The NCAA took a major step in curbing hate towards its athletes with its latest announcement on data distribution rights for licensed sportsbooks.
Key takeaways
- The NCAA and Genius Sports extended their data partnership through 2032, with a new requirement banning sportsbooks from offering negative prop bets.
- NCAA President Charlie Baker said the change is aimed at eliminating some of the abuse bettors directed at student-athletes.
- The move followed ongoing national efforts to ban college prop bets, as studies continue to show high levels of abuse toward student-athletes related to sports betting.
Announced earlier this week, the NCAA and Genius Sports, a leading betting data specialist and sports tech company, confirmed a multi-year extension to their existing partnership, with a major caveat included that eliminates any negative props.
“For them to continue to access our data moving forward, there can’t be any sportsbook betting on negative props,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said Tuesday. “So all the stuff that literally translates into a lot of the worst behavior that’s directed at young people and student-athletes generally under this agreement is going to be off the table.”
The deal sees Genius serve as the exclusive distributor of official NCAA data through 2032.
The negative prop clause has been a long time coming for the NCAA, which sought to curb online hate directed at its athletes for some time now with varying degrees of success.
Continued calls to ban college props in full
Most recently, a North Carolina bill introduced last month sought to ban college sports prop bets altogether, which would bring one of the U.S.' most diehard college sports states in line with more than half of all other states with legalized sports betting.
“Student-athletes don’t like the idea of being approached to begin with around that kind of issue," Baker said at the Knight Commission of Intercollegiate Athletics meeting. “They especially don’t like being nudged into something that’s not in the best interest of themselves or their teams, and more importantly, they all make clear to me they felt enormous social pressure to quote, help a guy out.”
Baker was consistent in his messaging that he hopes to totally eliminate college prop betting, despite the lucrative position sports wagering holds for the sports industry at large. Last March, Baker released a statement amidst March Madness sharing his full view on the vulnerability and integrity prop bets pose a threat to college athletics.
With sports betting on the rise, the NCAA is acting to protect student-athletes from harassment and working to protect the integrity of the game – this week shows why it’s so important to act. pic.twitter.com/krATwpS4hZ
— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) March 27, 2024
Studies show enormous levels of hate
The push to protect student-athletes is by no means isolated. Multiple studies show the incredible degrees of hatred and vitriol bettors often launched at players, particularly male athletes around key national tournaments like March Madness.
A 2024 study found over 5,000 posts toward players contained abusive content, while over 10% of that abuse was related to sports betting.
"I've heard too many student-athletes talk about abusive messages they have received, and for the first time ever, we now have evidence of the scale at which this is occurring. It's incredibly alarming and completely unacceptable," Baker said in an October 2024 release. "Fans have to do better, social media companies have to do more to identify and remove this content.”
