Lynx news: Cheryl Reeve calls out WNBA's exclusion from betting letter
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Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve called out the WNBA’s exclusion from a joint sports betting harassment memo involving five major men’s leagues.
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The NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and MLS, along with their players’ associations, sent the memo to state gaming regulators urging lifetime sportsbook bans for bettors who threaten or harass athletes, coaches, and their families.
The WNBA was not included in the effort.
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“I cannot believe that women’s sports were not included in that (letter). It’s a big miss,” Reeve said, per Madeline Kenney of the New York Post. “I suspect people in the room that are making those decisions of who’s going to get together, there probably wasn’t representation that people that would go, it would be a good idea that we included these other professional sports.”
Reeve also explained why the issue hits close to home for WNBA players.
“The harassment that our players get, the stories that they’ve told me about what happens when they didn’t meet, I don’t even know what a parlay is but when they didn’t do what they needed to do or if I sub somebody out, or if I — whatever it is that impacts a person’s pocketbook and so yeah, that’s a part of it,” Reeve added.
The WNBPA previously shared similar frustration. Executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson called the NBA’s decision “deeply disappointing,” pointing to multiple betting-related harassment incidents involving WNBA players.
WNBA players like Natasha Cloud and Courtney Williams have also spoken about receiving abusive messages from bettors. The issue has become more visible as sports betting expands across professional sports.
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