NCAA March Madness Player Abuse From Enraged Sports Bettors Declines
Posted on: June 10, 2025, 12:01h.
Last updated on: June 10, 2025, 12:16h.
- The NCAA says March Madness players were harassed less in 2025
- The NCAA has contracted Signify to monitor social media abuse of its student-athletes
- Law enforcement was notified about 10 instances of online threats to players’ safety
There’s a bit of good news out of the NCAA, as the governing body of college athletics reports that instances of player abuse declined during the 2025 March Madness men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments.
In late 2023, the NCAA contracted the Signify Group to leverage the company’s Threat Matrix, a tool that monitors social media to detect online abuse of players, coaches, and officials. On Tuesday, the NCAA revealed that abuse across all participants related to sports betting was down 23% in 2025.
One of the first things student-athletes told me when I became NCAA president was that they were being harassed online by people who are following or betting on their games,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said. “From day one, it’s been a priority to study this issue, monitor the public interactions, protect student-athletes, and allow them to focus on being students and competing at the highest level on the court with their teammates.”
Signify said it monitored the social media accounts of 2,032 players, 346 coaches, 136 teams, and 269 game officials and selection committee members. Of the more than one million posts and comments that mentioned players, teams, and officials’ names, about 55K were flagged by Signify AI for further investigation.
Signify employees confirmed 3,161 comments as abusive or threatening. Those comments and related accounts were reported to the relevant social media platform and, where necessary, law enforcement.
Abuse Declines
In recent years, many student-athletes have reported being harassed by angry sports bettors.
The era of name, image, and likeness, where college athletes can receive money while in school, is thought to have prompted some enraged bettors into thinking that harassing a student-athlete is okay. Baker, the former governor of Massachusetts who signed his state’s sports betting law, has made it a pillar of his NCAA tenure to reduce instances of player harassment.
The NCAA’s public service announcement — “Don’t Be a Loser” — launched in March, encourages fans and sports bettors to avoid directing frustrations at players, coaches, and officials. It’s resonated, as Signify found that betting-related abuse on the women’s side declined by 66% and 36% on the men’s side.
Signify’s monitoring capabilities and the threat of criminal prosecution are also reducing abuse.
“We have been encouraged to record a reduction in sports betting-related abuse and threat at the 2025 event, as this is often the trigger for the most egregious and threatening content we detect,” said Jonathan Hirshler, Signify CEO. “By supporting the NCAA in demonstrating that abusers can be identified and will be reported to law enforcement — where criminal thresholds are broken — it is possible to see a deterrent effect in play.
Law Enforcement Notified
Signify’s Threat Matrix actively monitors X, Instagram, and TikTok.
During the 2025 March Madness tournaments, Signify conducted 103 investigations into accounts posting threatening content. Of those probes, 10 resulted in Signify referring the incidents to law enforcement.
One such case dealt with Chandler Prater, a player for Mississippi State’s women’s team. After losing 96-59 in the regional finals to Southern California, Prater reported online abuse.
After the game, I received all kinds of messages, so many of them hateful and abusive, and the NCAA and Signify helped to support me and manage the harassment I was receiving,” Prater said. “It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.”
USC was a heavy pregame betting favorite at -2200 (implied odds of 95.65%). The Trojans were favored by 16.5 points.
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