Division I men's and women's basketball student-athletes report that sports betting harms the reputation of their sport, believe sports betting is leading to harmful scrutiny of college athletes and report being targeted for betting losses, according to the NCAA's latest Student-Athlete Needs, Aspirations and Perspectives survey.
Student-athletes think the impact has extended to their day-to-day experiences with fans, the survey of Division I college athletes found. Nearly 60% of the college basketball players surveyed indicated that sports betting has contributed to unfair public scrutiny of athletes, and 74% of women's basketball athletes and 65% of men's basketball athletes somewhat to strongly agreed that betting-related abuse weakens trust between fans and athletes.
"This time of year can be magical for so many players, but it also can quickly become a nightmare due to abuse from fans engaging in sports betting," NCAA President Charlie Baker said. "The NCAA is actively working to protect college athletes by monitoring abuse through our collaborations with Signify and Venmo, and we are doing everything we can to prevent student-athletes from experiencing this type of abuse. But sportsbooks and regulators in some states can do more now by eliminating the prop bets we know are leading to harassment."
Men's basketball players reported the highest rates of betting-related abuse, with 1 in 3 athletes receiving direct blame by fans for betting losses. The mistreatment is not limited to online abuse, as 26% of those athletes also say they have received verbal or physical abuse.
Among the men's and women's basketball players surveyed, at least 50% somewhat to strongly agreed that sports betting damages the reputation of college basketball.
The SNAP study conducted in February was distributed to nearly 56,000 Division I student-athletes at schools that agreed to participate in the study. Of those, 7,493 students from 154 Division I schools took the survey. In addition to perceptions of sports betting and betting-related fan abuse, the study examined student-athletes' social media use and sports betting's effects on well-being and performance.
The survey was conducted in collaboration with the Queensland University of Technology (Australia) and MIT. Full results and an executive summary of the February survey can be found here.
