The NCAA has launched a new video to air throughout the men’s and women’s March Madness tournament broadcasts, as well as online, as part of the Draw the Line campaign. The new spot, titled “Don’t Be a Loser,” calls attention to the alarming prevalence of abuse and harassment student-athletes face from angry fans who lost a bet.
The new addition to the Draw the Line campaign is one of several efforts underway at the NCAA to respond to the rise of sports betting.
- To date, over 100,000 student-athletes have received sports betting and gambling harm prevention education through in-person training with EPIC Global Solutions and online learning.
- More than 22,000 contests are monitored through the world’s largest global integrity monitoring campaign.
- Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., have banned player prop bets in response to NCAA advocacy efforts.
- Thousands of student-athletes, coaches and committee members are covered by Signify’s harassment monitoring service.
- Multiple surveys have been conducted to understand and analyze betting activity in 18- to 22-year-olds, betting challenges campus compliance directors face and betting behaviors and attitudes among student-athletes.
The new video was revealed during the first week of the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships — the largest betting event in the United States. An estimated $3.1 billon will be legally bet on this year’s basketball tournaments, doubling the amount bet on the Super Bowl, according to a recent report from the American Gaming Association.
The NCAA is continuing its work with Signify Group to monitor harassment directed at student-athletes, coaches and officials participating in NCAA Championships, including the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
Last year’s study found 1 in 3 student-athletes received abusive messages from those with a betting interest; 80% of the abuse was directed at March Madness men’s and women’s student-athletes, with women’s basketball student-athletes receiving approximately three times more threats than men’s basketball student-athletes.
“The horrific messages we are seeing across online platforms is absolutely unacceptable,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said. “Angry fans are sending numerous abusive messages and threats to student-athletes, publicly and privately, because of lost bets placed on the athlete’s performance in a game. These actions severely threaten student-athlete mental health and well-being, while harming the college athletics environment. We need fans to do better. We need states to do better and ban player props that target student-athletes and enable detrimental abuse.”
