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In an article published 3/4 in the New York Law Journal, Segal McCambridge Shareholder Carla Varriale-Barker discusses how online gambling and social media have increased abuse targeting athletes, coaches, and officials during the heights of March Madness. Varriale-Barker writes that both civil and criminal remedies exist for the victims. States such as Wyoming are being proactive by effectively placing gamblers who are found to have threatened or harassed athletes and other participants of athletic competitions on an “exclusion list.”
“The NCAA partnered with Signify Group and its Threat Matrix to identify, analyze, and investigate online abuse and threats. The results were disturbing — and revealed that the abuse disproportionately targeted female athletes,” writes Varriale-Barker. “Although the study only considered public posts, the findings revealed only the tip of the iceberg because it did not consider DMs or ‘direct messages’ [and] ... highlighted a growing problem and the need for monitoring, investigation, and action to protect the mental health and wellness of athletes, coaches, and officials.”
The NCAA’s study of over 1.3 million online messages uncovered harassment, sexual abuse, and betting-related threats targeted against female basketball players, who received three times more abuse than their male counterparts. The online abuse and accusations of match-fixing were also targeted at coaches, officials, and committee members, often linked to accusations of match-fixing.
“The study demonstrated that online abuse has real-life consequences [including that] the victims of online abuse experienced severe mental-health consequences,” she writes. “Protecting athletes, particularly the most vulnerable athletes and officials, is a shared responsibility. With effective tools, technology, and regulation, a safer, more inclusive future for sports is a reality.”
Read the story in full; click here (subscriber-based).
