NCAA and Genius Sports extension seeks to protect college athletes from negative prop bets
The NCAA and Genius Sports announced a multi-year expansion of their partnership earlier this year, making Genius the exclusive distributor of official NCAA data to licensed sportsbooks through 2032.
There is a caveat to the agreement, NCAA President Charlie Baker said Tuesday.
'For them to continue to access our data moving forward, there can't be any sportsbook betting on negative props,' Baker said. 'So all the stuff that literally translates into a lot of the worst behavior that's directed at young people and student-athletes generally under this agreement is going to be off the table.'
College athletes have long been subject to online abuse. In a 2024 study, analysts verified over 5,000 posts towards athletes containing abusive content. Of the abusive posts, the study found 80% were directed at March Madness athletes, with female basketball players receiving about three times more abusive messages than men's players.
More than 740 instances, or 12% of the abuse, pertained to sports betting.
Baker has heard similar feedback from athletes, but the abuse goes beyond social media. Athletes are pressured to fulfill prop bets, including missing a free throw or muffing a catch.
'Student-athletes don't like the idea of being approached to begin with around that kind of issue,' Baker said xxxx. 'They especially don't like being nudged into something that's not in the best interest of themselves or their teams, and more importantly, they all make clear to me they felt enormous social pressure to quote, help a guy out.'
Most of that pressure comes via social media, but athletes could face some of that in person. An NCAA-conducted survey showed over half of 18- to 22-year-olds were recent sports bettors. Age restrictions didn't play a factor. Betting rates at ages 18, 19 and 20 were the same as ages 21 and 22, meaning college campuses are full of sports bettors, Baker explained.
The contract negotiation with Genius is one step the NCAA has taken to reduce prop bets and minimize abuse. Other efforts have included tracking and publishing online abuse data and pushing state gaming authorities to peel back rules around college prop bets.
Still, it's a work in progress.
'At this point, slightly more than half the states that have legalized sports betting do not permit prop betting on college sports, but that still leaves enormous numbers of student-athletes subject to the kind of abuse that comes with this stuff. And I think it will remain, for all intents and purposes, a significant challenge going forward,' Baker said.
___
AP Sports Writer Eric Olson contributed to this report.
___
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Italian duo Errani and Paolini win French Open women's doubles final
PARIS (AP) — Olympic gold medallists Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini won the French Open women's doubles title for the first time. The second-seeded Italian pair, runners-up at Roland-Garros last year, beat Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 on Sunday. It was Errani's second French Open doubles title, and her sixth at a major tournament. The 38-year-old previously formed a highly succesful partnership with Roberta Vinci, also winning trophies at the U.S. Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open. Errani won two titles in Paris this year, also claiming the mixed doubles title with Andrea Vavassori. Paolini is also an accomplished singles player and was runner-up at the clay-court Grand Slam last year, losing to Iga Swiatek in the final. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. ___ AP tennis:
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Coco Gauff used words and a mirror to persuade herself she could win the French Open
PARIS (AP) — A little bit of self-persuasion went a very long way for Coco Gauff, whose victory at the French Open gave the 21-year-old American a trophy she has long coveted, and a second major title. Gauff defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday to add to her U.S. Open title two years ago. Sabalenka had been the more in-form player heading into the final and Gauff felt she needed some extra motivation. So she drew inspiration from Gabby Thomas, who became the women's Olympic 200-meter champion at last year's Paris Olympics. Thomas had kept writing down that she would be the Olympic champion in her Notes app, so Gauff tried adopting the same approach and grabbed a piece of paper. 'I wrote, 'I will be French Open champion 2025' like a bunch of times,' Gauff explained. 'She (Thomas) wrote 'I will be the Olympic champion' and she ended up winning the gold. I think it's a great mindset that she had.' Eight lines on a piece of paper written by Gauff late on a Friday night, then it was finally time for bed, time to rest. Not quite. Gauff then persuaded herself a little bit more, by staring at the mirror and convincing herself she was looking at the face of a soon-to-be French Open champion. 'Looking at myself in the mirror so I was trying to instil that belief, and obviously it happened. I didn't know if it was going to work or not. (But) it did,' Gauff said, then laughed as she added: 'When you're desperate, you're just trying anything to think that it's going to help you win.' Gauff also posted on Instagram another message she wrote to herself four years ago, which started with the words 'I had a dream last night that I will win (the) French Open.' Job done. What also stood out during the 2 hours and 38 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Saturday — in a gritty final punctuated by swirling winds due to the open roof — was how Gauff stayed calm while Sabalenka imploded and continually remonstrated with herself. All the screams and shouts were coming from Sabalenka's side of the net, while there was an almost quiet, steely focus on Gauff's side. That's largely because, these days, Gauff gets her frustrations out before matches. 'I know how important it is for me to let out those emotions so that when I come on the match court I can try and be as calm as possible,' the No. 2-ranked Gauff said. 'I'm more cool-headed in matches. But in practice I can get pretty upset. Just let me be upset. If I'm upset, I'd rather be upset on the practice court than the match.' Gauff will now switch to the grass-court season and may play in Berlin, Germany in a week's time before heading to London for Wimbledon, which starts on May 30. When she gets to London, Gauff will indulge in one of her favorite hobbies: trying to get out of Escape Rooms. 'For sure, I love it, and I'm going to definitely do it,' she said. And how about Sabalenka? How will she be coping with the defeat and the frustrations she so clearly felt? Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Will she be analyzing footage of the match over and over again, trying to understand where she went wrong and what she must do better? Far from it. She's off to indulge herself in Greece. 'I already have a flight booked to Mykonos and alcohol, sugar. I just need couple of days to completely forget about this crazy world,' Sabalenka said. 'Tequila, gummy bears, and I don't know, swimming, being like the tourist for couple of days.' ___ AP tennis:
Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Athletes express concern over NCAA settlement's impact on non-revenue sports
Sydney Moore and Sabrina Ootsburg were surrounded by hundreds of college athletes at AthleteCon when news broke that the $2.8 billion NCAA settlement had been approved by a federal judge. In a room full of college athletes, they felt like the only two people who understood the gravity of the situation. 'I'm about to get paid,' Moore said a Division I football player told her. 'Yes, you are about to get paid, and a lot of your women athlete friends are about to get cut,' she responded. Moore acknowledged that her response might be a stretch, but the sprawling House settlement clears the way for college athletes to get a share of revenue directly from their schools and provides a lucky few a shot at long-term financial stability, it raises genuine concerns for others. Schools that opt int will be able to share up to $20.5 million with their athletes over the next year starting July 1. The majority is expected to be spent on high-revenue generating sports, with most projections estimating 75% of funds will go toward football. So what happens to the non-revenue-generating sports which, outside of football and basketball, is pretty much all of them? It's a query that's top of mind for Ootsburg as she enters her senior year at Belmont, where she competes on track and field team. 'My initial thought was, is this good or bad? What does this mean for me? How does this affect me? But more importantly, in the bigger picture, how does it affect athletes as a whole?' Ootsburg said. 'You look at the numbers where it says most of the revenue, up to 75% to 85%, will go toward football players. You understand it's coming from the TV deals, but then it's like, how does that affect you on the back end?' Ootsburg asked. 'Let's say 800k goes toward other athletes. Will they be able to afford other things like care, facilities, resources or even just snacks?' Moore has similar concerns. She says most female athletes aren't worried about how much – if any – money they'll receive. They fear how changes could impact the student-athlete experience. 'A lot of us would much rather know that our resources and our experience as a student-athlete is going to stay the same, or possibly get better, rather than be given 3,000 dollars, but now I have to cover my meals, I have to pay for my insurance, I have to buy ankle braces because we don't have any, and the athletic training room isn't stocked,' Moore said over the weekend as news of Friday night's settlement approval spread. One of the biggest problems, Ootsburg and Moore said, is that athletes aren't familiar with the changes. At AthleteCon in Charlotte, North Carolina, they said, perhaps the biggest change in college sports history was a push notification generally shrugged off by those directly impacted. 'Athletes do not know what's happening,' Ootsburg said. 'Talking to my teammates, it's so new, and they see the headlines and they're like, 'Ok, cool, but is someone going to explain this?' because they can read it, but then there's so many underlying factors that go into this. This is a complex problem that you have to understand the nuances behind, and not every athlete truly does.' Some coaches, too, are still trying to understand what's coming. Mike White, coach of the national champion Texas softball team, called it 'the great unknown right now.' 'My athletic director, Chris Del Conte, said it's like sailing out on a flat world and coming off the edge; we just don't know what's going to be out there yet, especially the way the landscape is changing,' he said at the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. 'Who knows what it's going to be?' What about the walk-ons? Jake Rimmel got a crash course on the settlement in the fall of 2024, when he said he was cut from the Virginia Tech cross-country team alongside several other walk-ons. The topic held up the House case for weeks as the judge basically forced schools to give athletes cut in anticipation of approval a chance to play — they have to earn the spot, no guarantees — without counting against roster limits. Rimmel packed up and moved back to his parents' house in Purcellville, Virginia. For the past six months, he's held on to a glimmer of hope that maybe he could return. 'The past six months have been very tough,' he said. 'I've felt so alone through this, even though I wasn't. I just felt like the whole world was out there – I would see teammates of mine and other people I knew just doing all of these things and still being part of a team. I felt like I was sidelined and on pause, while they're continuing to do all these things.' News that the settlement had been approved sent Rimmel looking for details. 'I didn't see much about roster limits,' he said. 'Everyone wants to talk about NIL and the revenue-sharing and I mean, that's definitely a big piece of it, but I just didn't see anything about the roster limits, and that's obviously my biggest concern.' The answer only presents more questions for Rimmel. 'We were hoping for more of a forced decision with the grandfathering, which now it's only voluntary, so I'm a little skeptical of things because I have zero clue how schools are going to react to that,' Rimmel told The Associated Press. Rimmel is still deciding what's best for him, but echoed Moore and Ootsburg in saying that answers are not obvious: 'I'm just hoping the schools can make the right decisions with things and have the best interest of the people who were cut.' ___ AP Sports Writer Cliff Brunt contributed. ___ AP college sports:
