Venmo to Monitor Accounts for Abuse From Angry Sports Bettors

Posted on: August 26, 2025, 09:48h. 

Last updated on: August 26, 2025, 10:08h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.
  • Venmo is taking proactive steps to limit the harassment of student-athletes
  • Many college athletes have faced abuse online for their performance from angry sports bettors
  • Venmo is among the most popular payment services on college campuses

Venmo is taking a proactive step in hopes of curbing instances of abuse by monitoring student-athletes’ accounts on the mobile payment platform.

Venmo NCAA student-athlete harassment sports betting
Professional golfer Max Homa shares a Venmo request from an angry sports bettor. Venmo and the NCAA are taking steps to reduce harassment of student-athletes on the mobile payment processing platform. (Image: Instagram)

Venmo, a subsidiary of PayPal, is among the most popular peer-to-peer payment services on college campuses. In recent years, numerous student-athletes have reported being harassed on Venmo by bettors who lost money due to their on-field performance.

With the college football season kicking off, Venmo and the NCAA are teaming up to limit such abuse.

Venmo will soon offer a reporting hotline where student-athletes and the NCAA can report alleged cyberbullying. Venmo will monitor student-athletes’ accounts on an ongoing basis to help mitigate an influx of payment requests based on a player’s performance and work to implement additional security measures to block such requests as needed.

Additionally, Venmo will provide a “best practices guide” for student-athletes to better understand how to protect their accounts from harassment. The guide will be distributed through NCAA channels, including email and e-learning modules. 

Player Safety

NCAA President Charlie Baker has been encouraging state gaming regulators, where sports betting is legal, to prohibit odds that are based solely on a single student-athlete’s play. Known as player props, Baker says such betting opportunities increase instances of college players being harassed online, whether it be on payment apps like Venmo or social media.

The harassment we are seeing across various online platforms is unacceptable, and we need fans to do better. We applaud Venmo for taking action, and we need more social media companies and online platforms to do the same,” said Baker.

In June, Scottie Scheffler, the world’s best golfer, said publicly that bettors forced him to delete his Venmo account. Though he said he had at times received a few dollars from bettors happy to have won based on his play, he fielded many more requests for payment for not achieving the disgruntled bettors’ desired outcome.

I had to get rid of my Venmo because I was either getting paid by people or people requesting a bunch of money when I didn’t win. It wasn’t a good feeling,” Scheffler said at the US Open.

Venmo says its partnership with the NCAA will also include PSAs to the general public about the risks associated with making payment requests to student-athletes regarding sports bets, including the potential of their account being closed.

David Szuchman, PayPal’s head of financial crime and consumer protection, said that while “unwanted interactions” account for an “extremely small percentage of transactions on Venmo, even a small number of these incidents is unacceptable.” 

College Kickoff 

Week 1 of the college football season begins in earnest on Saturday with No. 1 Texas visiting No. 3 Ohio State at “The Shoe” in Columbus.

Texas makes history by being the first preseason No. 1 to be an underdog in their first game. The Buckeyes are two-point favorites against the visiting Longhorns. The over/under is at 47.5 points.

Other marquee games this weekend include No. 9 LSU playing at No. 4 Clemson. Clemson is a four-point favorite. On Sunday, No. 6 Notre Dame plays at No. 10 Miami. The Fighting Irish are 2.5-point favorites.