The actual connection between professional sports and betting is becoming increasingly blurry because of gambling and prediction markets. New York Knicks champion Jalen Brunson once shed light on the harsh, disrespectful messages he receives daily from many pictureless profiles. He wasn’t the first one to talk about his struggles with people who wager sums of money, though. To curb these incidents, the five major U.S. sports leagues have taken action.

The NFL, MLB, MLS, NBA and NHL have united with their respective players’ unions today to “crack down” on betting-related harassment, ESPN insider Adam Schefter wrote on X, followed by the official plea.

“Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal line, and it is entirely unacceptable,” the group wrote, addressing State Gaming Commissions and Regulatory Authorities.

The letter called for state and local leaders to “safeguard” athletes at every level and noted that states such as Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana, and Wyoming already exclude “bad actors” from licensed sportsbooks and mobile applications.

A proposed plan of action was presented.

A) Mandatory lifetime bans for individuals who have been verified to have harassed or threatened violence.

B) Create a standardized, cross-operator framework across sports leagues so that evidence can be safely transmitted to law enforcement.

C) Sportsbook partners to proactively monitor, flag, and ban accounts displaying abusive behavior, as a condition of maintaining their license.

“The safety and well-being of players, coaches, officials and their families must always come before a wager,” the letter stated. “As game participants do their utmost to protect integrity, abusive and violent threats should not serve as a deterrence from performing to their fullest.”

As recently as August, the NFL announced partnerships with FanDuel, DraftKings and Fanatics Betting & Gaming. Meanwhile, MLB has worked with FanDuel since 2023, and the NBA has a dedicated webpage listing its gaming partners and operators. It isn’t just the league, but even players have endorsements with these companies.

LeBron has just partnered with Polymarket. He became the first NBA athlete to sign an individual partnership with them. Although his agreement is focused on football predictions and picks, with strictly no overlap with the NBA, his own fanbase criticized him for going back on his statement from three years ago.

In 2023, James noted that fans had become more interested in parlays than in watching the sport and in appreciating a team’s result. Addressing the “weird” shift in conversations toward individual performances, James said, “It’s kind of taken some of the integrity out of the game.”

The trend of influential sportspersons entering into deals with prediction market networks was crystal clear before James inked his agreement. Maria Sharapova has promoted Polymarket, which also became the ATP’s official prediction market platform. Meanwhile, Bryson DeChambeau, Lionel Messi, and even the Argentina national soccer team announced a partnership with Kalshi.

Earlier this year, Giannis Antetokounmpo became the first NBA figure to invest directly in Kalshi. However, the Greek Freak is barred from trading on the basketball markets. This is mainly because league rules allow players to endorse betting companies as long as they don’t gamble on the league itself.

Also, note that in the letter from the five major U.S. sports leagues to the regulatory authority, the WNBA, which has surged in popularity and viewership over the past three years, is not mentioned.

“It is deeply disappointing that, given the very public and troubling incidents of betting-related harassment experienced by our members over the past several seasons, the NBA determined that WNBA players did not warrant inclusion in a joint position statement intended to address this very issue,” WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson clarified in a statement.

Back in 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on sports betting at the state level, clearing the way for several states to legalize it. But that has made it so accessible that people can wager larger sums of money from their phones while sitting within the comfortable confines of their homes. And when that does not pay off, these same individuals find ways to spew hate toward the players.

NBA star Isaiah Stewart revealed that many of the threats he receives involve strangers bringing up his family and commenting on the women in his house. Tyler Kolek admitted last year that a fan blatantly told him to “go k-ll yourself” and described it as a common interaction.

Like Brunson, reigning champion Josh Hart also has people telling him, “I hope you d-e,” wishing him bad injuries and commenting on his ethnicity. During his college days, Hart also remembers receiving a Venmo request. This is shockingly common, as even Trayce Jackson-Davis has spoken about being asked for money.

A bone-chilling statistic showed up in 2024: one in three high-profile athletes receive abusive messages from individuals with a “betting interest,” and more than 540 men’s and women’s NCAA players received abuse, including death threats.

Now, we sincerely hope the situation has improved, but the fact that five sporting leagues need to join hands and issue a formal letter suggests it’s still far from ideal.