Venmo announced a partnership Tuesday with the NCAA to support athletes who face harassment on the payment app, which has embraced its popularity on college campuses with school spirit-branded debit cards and an option for athletes to receive money from their school directly in the PayPal app.<\/p>\n
The partnership includes a reporting hotline for athletes and the NCAA to call in potential cases of abuse, such as when former Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne said he received payment requests<\/a> from angry sports bettors following a loss last season.<\/p>\n \u201cThe harassment we are seeing across various online platforms is unacceptable, and we need fans to do better,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a news release. \u201cWe applaud Venmo for taking action, and we need more social media companies and online platforms to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n Venmo said it would provide a best-practices<\/a> guide for athletes to \u201cstay safe\u201d on its platform.<\/p>\n \u201cVenmo will monitor student-athletes\u2019 accounts on an ongoing basis to help mitigate an influx of requests based on game performance and work directly with them to implement additional security measures as needed,\u201d the news release said.<\/p>\n The payment app in July announced Big 12-branded debit cards<\/a> with special perks, leaning into its belief that Venmo plays \u201can integral role in the way millions of college students, athletes, alumni, and fans engage with each other and move money in their daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cVenmo\u2019s origins are on college campuses. It\u2019s where our network took hold,” Geoff Seeley, chief marketing officer at Venmo\u2019s parent company, PayPal, said in a news release.<\/p>\n PayPal also announced in June an agreement with the Big 12 and Big Ten that allows schools to pay their players<\/a> directly through its platform.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n