NCAA Becomes First Sports Governing Body to Join Bad Actor Program Targeting Online Abuse of Athletes
Guardii Analysis
On 29 October 2026, the NCAA announced it is the first sports governing body to participate in the Bad Actor Program, an initiative established by IC360 and Signify Group with Fanatics Sportsbook to identify and address abusive, threatening and harassing behaviour directed at athletes, coaches and officials through social media and other online platforms. The programme combines social media monitoring and investigative capabilities to identify individuals responsible for online abuse and provide participating organisations with information to support accountability measures, including banning individuals from betting platforms. Data released by the NCAA identified more than 5,000 verified abusive, discriminatory or threatening social media posts directed at championship participants, with sports betting directly linked to 12 percent of all verified abuse rising to 19 percent in men's basketball, one student-athlete receiving more than 1,400 abusive messages in less than two weeks, and women's basketball student-athletes receiving approximately three times more threats than men's basketball student-athletes.
The programme's reliance on retrospective monitoring and manual investigation leaves athletes exposed to sustained abuse before an offender is identified. Guardii's athlete-abuse detection module operates at the point of contact, monitoring direct-message traffic in real time to intercept threats, harassment and betting-related intimidation before they reach a student-athlete or professional competitor. Developed by a world-leading AI platform backed by Startmate, the technology detects escalation, coercion and sustained targeting across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and other platforms, blocking or flagging hostile messages as they are sent rather than after hundreds have already been delivered. This allows a sporting body, university or athlete-protection programme to prevent the psychological and reputational harm documented in the NCAA's abuse study, surface an athlete under acute threat to a coach or support professional, and provide enforcement partners with evidence of a pattern that meets the threshold for a platform ban or criminal referral.