Missouri Monitors Athlete Welfare as Sports Betting Launches

Missouri sports betting is set to begin on Dec. 1, prompting the University of Missouri (MU) to assess how the new market could impact student-athletes. The focus has been intensified amid recent betting scandals across multiple leagues and concerns over bullying.

MU Faculty Athletics Representative Pam Brunzina said concerns grew after the NCAA permitted student-athletes to wager on professional sports. She noted that the NCAA maintained a strong emphasis on integrity but warned that risks extended beyond manipulation schemes.

Although Missouri sports betting law prohibits betting on in-state college teams, Brunzina said isolated cases of harassment involving Mizzou athletes had already occurred. She pointed to NCAA research showing that abuse toward college athletes, particularly during basketball tournaments, had escalated in recent years. 

Brunzina said student-athletes were young competitors doing their best and that wagering-related frustrations should not overshadow that perspective.

The NCAA deployed a video campaign during the 2024 men's and women's basketball tournaments, urging fans to avoid abusive behavior and recommending that states prohibit prop bets linked to individual college players. It also worked with Venmo to stop harassing payment requests related to lost bets.

 In 2025, Signify Group looked at online hostility at seven championship events. They looked at 5,555 athletes, 625 coaches, 466 teams, and 26 NCAA accounts. The study found that 31 people were responsible for the worst cases, and eight of them were directly linked to sports betting. 

Seven incidents were referred to law enforcement.

NCAA data shows widespread betting-related harassment 

These concerns aligned with the NCAA's findings, which revealed a high volume of betting-related interactions. The group says that in the past year, 36% of Division I men's basketball players said they had been abused on social media because of sports betting, and 29% said a classmate who had bet on their team had come up to them.

Among Football Bowl Subdivision athletes, 16% received hostile or threatening messages, and 26% had been contacted by a student discussing a wager on their team.

Across all Division I men's sports, 7% reported receiving negative or threatening messages tied to betting outcomes, and 9% said students told them they had won or lost a wager based on their performance. Rates were significantly lower for women's sports at 1% for both categories. Because the survey asked about interactions over the previous year, only sophomores and older players were included.

Former Butler basketball player Pierre Brooks II said such messages were common and often appeared when bettors were dissatisfied with Over/Under results.

The NCAA has since urged regulators and operators to eliminate prop bets on college sports, while asserting that states that continue offering them risk undermining athlete safety and the integrity of competition. 

The NCAA enforcement team is currently investigating approximately 30 potential betting violations involving men's basketball players, with 12 athletes already facing permanent bans. The organization remains the only major US sports body that bars commercial partnerships with the best sports betting sites.