A new survey from The New York Times’ Athletic has found that the increased presence of sports betting legalization has had negative consequences for many NHL players.
According to their poll, just under one-third of players surveyed described an increase in harassment related to sports gambling, including death threats and other violent messages.
“Honestly, I’d say 75 percent of them are being mad about something. ‘How did you let in that late goal? I had the under. Thanks a lot. You f---ing suck.’ Things like that constantly,” said one anonymous NHL goaltender. “I feel like, as a goalie, we’re a little bit more exposed to it, too.”
Another player, also anonymous, pointed to foreign influences also leading to darker, more concerning notes.
“Not here, but to be honest, mostly in Russia,” the player said. “Like it’s getting crazy. You’re up 2-0 and lose, you get messages, like, ‘You f----ing asshole, I’m gonna f----ing kill you.’”
The NHL player poll, released by The Athletic on Wednesday, also found a particularly strange increase in one particular social media platform with a dramatic influx of fans making Venmo requests to players for costing them parlays.
At least three players surveyed described fans requesting hundreds of dollars in demands, sometimes jokingly but often not, with one player even pointing to games in specific cities such as Toronto being worse than others.
It’s led to a growing trend among athletes to disconnect from social media altogether, with individuals surveyed pointing to “scary messages” they found themselves on the receiving end of at times.
Just recently, Vancouver Canucks star Elias Pettersson publicly shared that he had completely removed all social media from his phone, pointing to messages he would receive on Instagram amidst what was at the time a growing slump.
Growing epidemic across sports
The recent Athletic survey of NHL players is by no means an isolated incident in the world of hockey.
Just last month, a report from the NCAA released via ESPN showed alarming trends with social media usage, including large swaths of harassment directed towards players being sports betting related.
"I've heard too many student-athletes talk about abusive messages they have received, and for the first time ever, we now have evidence of the scale at which this is occurring. It's incredibly alarming and completely unacceptable," NCAA president Charlie Baker said at the time. "Fans have to do better, social media companies have to do more to identify and remove this content.”
