With more than three billion dollars about to legally wagered on the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships — the largest betting event in the United States, the NCAA has launched a new anti-harassment video.
As part of the association’s Draw the Line campaign, the spot, which is titled "Don't Be a Loser," shines a light on “the alarming prevalence of abuse and harassment student-athletes face from angry fans who lost a bet.”
The video will air throughout the men's and women's March Madness tournament broadcasts, and online, and is one of several efforts by the NCAA to respond to the rise of sports betting.
Player Prop Bets Banned
The body says more than 100,000 student-athletes have undergone in-person sports betting and gambling harm prevention education, and that more than 22,000 contests are monitored under what it calls “the world's largest global integrity monitoring campaign.”
To this point, 18 states plus Washington, D.C., have banned player prop bets in response to NCAA advocacy efforts.
“Multiple surveys have been conducted to understand and analyze betting activity in 18- to 22-year-olds, the betting challenges that campus compliance directors face and betting behaviors, plus and attitudes among student-athletes,” said an NCAA release.
March Madness is the largest betting event in the United States, and the estimated $3.1 billon expected to be legally bet on this year's tournaments is twice the amount bet on the Super Bowl, according to a recent report from the American Gaming Association.
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