FanDuel-Sponsored Golfer Says Betting Makes Fans Toxic
Jordan Spieth and FanDuel might be due for a breakup.
The professional golfer said at a recent press event for the John Deere Classic that legal sports betting has noticeably affected fan behavior over the past few years. He said some fans are hurting the game.
Spieth warned that fans with money on the line could try to impact a golfer’s shot, which would undermine the integrity of the game.
“I do think that betting in golf is something that’s going to have to be tackled here soon,” he said in a video clip posted by Golf Digest. “And in golf, it’s tricky because you could actually impact the outcome if you wanted to. I don’t know of another sport that you could impact as a fan like you can golf.”
The irony here is that Spieth signed a sponsorship deal with FanDuel in 2021. He was among the first PGA Tour players to partner with a sports betting brand.
He has appeared in numerous FanDuel advertisements and promoted the product on his social media as recently as April 2026. In 2023, for example, when FanDuel announced live betting on golf, Spieth replied, “This is awesome!”
As expected, he was raked over the coals on social media in late June 2026 for what many people described as hypocrisy.
It’s unclear what Spieth meant by “tackled.” It appears he is referring to changes the PGA Tour could make to prevent fans from interacting with players. There have been high-profile instances of fan abuse in recent years.
FanDuel has said that it bans or restricts the accounts of users who it determines have harassed athletes, online or in person. It’s unclear how many users have been banned for this reason.
Athlete harassment related to betting is apparently common, though most users don’t do it.
In July 2025, a U.S. News survey found that 21% of sports bettors admitted to “verbally abusing” an athlete, whether online or at a sporting event.
Verbally abusing an athlete can be a sign of a sports gambling addiction. At minimum, it indicates a potentially unhealthy relationship with sports betting that would make someone at heightened risk of an addiction.
In May, FanDuel announced that the NFL journalist Erin Andrews joined the company as a so-called “responsible gaming” ambassador. Responsible gaming is a framework that has been proven not to meaningfully reduce problematic gambling behavior.
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