The 2025 NCAA Tournament kicks off on Tuesday night with two of the “First Four” games set to determine seeds in the bracket.
While every team is hoping they can win each game they have a stake in, there are going to be millions of sports bets also placed where patrons of sportsbooks are hoping for victory as well.
In turn, the NCAA launched a betting-related campaign on Tuesday focused on what, unfortunately, has become a large problem during March Madness — harassment of players and teams.
The video, which was launched on social media platforms, is entitled “Don’t Be a Loser,” in which the governing body is asking for basketball fans not to bring their shortcomings in the betting market to the players.
“Only a loser would harass college athletes after losing a bet, but it happens almost every day,” the video says.
The American Gaming Association announced on Thursday that there is an estimated $3.1 billion expected to be legally wagered on the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, which is not only a 12% year-over-year increase, but more than doubles the estimated $1.39 billion wagered on Super Bowl LIX last month.
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But since the federal ban on sports betting was struck down in 2018, we’ve seen far too many situations in which athletes, both college and professional, have received direct messages and more with failed bettors asking for money back, ridiculing them, or even worse, issuing death threats.
The NCAA revealed data trends that showed 1 in 3 “high-profile athletes receive abusive messages from someone with a betting interest.” Also, 90% of harassment is generated either online or through social media.
For March Madness specifically, a separate study by the NCAA in October 2024 found that 80% of online abuse was targeted at NCAA Tournament players.
And of that online abuse, the study found that almost three times as many threats were received by women’s players compared to men’s players.
“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,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a press release. “These actions severely threaten student-athlete mental health and well-being, while harming the college athletics environment. We need fans to do better.”
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