The dark side of sports betting and its impact on NBA players: Death threats, racism and Venmo requests

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The dark side of sports betting and its impact on NBA players: Death threats, racism and Venmo requests

After every game, when the duties of that night are complete and Jalen Brunson has a chance to unwind, he opens his phone to dozens and dozens of messages on social media.

It doesn’t matter if he scores 40 points or 20 points. It doesn’t matter if the New York Knicks win by 30 points, two points or lose. The bulk of the messages tend to be the same: They threaten him and his family, including his months-old daughter. They call him racial slurs. They demand money.

Brunson could do what he’s paid to do: play well and win basketball games. And yet, the star guard has spent many postgame nights sifting through harsh messages from people who wager money — sometimes large sums — on things they can’t control.

“Genuinely threatened?” Brunson asked himself, pondering for a moment, after the question was posed by The Athletic. “I’ve never felt genuinely threatened, but there has been some really disrespectful s— said. It’s a lot of people who don’t have profile pictures. There is part of me that has thought about airing them out, but s— always comes back around.”

Now that sports gambling is legal in many states and widespread, this kind of abuse has become increasingly common and unavoidable part of players’ lives. It’s an unintended consequence of opening up this revenue floodgate.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on sports betting at the state level, clearing the way for several states to legalize it. That made it so accessible that people can wager larger sums of money from their phones while sitting within the comfortable confines of their home, a bar or even an arena as they’re inside watching the game in front of them. Per The American Gaming Association, the industry made $10.92 billion in revenue in 2023, and states collected almost $2 billion from tax revenue.

The NBA announced last year that it would allow fans watching games on its streaming app to track betting odds and click through to make bets with the league’s betting partners, FanDuel and DraftKings. (The Athletic has a partnership with BetMGM.)

Under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, players can invest in sports betting and fantasy sports companies, but their ownership stake must be less than one percent in any company that takes NBA bets. Players, however, cannot gamble on games in their league.

Last year, Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter was banned from the NBA for what Adam Silver termed “a cardinal sin” of betting on the league’s games. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is under federal investigation for possibly manipulating his performance in a 2023 game as part of ******** sports gambling scheme. The league was alerted to suspicious betting surrounding Rozier but “did not find a violation of NBA rules,” a league spokesperson said.

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When legal sports betting really started to take off, and was new to almost everyone — including the players — Brunson got concerned about the messages he was receiving. Couple the eagerness of fans who could freely wager from home with the direct access to athletes through social media, and Brunson admittedly struggled to comprehend what was going on.

The league has processes in place that allow players to report incidents to their teams and/or the league office, an NBA spokesperson told The Athletic. NBA security also monitors social media for threatening messaging and works with teams to identify persons responsible and, if necessary, involve law enforcement. Multiple players who have talked to The Athletic have said they weren’t aware of the protocols in place.

Even then, there isn’t anything that can stop players from receiving these messages directly to their phones, not without making their accounts private or not having social media all together.

“It’s gotten to the point where it’s somewhat comical to me now, but, at first, I was like … What the f—?” Brunson said.

Detroit Pistons center Isaiah Stewart began his NBA career around the same time online sports betting launched in Michigan. At this time, during the COVID-19 pandemic, spectators weren’t allowed in arenas. So, a lot of Stewart’s early interactions with fans came via social media, where people were upset about something he did or didn’t do on the court that lost them a bet.

“No, not at all. That’s their decision,” Stewart said by telephone when asked if there is ever any guilt when someone tells them they lost a bet. “They chose to put money and bet on our games. You find it funny, until there’s a line that they cross when it’s not funny.

“They’ve said a lot of crazy things like from bringing up family, to commenting on my wife, my son.”

When in college at Marquette, Knicks rookie Tyler Kolek said he would receive hateful messages after every game.

“I’ve been told, ‘Go kill yourself,’” Kolek said. “I’ve gotten worse than that, but that’s a common one.”

Washington Wizards guard Corey Kispert — who came into the NBA in 2021 — said he and his teammates receive messages almost nightly, usually after losses. The Wizards have yet to have a winning record since Kispert entered the league.

Kispert said it’s often the same people, all of whom have no profile pictures and no username that suggest who they truly are. Death threats are common.

