On Sept. 16 five major North American professional sports leagues and their players' unions sent a letter to state sports betting regulators asking them to address the "escalating threat" of harassment and violent threats directed at athletes and staff.
According to The Athletic, and other media outlets, the letter signed by each of the sports leagues and their unions noted that: "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."
Those leagues included Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and the National Football League.
Specifically, according to The Athletic, the letter asks gaming commissions and regulators to require sportsbooks to implement a lifetime ban on bettors found to have "abusively harassed or issued threats of violence" toward athletes, coaches or other athletic staff, and their families. The leagues and their unions also ask for a standardized reporting system and to require sportsbooks to "proactively monitor, flag, and ban accounts linked to abusive behavior."
While not involved in the letter, the Jockeys' Guild applauded its aim: protecting athletes from online harassment by disgruntled sports gamblers. For years the Guild has worked with tracks to protect jockeys from such abuse on-site and now has seen social media provide a new avenue for such harassment.
"Our jockeys hear this kind of stuff all the time in social media," said Jockeys' Guild CEO and president Terry Meyocks. "And you just know it stems from a gambling situation. They're mad because they lost a bet after a horse gets left at the gate, or a jockey has to go a couple lanes wide, or another horse gets through on the rail; whatever it might be.
"It's the jockey who gets blamed by people who don't understand the sport and sometimes that turns into threats."
With horse racing's long ties to pari-mutuel wagering, jockeys have long been exposed to such harassment from disgruntled bettors while at the track. Meyocks said to address those issues, the Guild and tracks over the years have implemented on-site protections such as providing secure parking areas for jockeys, having those lots be close to the track, providing security for riders returning to the jockeys' room after a race, or even making arrests or banning individuals from tracks.
But Meyocks said social media has provided added access to jockeys. While most of the time social media can provide an avenue for jockeys to promote the sport and develop fans, bad actors also can use that access to threaten or harass riders. Meyocks supports added protections for athletes.
"Riders have been cussed from the crowd at a track but now that sometimes carries over to social media," Meyocks said. "It's one of those things that you don't want jockeys paying too much attention to social media or getting distracted by it, but when it crosses over to actual threats; that needs to be addressed."
Jockeys are not the only racing participants subject to online harassment. Racing Post reported earlier this month that British racing had banned Ian Sellens for two years for online harassment and abuse of trainer Derek Shaw. Sellens had run the Million Dreams Racing syndicate.
According to Racing Post, the British Horseracing Authority found that from January 2025, following the dissolution of the Million Dreams Racing syndicate, Sellens began to post abusive messages towards Derek Shaw Racing with the intent to "vilify, humiliate, insult, and belittle DSR and the Shaws," going "well beyond any permissible bound of criticism, debate, or the expression of legitimate views which are inherent to a competitive sport."
In the United States, legal sports gambling has rocketed since a 2018 Supreme Court decision paved the way for states to approve such gaming. Prediction markets have further opened avenues to wager on sports. While illegal sports betting has been around for nearly as long as professional sports, the leagues say harassment of players tied to gambling has increased since the proliferation of legal sports gambling. And social media provides an avenue for such harassment.
"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," said Wednesday's letter, as reported by the Associated Press. "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."
While colleges did not sign on to Wednesday's letter, The Athletic reports that earlier this year the NCAA started an anti-harassment campaign.
