NCAA becomes first sports body to join IC360 Bad Actor Program
College sports' governing body joins DraftKings, Kalshi, Novig and Fanatics in a scheme that shares reports of betting-related harassment with operators.
The NCAA has become the first US sports governing body to sign up to IC360's Bad Actor Program, a scheme designed to identify and act against bettors who harass athletes online, SBC Americas reported.
The initiative pairs integrity monitoring firm Integrity Compliance 360 with sports data company Signify Group. The NCAA said on Thursday it would report incidents of abuse and harassment detected during its championship events to IC360, letting participating betting operators cross-reference the offending accounts and take action where warranted.
NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement reported by SBC Americas that "Athlete harassment has no place in college sports." He added that the organisation has "led efforts to better understand and address online harassment, and we are proud to support new tools that increase accountability for those who target student-athletes, coaches and officials."
IC360 and Signify launched the Bad Actor Program in June, with Fanatics Sportsbook the first operator to take part. Fanatics committed to suspending or permanently banning users sending abusive or harassing messages. At the time, Fanatics Betting and Gaming chief executive Matt King urged rival operators to join so that banned bettors could not simply reopen accounts elsewhere.
IC360 confirmed to SBC Americas that the programme now has five US members: DraftKings, Fanatics, Kalshi, the NCAA and Novig. In Canada, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation also joined this week to apply the tools to its PROLINE online sportsbook. IC360 has worked with Kalshi since March and announced a tie-up with prediction markets exchange Novig on 19 October.
The NCAA's involvement marks a shift from its earlier stance on Kalshi, whose college event contracts it had sought to distance itself from. Baker addressed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in early 2026, telling the regulator the association was open to collaborating with industry on building a future marketplace that protects student-athletes, consumers and the integrity of college sport competitions.
The Bad Actor Program uses Signify's AI-driven Threat Matrix to identify individuals sending abuse or threats across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube. Flagged social media accounts are blacklisted and the information shared with leagues, betting operators and other partners, with some cases escalated to law enforcement.
Baker has repeatedly pushed for restrictions on betting tied to college sports over the past two years, most notably calling for a ban on player prop bets involving student-athletes, arguing such wagers put both athlete welfare and competitive integrity at risk.
A 2025 GOALS study carried out by the NCAA found that more than half of Division I men's basketball players, 51%, said they had been subjected to abuse on social media, while 46% reported receiving negative or threatening messages from someone who had bet on their game.
Clint Hangebrauck, the NCAA's managing director, said surveying student-athletes and tracking online harassment has given the association insight into how much abuse occurs, where it comes from and how closely it is tied to betting activity, and that this evidence has underpinned enforcement action whenever threatening conduct has surfaced.