A gambler’s scorn knows no bounds.
UNC basketball star Armando Bacot revealed he has gotten a flood of angry messages from gamblers for not hitting on prop bets they have placed on him, including after the Tar Heels’ March Madness win over Michigan State on Saturday, in which Bacot had 18 points and seven rebounds.
This comes as the NCAA is seeking to ban prop bets from being placed on college athletes.
“It’s terrible,” Bacot told reporters in Los Angeles ahead of the Sweet 16. “Even at the last game, I guess I didn’t get enough rebounds or something. I thought I played pretty good last game, but I looked at my DMs, and I got, like, over 100 messages from people telling me I sucked and stuff like that because I didn’t get enough rebounds.
“I think it’s definitely a little out of hand,” he added. “But at the same time too, I get the point of it. Like, if you bet a lot of money on something, and you’re, like, one pick away and somebody messes it up, I understand the part of fans being mad. But it’s annoying, too, at times.”
Some prop bets involve wagers on whether an individual player will record more or less than a set number in a particular stat — for example, whether a basketball player will record over or under 6.5 rebounds in a game.
The NBA is investigating Raptors forward Jontay Porter after there were issues found involving prop bets on him during games on Jan. 26 and March 20.
Porter left early in both games, and DraftKings identified prop bets on both nights as the top moneymaker for gamblers, according to ESPN.
NCAA president Charlie Baker is concerned about the impact of prop bets on college sports and athletes.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes getting harassed,” Baker said Wednesday in a statement. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”
North Carolina faces Alabama on Thursday in the Sweet 16.