The NBA and WNBA are joining forces to push for stronger action against sports bettors who harass players, officials and their families. According to The Athletic, the two leagues sent a letter to state gambling regulators on Sept. 24 calling for tougher consequences for betting-related abuse. This came after there was backlash after the WNBA was not included in the original letter, despite their athletes similarly facing betting-related harassment.
The latest letter asks regulators to consider several changes aimed at bettors who threaten or harass players, officials and their families.
They are seeking mandatory lifetime betting bans for offenders, along with simpler ways to report harassment and more accountability from sportsbook operators.
The issue goes beyond angry messages following a lost bet. Athletes and officials can face abuse online, while threats can also extend to their families.
The Sept. 24 effort follows a league request sent to regulators on Sept. 15.
That letter was backed by the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS, along with their respective players’ unions. It called for lifetime bans, streamlined reporting, and stronger action from operators against bettors who harass players and other sports participants. The WNBA and WNBPA were not included, which quickly drew pushback.
WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson criticized the omission, pointing out that WNBA players have dealt with public incidents of betting-related harassment over multiple seasons.
The backlash over this omission didn’t come out of nowhere. WNBA players had already been calling attention to harassment connected to sports betting. New York Liberty guard Natasha Cloud previously urged the league to take betting harassment seriously after Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray shared abusive messages she received from a bettor.
Cloud argued that the issue should be treated as a player safety concern, particularly when harassment includes racist or sexist abuse and threats tied to wagers. Those concerns help explain why the WNBPA reacted so strongly to being omitted from the original multi-league letter.
The proposal also calls for sportsbook operators to play a larger role in identifying customers connected to threatening or abusive behavior and taking action against their accounts.
We have already seen operators like Fanatics Sportsbook take action with their Bad Actors program, which attempts to take a proactive approach by monitoring abusive messages online.
The issue here is consistency. A bettor who loses access to one sportsbook after threatening an athlete could potentially continue wagering elsewhere if other operators don’t take similar action.
To that end, a regulatory requirement for lifetime bans could create a more uniform standard across licensed sportsbooks. This would prevent bettors from simply signing up to another betting site when they’re banned.
