NCAA Joins Bad Actor Program as First Sports Governing Body to Target Online Abuse and Betting-Linked Threats

The NCAA has become the first sports governing body to join the Bad Actor Program. The initiative targets online abuse of student-athletes, coaches and officials, with monitoring focused on NCAA Championships. Identified offenders could face bans from betting platforms.

The program combines social media monitoring with investigative capabilities. Participating groups can deploy the resulting information to enforce accountability steps, including platform bans. IC360 and Signify Group created the program. Fanatics Sportsbook signed on as the first sportsbook partner.

Charlie Baker, NCAA President, said: “Athlete harassment has no place in college sports.” He added that the association was working with stakeholders across the sports betting sector to address abuse and increase accountability for those targeting sports participants.

Scope of Documented Abuse

NCAA monitoring since 2023 has identified more than 5,000 verified abusive, discriminatory or threatening social media posts. Sports betting was linked to 12 per cent of incidents overall and 19 per cent in men’s basketball. Eighty per cent of the verified abuse targeted March Madness participants. Women’s basketball student-athletes received approximately three times as many threats as their male counterparts.

The NCAA’s 2025 GOALS study found that 46 per cent of Division I men’s basketball student-athletes had received negative or threatening messages from someone who had bet on their game. A separate 51 per cent reported social media abuse tied to athletic performance. As reported by Focus Gaming News, these figures supplied the data foundation for the NCAA’s decision to participate.

Enforcement Precedents and Next Steps

Clint Hangebrauck, NCAA Managing Director of Enterprise Risk Management, said: “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. 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.”

The NCAA recently disciplined two Mississippi State athletes for sports betting rule violations. One placed a US$50 bet on the Super Bowl via Kalshi. The second placed two US$10 bets on the NBA All-Star Game, also via Kalshi, and was required to pay US$66.47 to charity after the wagers won.