Venmo to Monitor Accounts for Abuse From Angry Sports Bettors
By keeping an eye on student-athletes' accounts on the mobile payment platform, Venmo is taking proactive measures to try and stop abuse.
One of the most widely used peer-to-peer payment systems on college campuses is Venmo, a division of PayPal. Many student-athletes have complained about being harassed on Venmo by bettors who lost money because of their success on the field in recent years.
Venmo and the NCAA are working together to curb this kind of abuse as the college football season begins.
The NCAA and student-athletes will soon be able to report suspected cyberbullying through Venmo's reporting hotline. Based on a player's success, Venmo will continuously monitor student-athletes' accounts to assist reduce an inflow of payment requests. If necessary, it will also try to put in place extra security measures to restrict such requests.
In order to help student-athletes better understand how to safeguard their accounts from harassment, Venmo will also offer a "best practices guide." The information will be disseminated via e-learning modules and email, among other NCAA means.
Player Security
In states where sports betting is permitted, NCAA President Charlie Baker has been urging state gaming authorities to forbid odds that are exclusively dependent on the performance of a single student-athlete. Player props are betting chances that, according to Baker, boost the number of college players who are harassed online, whether through social media or payment apps like Venmo.
"The harassment we are seeing across various online platforms is unacceptable, and we need fans to do better. We applaud Venmo for taking action, and we need more social media companies and online platforms to do the same,” said Baker.
The world's top golfer, Scottie Scheffler, publicly stated in June that he was forced to erase his Venmo account by bookmakers. Even while he acknowledged that he occasionally got a few bucks from bettors who were pleased with his play and were thrilled to win, he received a lot more demands for money because he was unable to provide the unhappy bettors with the result they were hoping for.
"I had to get rid of my Venmo because I was either getting paid by people or people requesting a bunch of money when I didn’t win. It wasn’t a good feeling,” Scheffler said at the US Open.
PSAs to the general public about the dangers of requesting payments from student-athletes for sports wagers, including the possibility of account closure, will also be part of Venmo's agreement with the NCAA, the company claims.
Even if "unwanted interactions" make up a "very small percentage of transactions on Venmo," David Szuchman, PayPal's head of financial crime and consumer security, stated that even a small number of these instances is unacceptable.
Kickoff to College
No. 1 Texas will face No. 3 Ohio State at "The Shoe" in Columbus on Saturday to kick off Week 1 of the college football season.
Being the first preseason No. 1 to lose their opening game, Texas creates history. When the Buckeyes play the visiting Longhorns, they are two points ahead. 47.5 points is the over/under.
This weekend's other big games include No. 9 LSU vs. No. 4 Clemson. The favorite is Clemson by four points. Notre Dame, ranked sixth, will play Miami, ranked tenth, on Sunday. The Fighting Irish are favored by 2.5 points.
