Fanatics Sportsbook has launched its Bad Actor Program, a new initiative designed to combat online abuse and threats from sports bettors towards athletes, coaches, and officials. Developed in partnership with Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360) and Signify Group, the program will monitor for betting-related harassment and suspend or permanently ban customers found to have engaged in abusive behavior.
The Bad Actor Program is designed to identify sports bettors who direct abusive or threatening messages at athletes, coaches, officials, and teams through public social media platforms. Fanatics has partnered with Signify Group, whose Threat Matrix technology continuously monitors online conversations surrounding major sporting events for harassment.
Athletes, coaches, and officials will be able to submit abusive direct messages for review. Signify will analyze each report, determine its severity, and conduct further investigations into the most serious cases. If the behavior appears to violate criminal laws, the company will compile evidence and refer the matter to law enforcement.
When credible evidence of abusive conduct is identified, the individual responsible will be added to IC360’s ProhiBet Bad Actor platform. The database is intended to function similarly to IC360’s existing ProhiBet system, which helps licensed sportsbooks prevent athletes, coaches, and trainers from placing wagers.
Under the new program, participating sportsbooks will be able to suspend or permanently close accounts belonging to users who engage in betting-related harassment towards coaches, athletes, and officials.
The Bad Actor Program is intended to do more than punish abusive bettors after the fact. By creating meaningful consequences, including permanent bans, this initiative can discourage sports bettors from directing threats at athletes, coaches, and officials in the first place.
Fanatics is also positioning itself as an industry leader by encouraging other regulated sportsbooks to participate in the program. If additional operators adopt the same standards, individuals who engage in abusive behavior could find themselves restricted across multiple sportsbooks rather than simply opening a new account elsewhere.
A broader industry-wide effort would make it more difficult for repeat offenders to avoid penalties while sending a clear message that betting-related harassment will not be tolerated. Although no single initiative is likely to eliminate online abuse entirely, widespread adoption could significantly improve protections for athletes. This would help promote a safer and more responsible sports betting environment.
The launch of Fanatics’ Bad Actor Program comes at a time when the sports betting industry is facing increased scrutiny over betting-related harassment. The MLB Players Association recently proposed eliminating player prop bets altogether, arguing that the markets have contributed to abuse directed at athletes. However, initiatives like Fanatics’ suggest there may be another path forward.
Rather than removing one of the most popular betting markets, sportsbooks can work together to identify, penalize, and deter the small percentage of bettors who engage in abusive behavior. If more operators adopt shared enforcement measures, repeat offenders would find it much harder to continue harassing athletes across multiple sportsbooks.
While stronger enforcement alone is unlikely to eliminate online abuse, an industry-wide approach directly targets the individuals responsible instead of restricting legal betting products used responsibly by millions of customers. If widely adopted, collaborative enforcement could become a more practical long-term solution for improving athlete safety while preserving regulated player prop betting.
