FanDuel bans bettor for heckling Olympian at track meet
FanDuel has banned an online bettor after he posted a video of himself heckling Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas at a Grand Slam Track event in Philadelphia last weekend, claiming “it made my parlay win.”
The 28-year-old athlete on Monday posted on X: “This grown man followed me around the track as I took pictures and signed autographs for fans (mostly children) shouting personal insults. Anybody who enables him online is gross.”
Thomas finished fourth in the 100-meter dash.
“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.”
The bettor, who goes by “mr100kaday” on X, describes himself as “The Track and Field Bully.” He posted video of himself heckling Thomas ahead of the race with a screenshot of a $1,000 parlay bet on FanDuel.
he bettor called Thomas a “choke artist” and disparaged her husband for being White.
“I made Gabby lose by heckling her. And it made my parlay win,” the man wrote on X.
A parlay bet is a type of wager where two or more individual bets or combined into a single wager.
FanDuel, which is owned by Flutter Entertainment, was established in 2009 to offer daily fantasy sports services nationwide. With sports betting approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2018, they expanded into online and retail sportsbooks.
The bettor told USA Today he resides in Puerto Rico. He posted Monday on X: “Gabby thomas is a liar. Lying on a fan because they boo you and yell for you to lose to their favorite athlete. May Grand Slam track fail very very quickly.”
Grand Slam Track, a professional track and field league, is conducting a “full investigation into the reprehensible behavior captured on video” in a statement to ESPN. “We are working to identify the individual involved and will take appropriate action as necessary.”
Thomas, in a separate post on X on Monday, wrote: “Not the Slam results I hoped for, but when you race as often as I do, you can’t win em all. On the bright side, this is the best I have ever ran at this at this point in the season!!”