Fanatics Sportsbook is launching a new program designed to identify and punish sports bettors who threaten or harass athletes on social media. The initiative, called the Bad Actor Program, was announced Thursday and is set to begin when the college football season opens in late August.
The program was created through a partnership between Fanatics Sportsbook, Integrity Compliance 360 Inc. (IC360), and Signify Group. Together, the three organizations will monitor social media platforms for threatening and abusive content directed at athletes, coaches, and officials.
When problematic content is detected, the individuals behind those accounts will be placed into IC360's ProhiBet Bad Actor program. That listing will give sportsbooks the ability to restrict or eliminate those users' ability to place bets. Fanatics Sportsbook said it will suspend or permanently terminate accounts belonging to users found to have engaged in abusive, threatening, defamatory, or harassing conduct of any kind.
"This groundbreaking program will hold bettors accountable for threats made against players, coaches, and officials," Matt King, CEO of Fanatics Betting and Gaming, said in a statement. "It falls in line with our core values at Fanatics — respect and tolerance for the athletes and coaches that play the games that we love. We encourage other operators to join the initiative because there is no sports betting potential loss that should embolden a sports betting customer to threaten or harass an athlete online."
The Bad Actor Program builds on an existing IC360 platform called ProhiBet, which is already used to restrict wagering by athletes, coaches, and trainers. The new program extends that same restriction mechanism to bettors whose conduct crosses into harassment or threats.
Signify Group's Threat Matrix service will handle the social media monitoring work. The service scans multiple platforms for targeted abusive content. Athletes and officials will also be encouraged to report threatening direct messages directly, which will allow Signify to assess severity and escalate serious cases to in-house specialists. If behavior reaches a criminal threshold, the company said it will contact the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
Fanatics Sportsbook describes itself as the fastest-growing sportsbook in the United States. The company said its existing zero-tolerance policy for threatening conduct is reinforced by the new program.
The launch comes as the rise of legalized sports betting across the United States has coincided with a documented increase in online abuse directed at athletes. The program is open to other sportsbook operators, and Fanatics said it is encouraging the broader industry to join the initiative.