A pair of recently filed West Virginia sports betting bills attempt to mirror laws in adjacent states that cover issues related to wagering. 

One bill, HB 4700, would give the West Virginia’s sports betting regulator the ability to ban bettors who harass athletes, coaches, and officials. Ohio enacted similar legislation last year, months after University of Dayton basketball coach Anthony Grant complained about his players receiving social media harassment. 

West Virginia Del. Shawn Fluharty, who introduced the same legislation last year, told Sports Handle in September he’s more optimistic about the bill’s chances of passing in 2024. 

The other new bill, HB 4019, would allow the West Virginia State Lottery Commission to accredit independent tout and handicapper evaluators. Those evaluators would provide an audit of sports betting content coming directly from operators or the affiliates of operators. 

That bill mirrors Maryland sports betting legislation enacted last year. The focus is to better review sports betting content with the goal of filtering out misleading and shady sports betting touts. 

Some companies, such as SharpRank, are hopeful Maryland’s legislation focused on touts inspires other states to follow suit. SharpRank believes sports betting handicapping advice can often be misleading or inaccurate, and it’s one of the businesses in the industry that specializes in auditing sports wagering content. 

Similar to the bettor harassment bill, legislators in West Virginia attempted but failed to pass handicapper auditing legislation in 2023. It’s possible the bill could find better success during the 2024 session, but there are still questions about the legislation’s possible impact. 

It’s unclear exactly what repercussions an operator would face if it’s found to have been sharing misleading sports betting content. There’s also the question of whether the bill actually reduces shady content in the industry. Often, the most misleading sports betting content isn’t coming from an operator or an operator’s affiliate, but rather random touts on the internet and social media who could be hard to regulate.

Ohio’s harassment legislation may have a better chance of catching on nationwide in the near future. The U.S. Integrity monitoring company has pushed for legislation like Ohio’s to be implemented in other states, especially as athletes continue to face harassment from angry bettors. The company created an anonymous tipline to track athlete harassment, and it plans to track the data to share a better picture of the volume of harassment athletes face.

The NCAA is also actively lobbying state legislatures for more athlete protections, which could spark a nationwide push for athlete harassment protection bills.