“No, normally I don’t (report death threats),” Kispert said. “I mean, these people are pretty much anonymous on social media. We just kind of feel like we can let it go. It’s the dark side of it all.”

Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma finds the interactions he receives on social media humorous.

“I don’t really read the messages,” Kuzma said. “It might be on

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. I think it’s really funny, honestly, because, yeah, you can win money, but you’re also wasting money, too, at the same time. It’s funny because I said something the other day, and it’s like we get threats and we get called names, and people never think about like maybe they’re bad at picking the parlays?”

For Knicks guard Josh Hart, there rarely is a difference between him getting 10 rebounds in a game or nine. In the majority of instances, one rebound won’t determine if Hart did his job successfully; his job being to help the Knicks win basketball games. However, for @sportsbettor12345 or John Doe in Long Island, Hart only having nine rebounds instead of 10 can potentially be the difference between that person being able to pay their mortgage that month, or even worse.

“I get everything,” Hart said. “People say, ‘I hope you die.’ They wish injury. Racial stuff.”

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Hart and his teammates never let someone’s betting anger or need dictate how they perform. Yet, it’s nearly impossible for these 20-somethings who are online to not be impacted one way or another.

Hart, admittedly, has played into someone’s anger before, prior to sportsbooks being open across the country. It was back in college, and while he doesn’t remember the bet that someone lost due to his performance, he recalls the person sending a message with their Venmo attached so that they could get repaid for their financial loss.

It backfired.

“It was in Providence, and someone told me I messed (some bet up), so I sent them $1 on Venmo,” Hart said. “Then I started getting a bunch of Venmo requests, and I was like, ‘All right.’”

The Golden State Warriors’ Trayce Jackson-Davis gets people demanding money regularly.

“’What’s your Venmo, bro? You sold my parlay,’” he said of the messages he gets. “‘You could have grabbed one more rebound or you could have had one more layup.’ That happens all the time. Or people behind the bench will be like ‘Trayce, I need 10 boards from you tonight!’”

New York guard Miles McBride tries his best to ignore any gambling-related messages that he gets. However, McBride added that most of his gambling interactions with fans come during the offseason, when he’s trying to blend in as a normal civilian. People will come up to him and say, “You won me a lot of money!” or “You sold me one time.” And, no matter which side of the track a fan is on, McBride attempts to not feed into it.

“I think the first-bucket bet might be the one I notice all the time,” McBride said. “I see guys high-fiving in the stands and it’s just a regular layup. I think it’s funny.”

Earlier this month, with the final seconds winding down on the Orlando Magic beating the Knicks inside Madison Square Garden, New York guard Cam Payne hoisted a 3 that turned what would have been a 103-91 Orlando victory into a 103-94 Magic win. The shot gave Payne eight points on the night.

In the grand scheme of things, Payne taking and making that final 3 had no impact on the game. Yet, for one reason or another, whether it was the point differential, Payne’s point total or the total points scored in the game, the shot came with repercussions from betting fans.

“Everyone is mad at your boy if he doesn’t play well or doesn’t make shots,” Payne said. “They be on me about their little parlays.

“It’s funny that people are out there looking for that instead of just watching the game. It’s just funny to me. We don’t ask you to bet your money.”

The NBA’s — and other sports leagues’ — big-picture approach to lean into the legalization of sports betting has helped create. It’s also impacted in-arena experiences with fans screaming at players and coaches based solely on whether they lost or won a wager. Team security does not confront abusive fans. That responsibility rests on arena security. Fans are often given verbal warnings when first breaking the NBA’s Fan Code of Conduct, which the league promotes at every game. A second and third incident by a spectator could lead to them being kicked out of the arena.

Ultimately, there is only so much the league can do to limit interactions or abuse related to betting. The league can’t police a player’s social media account. And asking players not to check their accounts is unrealistic in the modern world.

Gambling is now part of the fabric of collegiate and professional sports, and there is likely no turning back. After all, the love of money is the root of all evil, and there’s a lot of money in sports gambling.

“That’s what I get upset about,” Knicks guard Mikal Bridges said. “When I lose someone a bet, (I get hate messages). I don’t get anything when I win them a bet.

“Where’s my money at?”

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; top photos: Ethan Miller, Maddie Malhotra / Getty Images)

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