Bettor banned for heckling Olympic star Thomas

FanDuel said it has banned a bettor who posted a video of himself heckling Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas at a recent track event and claimed "it made my parlay win."

Thomas posted on X that the unnamed man "followed me around the track as I took pictures and signed autographs for fans (mostly children) shouting personal insults" last weekend at a Grand Slam Track event in Philadelphia.

Grand Slam Track said in a statement that it is conducting a "full investigation into the reprehensible behavior captured on video."

"We are working to identify the individual involved and will take appropriate action as necessary," Grand Slam Track said. "We will implement additional safeguards to help prevent incidents like this in the future. Let us be clear, despicable behavior like this will not be tolerated."

The bettor, who goes by "mr100kaday" on social media and describes himself as "The Track and Field Bully," posted a video of himself heckling Thomas ahead of the 100-meter race alongside a screenshot of a $1,000 parlay bet on FanDuel.

"I made Gabby lose by heckling her. And it made my parlay win," the man wrote in a post on X.

FanDuel said that it informed the customer that he has been banned from its platform.

"FanDuel condemns in the strongest terms abusive behavior directed towards athletes," a FanDuel spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN. "Threatening or harassing athletes is unacceptable and has no place in sports. This customer is no longer able to wager with FanDuel."

Cases of online harassment of athletes rarely result in criminal charges and can be difficult to investigate due to the anonymity of social media.

It marks the latest incident involving athletes being targeted by bettors, a troubling trend that Major League Baseball players have said has increased in recent years with the expansion of legal sports betting in the United States.

Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said he received threats on social media toward his family after a game in May. The Houston Police Department tracked the threats to an overseas bettor.

A study commissioned last year by the NCAA found that abuse by "angry sports bettors" is one of the most common types of harassment college athletes receive, making up at least 12% of publicly posted social media abuse.