The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has taken one more step in the battle against online harassment by joining the Bad Actor Program in its latest attempt to keep athletes safe and properly protected.
First Sports Governing Body to Join Bad Actor
The program, joined by Fanatics at the end of June, is a special initiative aimed at finding and holding accountable individuals who choose to send abusive messages and threats at student-athletes, coaches, and sports officials.
The partnership, officially announced on October 29, 2026, has turned the NCAA into the first sports governing body to participate in the program, developed by sports integrity and data intelligence companies IC360 and Signify Group.
The initiative combines social media monitoring with investigative capabilities to identify people responsible for abusive online behavior.
Participating organizations can then use the information to take action, including banning offenders from betting platforms and, where appropriate, excluding them from live sporting events or referring cases to law enforcement.
The move comes as sports betting becomes increasingly connected to college athletics, with athletes facing criticism and threats from bettors unhappy with the results of games or individual performances.
NCAA President Charlie Baker said the organization wants to work with the betting industry to address the problem.
“Athlete harassment has no place in college sports,” Baker said. He added that the NCAA is committed to working with stakeholders across the sports betting ecosystem to tackle behavior that continues to affect college sports.
Thousands of Abusive Social Media Posts Found
The NCAA’s latest move follows previous research conducted with Signify Group examining online abuse directed at college athletes.
One study verified more than 5,000 social media posts containing abusive, discriminatory, or threatening content. According to the NCAA, approximately 80% of the verified abuse targeted participants in the March Madness basketball tournaments.
Female athletes were also found to receive substantially more threats than their male counterparts, highlighting the different forms of harassment faced by women competing in college sports.
Additional NCAA research has linked a significant share of negative messages to sports betting. Athletes have increasingly become targets of bettors who blame them for losing wagers, even when the outcome of a game depends on multiple factors beyond any individual player’s control.
The problem has extended beyond public criticism on social media. Student-athletes have reported receiving direct threats, demands for money, and repeated abusive messages following betting losses.
The Bad Actor Program is intended to help participating organizations identify individuals behind such behavior rather than simply documenting individual incidents.
The program uses Signify Group’s Threat Matrix technology to detect threats and abusive content across social media platforms, while IC360 provides the compliance and integrity infrastructure needed to support action against identified individuals.
Fanatics and DraftKings are currently the only sportsbooks publicly aligned with the program.
The NCAA’s participation adds a major college sports governing body to the effort, creating a channel for information about harassment to be shared with organizations capable of imposing consequences on offenders.
In 2025, the organization partnered with Venmo to identify and disrupt betting-related extortion by introducing a dedicated reporting channel for student-athletes who receive abusive payment demands.
The NCAA has also promoted its Draw the Line campaign, including a public service announcement titled “Don’t Be a Loser,” which addresses harassment from bettors frustrated by game results.