At Venmo, our mission has always been to make it simple, safe, and fun for people to share payments and connect with one another. We know that moments of support – whether it’s sending a payment of thanks, celebrating a big win, or helping someone in need – are what make Venmo meaningful. We also recognize that, like any other digital platform, there can be times when that experience is misused.
A Changing Landscape: More Bets, More Bullying
Online harassment has reached unprecedented levels in recent years. Recent research shows that nearly half of U.S. teens and U.S. adults have faced some form of online harassment or cyberbullying, and the trend is only rising.
Athletes are feeling this strain more than ever, as sports fans and bettors increasingly take their frustrations online. A recent study from the NCAA found that 12% of abusive content aimed at college athletes is linked to sports betting, with nearly one in five (19%) harassment cases in men’s football involving betting-related abuse. In some cases, sports fans and bettors will send unwanted payment requests to athletes after losing a bet placed on game performance.
Venmo & NCAA Collaboration
As college football season kicks off, Venmo is collaborating with the NCAA to help protect student-athletes from these unwanted interactions. Every member of the Venmo community deserves a safe and respectful experience when they use the app, so we’re strengthening the protections we have in place to make it easier for these users to maintain a positive experience. These protections include:
A Reporting Hotline: Venmo will offer a dedicated hotline for student-athletes and the NCAA to report potential cases of abuse for investigation and identify typologies of athlete harassment on Venmo.
Student-Athlete Resources: Venmo will provide a best practices guide for student-athletes to stay safe on Venmo with details on the reporting hotline. The guide will be distributed directly to student-athletes via NCAA channels, including newsletters, emails, and e-learning modules.
Athlete Account Support: Venmo will monitor student-athletes’ accounts on an ongoing basis to help mitigate an influx of requests based on game performance and work directly with them to implement additional security measures as needed.
User Education: Venmo will educate users on the possible outcomes of harassing athletes through unwanted requests to athletes, including potential account closure.
David Szuchman, SVP, Head of Global Financial Crime and Customer Protection, PayPal, emphasized, “While unwanted interactions to athletes make up an extremely small percentage of transactions on Venmo, even a small number of these incidents is unacceptable. The safety and security of our users remain our highest priority. Harassment or abuse of any kind is not tolerated on the platform, and strict action is taken against users who violate our policies. Through these measures, we are taking decisive steps to help prevent the misuse of our platform and ensure all our users feel protected when they use Venmo.”
As NCAA President Charlie Baker notes, “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. Several states have passed laws to crack down on this behavior to protect student-athletes, and we hope more do the same because stopping this abuse requires action on multiple fronts.”
Venmo’s collaboration with the NCAA is another positive step that demonstrates how digital platforms can better support athletes in a rapidly changing sports landscape. Venmo will continue to work with organizations across the ecosystem to ensure the next generation of athletes can focus on their ambitions, on and off the field. Because at the end of the day, Venmo is about what brings us together, not what tears us down.