Five major professional sports leagues and their players associations sent a joint letter to gambling regulators in 35 states and the District of Columbia, asking for rules that would permanently revoke betting privileges for anyone found to have threatened or harassed athletes, coaches, officials or team personnel.
The NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS, along with their players unions, cited “the escalating threat facing professional players, coaches, and officials, the continued harassment and violent threats from sports bettors.”
The group asked sportsbooks and mobile betting operators to permanently revoke wagering privileges for any individual verified to have abusively harassed or issued threats of violence against any professional or amateur athlete, coach, official, team personnel or their respective families.
The NCAA did not sign the letter, though the leagues also urged states to extend bans to cover threats against amateur athletes.
Growth of legal betting cited as factor
While the expansion of legal, state-regulated sports betting has brought new ways for fans to engage with their favorite sports, it has also introduced some negative consequences for players and other personnel involved with professional sporting events, the leagues and unions wrote.
Too often, individuals who lose sports bets direct threatening and harassing messages toward players, coaches and their families via social media and in-person interactions, they said.
Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal line and it is entirely unacceptable. It is critical that state and local leaders safeguard the participants of sports at all levels, the letter states.
Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana and Wyoming already exclude “bad actors” from licensed sportsbooks and mobile applications, and the leagues want the remaining 35 states and D.C. to adopt similar measures.
“We call on all state gaming commissions and state policymakers to promptly adopt uniform rules and legislative guardrails to help address this behavior,” the letter says.
Threats have escalated since 2018 ruling
Harassment of athletes by bettors has risen since the Supreme Court’s 2018 PASPA decision opened the door to state-regulated sports betting. Former Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers received threats from a bettor later found to be living overseas.
California bettor Benjamin “Parlay” Patz sent messages to four Tampa Bay Rays players threatening to “sever” their necks and was accused by federal investigators of targeting more than 300 accounts belonging to professional and college athletes.
Patz pleaded guilty in 2021 to transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce; a judge ordered mental health treatment and a gambling ban rather than prison time.
In December 2024, then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin held the first federal hearing on sports betting in six years, noting that former North Carolina center Armando Bacot received more than 100 threats on social media after missing the “over” on his rebound total in a win over Michigan State.
A state legislator separately told the gambling-industry outlet iGB that a college football kicker in his state faced a barrage of threats after missing a field goal in a Football Championship Subdivision game.
League and industry response
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, speaking at the league’s Summer League press conference following betting scandals involving Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier, said the NBA could join a multi-league coalition on betting-related issues and said he might support a federal sports betting czar.
Joe Maloney, president of the Sports Betting Alliance — whose members include DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics and Bet365 — said operators are investing in tools and partnerships to identify offenders and share information with leagues.
“We welcome efforts by leagues, players and regulators to build on that work and make clear that harassment has no place in sports,” Maloney said.
The leagues also proposed a standardized, cross-operator reporting system allowing players, unions and leagues to “securely transmit verified evidence of threats” to state regulators. The NFL referenced a similar concept in comments filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission this summer regarding prediction markets.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, co-authored the Protect College Sports Act with Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell; a cloture motion for floor debate began this week.
The bill would bar student-athletes from trading on prediction markets but does not address athlete harassment directly. Cruz and Cantwell also sent leagues a letter last October seeking details on their integrity-monitoring practices. It remains unclear whether any league commissioners will testify before Congress on the issue.