FanDuel bans bettor for heckling Gabby Thomas at Philadelphia track meet
FanDuel has banned the sports bettor who heckled three-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas at a Grand Slam Track meet last weekend and later boasted that his actions helped him win a bet placed on one of her competitors.
'FanDuel condemns in the strongest terms abusive behavior directed towards athletes,' a FanDuel spokesperson said in a statement to The Athletic. 'Threatening or harassing athletes is unacceptable and has no place in sports. This customer is no longer able to wager with FanDuel.'
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The betting platform took action after Thomas said Monday that a sports bettor followed her around Franklin Field in Philadelphia, the site of the track event, and heckled her.
'This grown man followed me around the track as I took pictures and signed autographs for fans (mostly children) shouting personal insults- anybody who enables him online is gross,' Thomas wrote on X.
In response to a previous post from Thomas, a man posted a video on X where he can be heard heckling Thomas at the starting line. He calls himself 'The Track and Field Bully' and 'The King of Track and Field and Sports Betting Dramedy' in his X bio.
The man also shared a screenshot of a winning bet slip showing he won over $800 on a parlay, which included a victory by Melissa Jefferson-Wooden in the women's 100m. Thomas, who won gold at the Paris Olympics in the 200m, was bested by Jefferson-Wooden in the 200 on Saturday and then beaten by Jefferson-Wooden again Sunday in the 100.
The man wrote, 'I made Gabby lose by heckling her. And it made my parlay win.'
Grand Slam Track said Tuesday that it was working to identify the man in the video and opened an investigation into the incident.
Thomas is the latest athlete to address the growing trend of alarming treatment from fans related to sports betting.
Last month, Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. and his family received death threats from a fan on social media after his rough outing in a 13-9 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The Astros alerted Major League Baseball and the Houston Police Department, which later identified the fan as a frustrated bettor who lashed out online while inebriated.
NBA players have reported an uptick in verbal abuse at games and receiving threatening or harassing messages on social media from bettors in recent years, prompting the league to put processes in place that allow players to report incidents to their teams and/or the league office.
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'I've never felt genuinely threatened, but there has been some really disrespectful s— said,' the New York Knicks' Jalen Brunson told The Athletic earlier this year when asked if he's felt threatened by messages he receives. '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.'
Editor's note: The Athletic has a partnership with BetMGM. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
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