EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsA prominent sportsbook is fighting back against the rise of threats and harassment directed at athletes, coaches and officials from disgruntled bettors.Fanatics Sportsbook announced Thursday that it will become the first U.S. bookmaker to partner with ProhiBet Bad Actors, a system that uses artificial intelligence and investigative tools to detect social media abuse and identify the people behind it.Fanatics will launch the platform during football season, and bettors who are caught harassing athletes, coaches and officials will be suspended or banned from using the sportsbook.The move comes as abuse and harassment have become a growing concern across college and professional sports. According to a 2026 NCAA survey, 46% of men's basketball players received negative or threatening messages from individuals who bet on their games."It's just an infuriating issue," Matt King, CEO of Fanatics and sports betting industry veteran, told ESPN. "It reached a point where I felt like it was our responsibility to do everything that we could, just even if we're one operator, to start hopefully the ball in motion to make this the industry standard."ProhiBet is in discussions with other sportsbooks about adding the bad actors system, according to an industry source.As part of the Fanatics partnership, Signify Group, an A.I.-driven data science firm, will monitor public social media posts through its Threat Matrix technology for abuse, and, when warranted, investigate the account and the person behind it. In addition to its monitoring of public posts, Signify Group encourages athletes, coaches and officials to report abusive private messages so they can be investigated.Verified bad actors are placed on the ProhiBet Bad Actors database. Fanatics and any future participating sportsbooks receive anonymized information related to violators from Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360), the company behind ProhiBet, allowing them to identify matching customers and suspend or terminate their betting accounts without sharing personal information between operators. The information will be shared with sports leagues and, in some cases, law enforcement."Threats of violence and harassment in sports at arenas and on social media are increasing at an alarming rate, undermining the integrity of the sports betting industry," Scott Sadin, Co-CEO of IC360, said in a release announcing the partnership. "Addressing the individuals with ProhiBet BA and Threat Matrix is crucial to protecting athletes and other stakeholders from serious, long-term harm."Fanatics also plans to begin using ProhiBet's platform to identify impermissible bettors such as athletes, trainers or officials who attempt to wager on their sports, teams or schools.
