last fall. “Like, if people don’t meet their over or under, they always DM me. It’s actually pretty common.”
It was in 2023 when the NCAA began a campaign which saw them urging regulators and gambling operators to remove prop bets on college sports. The league also prohibits commercial partnerships and advertisements with sportsbooks.
“States and gaming operators that continue to offer these bets are putting student-athletes and competition integrity at risk,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said.
“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.” In addition to this study, another piece of research into social media abuse will be available in January.
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