Fanatics Sportsbook has partnered with Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360) to launch a program aimed at identifying and reporting social media abuse linked to sports betting. This initiative, known as the Bad Actor Program, seeks to ensure that individuals who harass athletes online face bans from placing bets.
Introduced on Thursday in collaboration with data firm Signify Group, the Bad Actor Program is described as "the first industry network designed to identify, alert, and prevent bad actors from creating accounts or placing wagers."
Fanatics is currently the only member of this new initiative, although the companies are actively seeking to include other betting operators.
Starting at the beginning of the football season, IC360 will utilize Signify's AI-driven Threat Matrix service to monitor social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube for abusive or threatening content aimed at athletes or sporting organizations. When such abusive behavior is detected, the targeted social media accounts will be blacklisted on IC360's ProhiBet Bad Actor platform, with Fanatics taking action to suspend or permanently ban offenders.
The joint statement from the companies emphasized the urgency of addressing online abuse, noting, "As online abuse continues to affect athletes in the United States and abroad, the Bad Actor Program represents an important step in safeguarding the well-being of everyone involved in legal sports betting."
The program functions similarly to IC360's established ProhiBet tool, which works to prevent individuals who should not be betting on sports—such as athletes, coaches, and officials—from placing wagers. ProhiBet informs sportsbooks of potential abuse cases, enabling them to restrict betting activities accordingly.
Under the Bad Actor Program, Signify will keep a close watch on social media communications, evaluate abuse reports from athletes, gauge their severity, and escalate serious issues as needed, possibly involving law enforcement. Signify has previously collaborated with sports organizations like the NCAA, which reported that over half of Division I men's basketball student-athletes had experienced social media abuse and nearly half received threatening messages from bettors.
IC360 also encourages sporting personnel to report abusive direct messages, as these are often more difficult for monitoring firms to identify.
IC360 Co-CEO Scott Sadin acknowledged the rising threats of violence and harassment in sports, stating, "Addressing the individuals with ProhibitBA and Threat Matrix is crucial to protecting athletes and other stakeholders from serious, long-term harm."
While currently the only sportsbook involved in the Bad Actor Program, IC360 confirmed that Fanatics is the first legal sports betting operator to join. Non-sportsbook entities, such as prediction market platforms, may also participate in the future.
Fanatics Betting and Gaming CEO Matt King called on competitors to join the program, emphasizing the importance of preventing banned bettors from opening accounts elsewhere. The initiative will produce evidence-based reports and share information among legal sports betting operators, along with relevant data for sports leagues and teams.
King highlighted, "This groundbreaking program will hold bettors accountable for threats made against players, coaches, and officials. 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."
In a related effort, FanDuel recently banned a bettor for verbally abusing Olympian Gabby Thomas at a track event, while BetMGM has implemented a strict zero-tolerance policy for abuse, committing to suspend customer accounts as necessary.
