Baker addresses nation
NCAA President Charlie Baker used a spot on national television ahead of March Madness to speak out about the heightened abuse players face over the tournament.
$3.1bn in expected bets
The men’s tournament tipped off Tuesday with the First Four games and, given projections of $3.1bn in expected bets, Baker fears for the players the pastime will negatively affect.
On CBS Evening News just hours before the opening game, Baker honed in on the “vicious and brutal” abuse players already receive.
“It really is a problem,” Baker told news anchor Maurice DuBois.
Online abuse the worst
Baker’s segment with DuBois underlined the flip side of prop bets, in which desperate bettors lash out at individual players when their performances don’t meet their wagers.
The former Governor of Massachusetts exhorted the CBS anchor to listen to what bettors are saying to the student-athletes during March Madness.
Baker said bettors are “yelling and screaming at these kids about their performance.”
do better! I’m losing money on you!”
The NCAA chief paraphrased a common bettor threat during games, citing spectators demanding players to: “… do better! I’m losing money on you!”
Baker, however, was only talking about court-side abuse of March Madness athletes. He said online abuse was by far the most brutal and vicious.
Regulatory urgency
Baker sees a partial solution to the abuse in getting state gaming regulators aligned to the issue of prop bets. The NCAA head said his body was “nudging” state gaming entities toward acting on the dangers.
It’s a bad situation.”
“We now have about half of them where you can’t prop bet on college sports and we got to work the other half. It’s a bad situation.”