NCAA and Genius Sports extension seeks to protect college athletes from negative prop bets

The NCAA and Genius Sports revealed a multi-year expansion of their partnership earlier this year making Genius the specific distributor of official NCAA figures to licensed sportsbooks through There is a caveat to the agreement NCAA President Charlie Baker explained Tuesday For them to continue to access our figures moving forward there can t be any sportsbook betting on negative props Baker disclosed 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 investigation analysts verified over posts towards athletes containing abusive content Of the abusive posts the research determined were directed at March Madness athletes with female basketball players receiving about three times more abusive messages than men s players More than instances or 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 disclosed 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 Preponderance of that pressure comes via social media but athletes could face chosen of that in person An NCAA-conducted survey revealed over half of - to -year-olds were latest sports bettors Age restrictions didn t play a factor Betting rates at ages and were the same as ages and 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 figures and pushing state gaming agents 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 substantial challenge going forward Baker commented AP Sports Writer Eric Olson contributed to this statement AP college sports https apnews com hub college-sports Source