Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne has faced criticism from an unexpected group after a poor performance in a loss to California: upset sports bettors.
Thorne mentioned on The Next Round podcast Tuesday that he’s been contacted by fans both in person and online. Some have even sent him Venmo requests.
“They’re definitely not sending cash,” Thorne said, referring to the four interceptions he threw in the 21-14 loss on Saturday. “It’s amusing that when they lose money, they want it back, but when they win money, no one offers to share their winnings.”
In the game against Cal, Thorne completed 14 of 27 passes for 165 yards and one touchdown. One of his interceptions led to the Golden Bears’ go-ahead score early in the second quarter.
In May, the NCAA reported that one in three high-profile athletes received abusive messages related to betting, according to a study by the AI service Signify Group during the NCAA basketball tournaments.
The study showed that during the tournaments, athletes got over 540 abusive messages about betting. Of 1,000 Division I basketball players, 280 coaches, and 120 NCAA game officials, more than 54,000 posts or comments were flagged, with 4,000 confirmed as abusive or threatening.
The NCAA has called for states where sports betting is legal to ban prop bets on college athletes.
Prop bets, or proposition bets, allow gamblers to bet on a player’s performance stats during a game instead of just the final score.
As for Thorne, Auburn coach Hugh Freeze hasn’t ruled out the possibility of replacing him with backup Hank Brown for the game against New Mexico on Saturday. Freeze mentioned that he doesn’t like benching players who have been strong in practice but will make a decision later in the week.
“Having said that, you know, you have to carry that over into the games,” Freeze said. “You have to. I saw Thorne play really well in some big games last year, but we’ve also seen the opposite in other games.”
