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BetMGM has a new policy they will be enforcing.
David Purdum first tweeted out:
In an effort to combat betting-inspired harassment, @BetMGM says it will suspend customer accounts if users are found to be “using harassing or abusive language toward athletes, coaches or other team or league personnel.”
It is not immediately clear how BetMGM would determine which of their customers are engaging in this type of activity outside of a legal complaint or arrest.
"MGM may call it abusive language, I'd call it 'adding flavor to the moment'," writes Curt Larson on X.
And John B. posted the obvious.
"Great policy in theory. Very hard to enforce."
And of course there is the more common sense approach, as relayed by noneya on X.
"Max bet on props of $100 would accomplish the same thing."
To be clear, player harassment by gamblers is a real thing, but many would argue it's been perpetuated by the leagues through cozy partnerships and promotions of betting companies, including BetMGM.
The NCAA, which struck a partnership with Genius Sports that lets licensed sportsbooks use official NCAA game data and logos from certain championship events, has led the charge to pressure state regulators into prohibiting performance-based (or player props) bets.
In November, the NCAA released findings of a new study that revealed 36% of Division I men's basketball student-athletes reported experiencing social media abuse related to sports betting within the last year, while 29% reported having interacted with a student on campus who had placed a bet on their team. Among football student-athletes in the Football Bowl Subdivision, 16% reported receiving negative or threatening messages, while 26% reported interacting with a student who had bet on their team.
Overall, 7% of Division I men's sports athletes reported receiving negative or threatening messages from fans who bet on their game, and 9% had experienced a student telling them that they won or lost a bet they placed on them. Rates were much lower among women's sports athletes (1% for both items). As the study's sports-betting questions asked about interactions within the past year, the results were restricted to sophomores and above.
"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."
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
