As sports betting becomes increasingly ubiquitous in the U.S., athletes are reckoning with its darker side: being subjected to online harassment and verbal abuse. The harassment against sports stars and their families ranges from simple name-calling to death threats, and many are saying this behavior crosses a line.
What type of abuse are athletes enduring?
Many professional athletes believe this abuse is directly linked to the legalized availability of online and in-person sports gambling. Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr.'s family "received online death threats following a tough start" to his season, said The Associated Press, while Boston Red Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks said there were "people who were threatening his wife's life and directing 'vile' comments at him."
MLB players "agree that online abuse has gotten progressively worse in recent years," said the AP, and "receiving online abuse is 'a nightly thing' for most players," Milwaukee Brewers star Christian Yelich told the outlet. Athletes in other professional sports are having similar experiences; in the NBA, this "kind of abuse has become an increasingly common and unavoidable part of players' lives," said The Athletic. People online often message New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson after games and "threaten him and his family, including his months-old daughter. They call him racial slurs. They demand money."
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Even lesser-followed sports, like tennis, are not safe from this abuse; French tennis player Caroline Garcia previously "posted a sampling of the messages she'd received after her first-round loss to Renata Zarazúa" in the U.S. Open, said Intelligencer. Some of these messages "advised her to kill herself; others contained threats against her family." It's not just professional athletes, either, as betting on the NCAA's March Madness has "led to a distressing consequence: online abuse of players, coaches and officials by losing bettors," said PBS News.
How prevalent is this problem?
It appears to be widespread, especially among college athletes. A 2024 report found that comments from sports bettors are "one of the most common types of harassment college athletes receive, making up at least 12% of publicly posted social media abuse," said ESPN. The accessibility of athletes on social media seems to be making it easier for angry fans to get at them, as gamblers "have a direct line" to "fling appalling messages at players or teams that don't meet their predictions," said the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Limiting these interactions has proven difficult, as "every athlete that steps onto the field or court has the potential to make a play that loses someone money because almost every part of the game has become subject to a betting line," said the Post-Gazette. Teams themselves, including several MLB clubs, are working to "take action against social media users who direct threats toward players and their families," said the AP.
But for many athletes, the simplest solution is to get off social media entirely. "I deleted it," Detroit Tigers outfielder Riley Greene told the AP of his Instagram account. It "sucks, but it's the world we live in, and we can't do anything about it. People would DM me and say nasty things, tell me how bad of a player I am, and say nasty stuff that we don't want to hear."
