This story first appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Canadian Gaming Business magazine.
Ottawa Senators captain Tkachuk says irate bettors ask him for money
Amid high-profile incidents of athletes speaking out about the harassment they receive from disgruntled gamblers, Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk revealed this week that he has repeatedly received payment demands from strangers who want him to reimburse money they lost betting on his performances.
Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski that he had to lock down his public Venmo account because of the number of messages he got from people asking him to cover their losses on player prop bets.
This has become an all-too-common trend fueled by the popularity of player props, wherein bettors back certain players to hit (or miss) certain metrics. When those bets don’t cash, some bettors seem to think the athlete is to blame.
“Not even winning or scoring, it was like my shots or my hits,” Tkachuk said of the kind of wagers he was hearing about. “I eventually had to change my name because my Venmo, I had it in college, there was a selfie of me and my name. People got ahold of that, so I had to change my name on it and take down my profile picture.”
While messages on social media or other platforms range in tone and intent from light-hearted to genuinely abusive, it’s trending in a concerning direction.
‘You really think I care about your parlay?’
“Honestly, I think it’s funny,” Tkachuk added. “People really think I’m going to send them money if I didn’t make the shots? I’m more pissed that I didn’t win the game or score, whatever it may be. I could care less about not hitting the 4.5 or whatever the cover is for the bet.
“You really think I care about your parlay? It’s pretty funny that people get so emotional about that stuff.”
Tkachuk stressed later in the interview that he never sent anyone money as a result of the requests. “I wouldn’t be playing in the NHL, because that’s breaking a lot of rules.”
Tkachuk likely takes a light-hearted view of it because, in his case, it’s been relatively harmless. But we’ve seen numerous incidents in recent times, mostly south of the border, in which there has been more than enough stark evidence that things can get all too real very quickly.
Lost bets lead to rough threats
Last October, the U.S. National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and data partner Signify detailed that more than 5,000 public social media posts directly abused college athletes, coaches or officials over the space of a few months, a significant proportion of which were tied to wagering. Those were just the public posts, let alone DMs or other out-of-sight communications.
In December, a report found that around half of online abuse towards tennis players came from “angry gamblers,” and numerous pro players have reported such messages. The issue reared its ugly head again just this month when Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina said she received abuse from bettors, including death wishes, celebrations of Russian anti-Ukrainian violence and racial slurs against her husband, French tennis player Gael Monfils.
Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said in May he had to hire 24-hour security after his family received threats that police determined came from intoxicated gamblers. In the same month, Boston Red Sox’s Liam Hendriks revealed he and family members were threatened with death over lost wagers.
“We really do get death threats,” said Brooklyn Nets player Michael Porter Jr. Porter is the brother of former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who was banned by the NBA and faces criminal charges for his part in a betting scheme on his own games.
Meanwhile, FanDuel banned a bettor in June who recorded himself heckling Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas in-person at a track event in Pennsylvania.
“My worry is that a player gets assaulted or killed or something,” said Hendriks’ Boston teammate Lucas Giolito in July. “Because I am well aware that gambling addiction ruins people’s lives, so you never know if someone’s in a drastic state, what they could get into.”
Giolito noted he took it upon himself to speak directly with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred about sports betting-related athlete abuse, and said the executive was “taken aback” when the athlete described the levels of betting-related abuse that players receive through social media.
If Manfred were paying attention, he shouldn’t be surprised.