Mike de Decker shares abhorrent social media abuse after Players Championship 19 defeat

Mike de Decker shared details of abhorrent social media abuse after he was defeated in the second round of Players Championship 19 on Thursday. A sight which continues to be a growing issue in the game.

Tennis in particular as a sport has tangled with this problem with players coming out just this week in the run up to Wimbledon to share their wrangling with messages through social media.

But De Decker showed that it isn't just that sport where people take their frustrations out on losing bets in particular as he shared screenshots. One saying that they have to kill themselves after losing 20k. Albeit De Decker replied 'Ok bye bye' in response.

Another wrote: "You're a fraudster, I hope some (one) kills you, you don't deserve to be on earth."

While another wished cancer on De Decker and said that he fixed the game. De Decker won his opener at Players Championship 19 fairly easily thrashing Danny van Trijp 6-0.

But he faced issues from there in facing off against Dominik Gruellich losing 6-5 to the German as his opening average of 103 wasn't mirrored in his second game where he averaged 87 in losing out narrowly. But it seems that some didn't take to him losing that well.

As darts gets more and more popular it will likely become more of a prevalent theme with governing bodies in most other sports where this is an issue being asked to step up due to the rise in this kind of abuse. Whether general or due to sports betting.

James Wade went on to win Players Championship 19 bringing the curtain down on a triple header that was also won by Chris Dobey and Stephen Bunting over this week. That will be the last general action for a while with US Darts Masters and Poland Darts Masters taking place for the top names.