The five major professional sports leagues in the U.S. are proposing regulatory action to help curb harassment against athletes and coaches over sports betting.
Key Takeaways
- The NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS want bettors who abuse athletes banned from sportsbooks.
- The letter was sent to 36 legal sports betting jurisdictions.
- The group calls “escalating” threats “unacceptable.”
The NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS, as well as their respective players’ associations, sent a letter to 36 jurisdictions on Tuesday, asking state gaming regulators and lawmakers to “promptly adopt uniform rules and legislative guardrails to help address this behavior.”
This joint request, which was released by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, comes after “escalating” threats against athletes, coaches, and officials as betting has expanded across the U.S., the leagues say.
The NFL, MLB, MLS, NBA and NHL joined with their respective players’ unions today to crack down on betting-related harassment of athletes, coaches and families.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 15, 2026
“Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal… pic.twitter.com/cRbDoCekYP
“Too often, individuals who lose sports bets direct threatening and harassing messages toward players, coaches, and their families via social media and in-person interactions,” the group said in the letter. “Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal line, and it is entirely unacceptable.”
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Lifetime Ban
The leagues want sports betting operators to give any user who harasses pro and amateur athletes, staff, and officials a lifetime ban from wagering.
Sports betting operators DraftKings and Fanatics have recently taken steps to eliminate bad actors from their platforms, but there is no unified system in place across the nearly 40 wagering states.
In the letter, the pro leagues said Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana, and Wyoming already require licensed sportsbooks to ban bad actors and maintain an exclusionary list. Massachusetts Gaming Commission recently launched an initiative to ban customers from online sportsbooks and in-person casinos if they harass athletes.
The pro leagues are also calling for a standardized framework so sportsbooks and states can share investigations across a formal network. The proposed regulation would require sports betting operators to monitor, flag, and ban abusive behavior as part of their state gaming licensing requirements.
“The safety and well-being of players, coaches, officials, and their families must always come before a wager,” the group said in the letter. “As game participants do their utmost to protect integrity, abusive and violent threats should not serve as a deterrent from performing to their fullest.
“We ask for your support in establishing policies that ensure those who threaten athletes and coaches lose their privilege to participate in sports betting forever.”
‘Ridiculous’ Abuse
This request comes less than a month after 81 of the 100 MLB players in a survey said they have been harassed by sports bettors, calling the abuse “ridiculous.”
Players said disgruntled bettors have found ways to reach them even if their social media is private. Some players have even received payment requests on peer-to-peer transaction platforms from individuals who lost money on props or games.
Last summer, numerous MLB pitchers spoke out publicly about the abuse after Lance McCullers Jr. and his family received death threats from an overseas bettor. Lucas Giolito said he spoke 1-on-1 with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred about harassment.
Some leagues have looked into having player props banned to help cut down on the abuse. The NCAA has been requesting action from lawmakers and state regulators since 2024, citing numerous instances of college players being harassed by losing bettors through social media.
