A thematic analysis of sports bettors’ perceptions of sports betting marketing strategies in the UK

Killick, EA ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0576-8081 and Griffiths, MD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-6524, 2020. A thematic analysis of sports bettors’ perceptions of sports betting marketing strategies in the UK. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 20 (2), pp. 800-818. ISSN 1557-1874

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Abstract

In the UK and other countries in the world, the volume of gambling advertisements is increasing, as is the popularity of online sports betting. While there is increasing research examining the content of such advertising, there is little research examining what gamblers themselves think about such advertising. Consequently, the aim of the present study was to firstly, explore the attitudes and opinions of sports bettors in response to marketing techniques used by the gambling industry and secondly, explore the perceived impact advertising has on their sports betting behavior. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of 19 UK sports bettors aged between 21 and 32 years old. Thematic analysis (TA) was used to analyze the transcripts. The analysis identified three main themes: (i) “temptation to gamble,” (ii) “promotion characteristics of gambling,” and (iii) “regulating gambling advertising.” Each theme consisted of two or three subthemes that illustrated the underlying factors that were perceived to be important aspects that contributed to the opinions and attitudes towards the advertising. Findings indicate that specific inducements including enhanced odds and “request-a-bet” promotions were perceived to increase feelings of control and reduce feelings of risk, in some cases resulting in the placing of impulsive bets. According to the participants, social media marketing was found to be intrusive and the frequency of gambling advertising contributed to the normalization of betting. The present study highlights the need for further research into the efficacy of current advertising regulations in the UK, with the end goal of minimizing gambling-related harm.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
Creators:	Killick, E.A. and Griffiths, M.D.
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:	16 October 2020
Volume:	20
Number:	2
ISSN:	1557-1874
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s11469-020-00405-x DOI 1378721 Other
Rights:	© the author(s) 2020. Open Access :This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jill Tomkinson
Date Added:	21 Oct 2020 13:07
Last Modified:	22 Mar 2022 13:48
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/41385

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