FanDuel reportedly bans bettor who filmed himself heckling Gabby Thomas at Grand Slam Track in Philly
The three-time gold medalist posted about the incident on social media earlier in the week, prompting an investigation by Grand Slam Track.
Over the weekend, three-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas was followed and verbally abused by a sports bettor as she competed in the Grand Slam Track meet in Philadelphia. By midweek, FanDuel said it had banned the man behind the heckling from gambling on its platform.
“FanDuel condemns in the strongest terms abusive behavior directed towards athletes,” a FanDuel spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN on Wednesday. “Threatening or harassing athletes is unacceptable and has no place in sports. This customer is no longer able to wager with FanDuel.”
The man, known as “mr100kaday” on social media, recorded himself insulting the runner as she prepared to race the 100 meters and posted it on X. Afterward, the self-proclaimed “track and field bully” — which is how he describes himself in his X profile — posted screenshots of a two-bet FanDuel slip, revealing that he won over $2,000 on two separate parlays, which both included Melissa Jefferson-Wooden’s win over Thomas in the women’s 100 meters.
“I made Gabby lose by heckling her. And it made my parlay win,” the man wrote on X.
The incident gained national attention when Thomas replied to his Monday post bragging about heckling the track star.
“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 wrote on X on Monday.
On Tuesday, Grand Slam Track said in a statement to The Inquirer that it is working on “conducting a full investigation into the reprehensible behavior captured on video.”
Thomas, however, didn’t let one heckler ruin her experience at Franklin Field.
“Overall the fans and spectators at this meet were the absolute best!! I had so much fun meeting them,” Thomas wrote on X.