A recent study commissioned by the NCAA found that online harassment of student-athletes decreased but was still present in 2025.
The study found that sports betting-related messages and match-fixing allegations represent 11% of about 4,000 harmful messages that were flagged, according to ESPN.
Key Takeaways
- A study by Signify Group found that harassment declined by 22% year-over-year.
- An NCAA campaign helped drastically decrease the amount of abuse reported during March Madness.
- Sports betting-related abuse fell 66% for women during March Madness.
The study was conducted by Signify Group, which used artificial intelligence to track and analyze online harassment directed at NCAA athletes. The group followed online messages and posts directed toward 5,555 athletes, 625 coaches, 466 teams, and 26 NCAA channels during seven championship events in the 2024-25 school year.
Harassment endured by student-athletes decreased by 22% year over year, according to the findings. Women’s basketball players saw markedly fewer harmful messages, while men’s basketball players saw substantially more.
“The NCAA condemns all forms of online abuse and harassment,” said Clint Hangebrauck, NCAA managing director of enterprise risk management, in a statement to ESPN. “The results from this year's study suggest that the NCAA's multi-layered strategy of building public awareness, advocacy and forming collaborative relationships with third parties is having a positive impact and has enhanced our ability to combat abuse.”
The most common forms of abuse received by student-athletes were sexual (20%) and sexist (14%), similar to the figures reported last year.
Betting-related harassment represented roughly twice as many messages as racial abuse or physical threats.
Noticeable improvements
The NCAA commissioned Signify Group to study harassment received by student-athletes for the first time last year.
The report, revealed in October 2024, found that March Madness accounted for 73% of “angry sports bettor” messages, and that women received 59% more abusive messages than men did.
After the findings were revealed, the NCAA in March launched the “Don’t Be a Loser” campaign that was shown during men’s and women’s basketball tournament broadcasts, including conference championships and March Madness.
The campaign had a positive effect, as the NCAA reported that sports betting-related abuse declined 23% overall and 66% for women year over year during the most recent edition of March Madness.
NCAA president Charlie Baker also spent the last couple of years encouraging and meeting with state regulators to discuss removing college player props from their list of available betting markets. Most states already have partial or complete bans on college player prop betting, though several states still allow it in full.
Additionally, the NCAA in August partnered with payment platform Venmo to allow student-athletes to report harassment and illegal activities to law enforcement via an in-app hotline.
“Harassment or abuse of any kind is not tolerated on the platform, and strict action is taken against users who violate our policies,” said David Szuchman, senior vice president of PayPal, which owns Venmo. “Through these measures, we are taking decisive steps to help prevent the misuse of our platform and ensure all our users feel protected when they use Venmo.”
Crossing the line
As part of Signify’s study, 31 individuals were charged with sharing content so reprehensible that it warranted a further investigation. Eight of the individuals who owned those accounts were linked to sports betting.
Seven of the messages were deemed severe enough to be shared with law enforcement, Signify noted.
