As sports betting becomes increasingly prevalent and more states introduce legal mobile wagering, fans at games now have the opportunity to sweat out their bets in person.
For most, that increases the enjoyment, as there really isn’t anything quite like sweating out a bet live and in the building rather than on TV, but unsurprisingly, some fans get too invested and take things too far. That is what happened after a Wizards-Magic game, when a group of fans heckled Bradley Beal after a 122-112 Wizards loss, with one fan going at Beal for ending up on the losing end of a parlay. Beal, like so many other players, is very tired of complaints from sports bettors who have become very vocal in yelling at players online, and took the opportunity to send a message back in person, per TMZ Sports.
One of the guys in a group yelled at Beal, “You f***ed me [out of] $1,300, you f***!”
Beal then turned, walked toward the fans, and appeared to knock the hat off one of the guys’ heads in response to the heckle. Beal and the fans then jawed back and forth, with Beal calling the comment “disrespectful.”
“Keep it a buck,” Beal said. “I don’t give a f*** about none of your bets or your parlays, bro. That ain’t why I play the game.”
The fan then apparently filed a police report, claiming Beal hit him in the head when he smacked the hat off his head, and Orlando police told TMZ they’ll likely charge Beal with “simple battery.”
This is, of course, incredibly weak for a number of reasons, first being if you’re cussing a player out over a lost parlay, you absolutely deserve to get smacked upside the head. On top of that, instigating an altercation and then running to the police after slight physical contact is also fairly pathetic, but falls in line with the behavior of someone that would cry to a player about their lost parlay. It’s fine and normal to be mad and grumble about a lost bet, we all do it, but don’t do it to the players — either online or in person.
