Venmo and the NCAA to tackle online abuse of student-athletes
Payments app Venmo and the US National Collegiate Athletic Association have announced a campaign to understand and limit online harassment of college athletes.
Key points:
– Venmo has joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association in a campaign against online harassment
– Studies show that college athletes receive unwanted payment requests from disgruntled bettors based on their performance
– The app is introducing a set of tools and educational projects in order to mitigate these online abuses
PayPal-owned Venmo has teamed up with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to tackle the issue of online harassment of student-athletes.
The joint campaign acknowledges that sportspeople and athletes of all levels are liable to feel the sting of online harassment as bettors and fans are more able than ever to access the targets of their frustration through various digital platforms.
A recent study from the NCAA revealed that 12% of abusive content targeted at college athletes was in some way related to sports betting.
Often, it has been found that when a disgruntled bettor has lost money on a bet regarding a player, they will send an unsolicited Venmo request for money.
In response, Venmo is introducing a dedicated reporting hotline to flag cases of abuse and harassment on the app.
It is also working directly with the NCAA to distribute useful information and education opportunities via the sporting association’s media channels.
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On an ongoing basis, Venmo will be monitoring student-athletes’ accounts and investigating the relationship between player performance and Venmo requests.
David Szuchman, SVP, Head of Global Financial Crime and Customer Protection, PayPal, pointed out, “While unwanted interactions to athletes make up an extremely small percentage of transactions on Venmo, even a small number of these incidents is unacceptable.”
The newly introduced protections for athletes will function alongside Venmo’s direct work with the student-athletes themselves, helping them set up security measures where necessary.
The NCAA President, Charlie Baker explained: “Several states have passed laws to crack down on this behaviour to protect student-athletes, and we hope more do the same because stopping this abuse requires action on multiple fronts.”
In the past, the association has investigated attitudes and behaviours among athletes and staff within schools and found that 27% of autonomy schools reported sports wagering issues.
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