According to an ESPN report, Brady Tkachuk, the standout forward for the Ottawa Senators, is the most recent professional athlete to discuss mistreatment from gamblers.

Tkachuk is an intimidating 6-foot-4 power forward who weighs 225 pounds.  His capacity to hit and fight is almost as well-known as his skill at scoring goals—he scored 29 goals the previous season, 37 in 2023–24, and 35 in 2022–23.

But social media sniping—which is frequently done anonymously—is a very different animal.  Brady claimed in an interview with ESPN's Greg Wyshynski that he had to switch his Venmo account because he was being harassed by fans who had placed bets on Tkachuk's game performances and wanted refunds.

Requesting Refunds

Using a website or mobile app, a Venmo account is a digital wallet that enables sending, receiving, and storing of funds.  Your entire name, username, profile picture, sender and recipient names and usernames, and transaction notes are all visible to others if your account is set to "public."  However, the payout amount is never made public.

Due to the more immediate pleasure that micro-market bets with smaller sums provide, micro-markets are becoming more and more popular among bettors.  In-game hits, saves, shoots on goal, and so on.

Micro-Market Gambling

In his conversation with Wyshynski, Tkachuk mentioned that.

"It’s not even like winning or scoring. It was like my shots or my hits,” Tkachuk said. “I eventually had to change my name, because my Venmo, I had it in college. There’s a selfie of me and my name. People got a hold of that. So I had to change my name on it, and I had to take down my profile picture. So now, when I Venmo people, people are probably like, who the hell is Venmoing me?”

Tkachuck said, "absolutely not," to the question of whether he actually paid out to fans who reportedly lost money betting on him. He also mentioned that it would be impractical and against several NHL regulations to do so. He continued, "To be honest, I find it amusing because it seems like people are genuinely afraid that I will send them money for failing to make shots [on goal]."  "What irritates me more is that we lost the game, the score, or anything.  I don't give a damn if I don't hit the four, four and a half, or whatever the bet's cover is. 

Pro-athlete intimidation

Tkachuk stated that although he is aware that spectators might become emotional during games, particularly when money is involved, he does not take those things into account when

"Do you really think I care about your parlay?” he said. “I just think it’s pretty funny that people get so emotional and mad about this, and that’s not even our [athletes’] thought process.”

However, professional players have spoken out more against betting harassment.  After a tough game against the Philadelphia Phillies in July, Boston Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito spoke about the threats he and his girlfriend received from irate gamblers.