New NCAA-Venmo Partnership Hopes to Reduce Harassment of Athletes, Fueled by Sports Betting
The NCAA and Venmo are collaborating to combat online harassment of student-athletes, which has been exacerbated by the growth of sports betting, officials from both organizations announced recently. The partnership comes as college football season begins and aims to provide protections against unwanted and abusive online interactions.
The initiative addresses an increase in harassment, in some cases involving bettors sending unwanted payment requests to players following a loss.
“The harassment we are seeing across various online platforms is unacceptable, and we need fans to do better,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a news release.
The new protections for student-athletes include:
A reporting hotline – Venmo will create a dedicated phone line for student-athletes and the NCAA to report potential cases of abuse. The reports will help investigate harassment cases and identify the specific ways athletes are targeted on the platform.
Student-athlete resources – Venmo will create a guide with best practices for staying safe on the app. The guide will be distributed to student-athletes through NCAA channels, including newsletters, emails and e-learning modules.
Athlete account support – Venmo will proactively monitor student-athlete accounts for sudden increases in payment requests tied to game performance. It will work with athletes to implement additional security measures as needed.
User education – The payment app will also educate users about the consequences of harassing athletes, which could lead to account closure.
“The safety and security of our users remain our highest priority,” said David Szuchman, head of global financial crime and customer protection at Venmo parent company PayPal. “While unwanted interactions to athletes make up an extremely small percentage of transactions on Venmo, even a small number of these incidents is unacceptable”.
The move follows an NCAA study that found 12% of abusive online content aimed at college athletes was linked to sports betting. For men’s football specifically, nearly one in five harassment cases involved betting-related abuse.
The NCAA has previously taken a stance against the issue, including a public service announcement released in March that referred to harassers as a “loser” and stated that one in three NCAA athletes have received betting-related harassment.