Betting on Engagement: The Influence of Sports Betting on Viewership

With sports fans watching events because of their gambling behavior to some degree it’s unsurprising that in-play betting has become a critical part of the viewing experience for many. A 2024 International Betting Integrity Association’s study on the availability of sports betting products estimated that 47% of all bets placed this year will be in-play wagers.

This form of betting is likely to keep viewers engaged in games, even if they become uncompetitive. In the Variety Intelligence Platform data referenced above, there was a significant split in bettors when it came to paying attention to ‘blowout’ games depending on whether they had bet.

In-play betting is likely to drive this type of behavior because the wagers are by definition related to exclusively what is happening in the current game — and some of the most common bet types like point spreads and over/under aren’t resolved until an event concludes.

A qualitative interview-based study from the Journal of Gambling Studies (Killick et al, 2020) supports this notion. Below are a couple of representative quotations from its participants:

While sports leagues and broadcasters may see clear value in the added engagement, there are significant drawbacks as there’s evidence that in-play betting drives problem gambling more than other wagering types.

A recent study (Gainsbury et al 2020) found that bettors who made in-play wagers had a far higher Problem Gambling Severity Index score (8.76) than those who did not (3.68). To put those scores in perspective, numbers between 1 and 4 are considered ‘low’ risk severity while anything over 8 is considered ‘problematic’.

There are also indications that in-play betting has notable partial correlations with behaviors like increased junk food consumption and alcohol intake even controlling for PGSI scores (Lopez-Gonzalez et al 2018).

That could create a vicious cycle for bettors as there is evidence to suggest that alcohol consumption can lead to more in-play betting and resulting financial loss. A recent psychosocial study (Kim et al 2023) found that using alcohol and making  in-play bets at the same time was associated with an estimated 9.8× increase in the likelihood of experiencing in-play betting-related financial harms.

Not only is sports betting to some degree driving viewership, it’s changing the experience for sports fans through its advertising.

The degree to which sports fans are bombarded by sportsbook commercials varies by region, but as an instructive example the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation collaborated with the University of Bristol (Wheaton et al 2024) found there was some kind of gambling advertisement once every 2.8 minutes and the messages accounted for approximately one fifth of all viewing time.

Not only do a number of fans report qualitative dissatisfaction with the quantity of gambling advertising they see, there is data supporting a relationship between advertising exposure and problem gambling.

A massive study drawing 30,000 survey respondents from the Norwegian Population Registry (Syvertsen et al, 2021) found a significant difference in the amount of gambling advertising exposure between problem gamblers and those who were classified as ‘non-problem’ by the Canadian Problem Gambling Index.

Participants were asked to rate their exposure over the past 12 months across a variety of mediums on a five-point scale where each number had the following meaning:

1. Never
2. Less than once a month
3. Monthly
4. Weekly
5. Approximately daily

The results were as follows:

This correlational data doesn’t prove causation, but it is supported by other studies such as Wardle et al 2022 that found nearly one-third of bettors (31.2%) report that gambling marketing had prompted unplanned wagering.

Gambling operators appear to be acting with this information in mind. 

A study of advertising during the 2018 World Cup (Newell et al 2019) discovered that the live odds bookmakers promoted on advertisements had an average decimal odds of 7.4 (or +640 in American odds) which come with an implied probability of 13.5% — meaning they were far less likely to hit than the average wager. 

While some bets at those odds can theoretically be good value, they are extremely likely to be profitable for the sportsbook. By promoting them during sporting events they may entice bettors to make poor decisions using the persuasive power of advertising. 

While there are concerns related to the increased prevalence of gambling and gambling advertising across the general population, that’s especially true when it comes to young viewers.

Research from GambleAware in 2020 indicates that in the United Kingdom gambling marketing is ubiquitous — even for children well below the legal age of participation. Here are some highlights our the findings:

• 96% of the 11-24 year old participants had been exposed to gambling marketing messages in the last month
• 85% aged 11-24 reported seeing gambling advertising on TV (including national lottery advertisements)
• 70% of children and young people noticed gambling advertisements in betting shops, window displays, and promotions on shop floors.
• 66% reported seeing gambling promotions on their social media channels, that were most likely to be in the form of video adverts while watching clips on YouTube or Facebook

A study of the exposure of gambling advertisements to Australians 11-16 (Thomas et al, 2018) yielded similar results as 96.1% recalled seeing some kind of gambling marketing, 91.0% reported seeing it on television and 71.2% said they observed it during sporting events they were watching.

Matching these exposure metrics to actual usership is impossible to do conclusively because of the illegality of underage gambling — leading to unreliable data and self-reporting. Even so, based on the relationship between advertising and behavior it seems fair to conclude that the ever present marketing of gambling is having an effect.

Interestingly, there is evidence to suggest that young people are both wise to this phenomenon, and not in favor of it. An Australian study (Pitt et al, 2022) on the attitudes of people between the ages of 11 and 17 on gambling yielded some insightful quotations:

‘If there were as many ads showing people that have had their lives stuffed up because of gambling, as there were ads telling you to do gambling, then I feel like it would be a much less harmful place.’

The variety of concerns surrounding the prevalence of gambling advertising has led to a number of efforts to restrict it around the globe.

Some of those have been undertaken voluntarily, such as the NFL making the decision to limit the number of sportsbook advertisements to six per game and minimize the iGaming industry’s footprint at the most recent Super Bowl to three ads.

The English Premier League has also been proactive with the decision to remove gambling sponsorships from the front of their matchday shirts by the end of the 2025-26 season. That step has been undermined to some extent by the fact that 11 of the EPL’s 20 teams still have gambling sponsorship on their shirts — and the league recently came under scrutiny for advertising gambling on pages targeted to or featuring people under the age of 18.

Counting on professional leagues to limit possible income streams in the name of the public good is unlikely to be a reliable strategy, leading governments to step in, or at least get pushed to by their constituents. In some cases, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, that resulted in near-complete bans. More often than not, the goal is limiting gambling advertisements rather than eliminating them.

Below are some examples of recent regulatory efforts around the world:

United States

Democratic congressman Paul Tonko of New York and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut introduced a comprehensive sports betting reform bill (the SAFE Bet Act) in September that would stop gambling operators from running ads between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. and during live sporting events. 

• The bill has numerous provisions limiting the iGaming industry and as of publication there doesn’t seem to be much momentum for turning this proposed legislation into law.

United Kingdom

With a Labour government taking the reins as of July, there has been pressure applied to the new administration to impose tighter restrictions on gambling advertising. 

• A Peers for Gambling Reform summit in September that featured the participation of a number of MPs called on culture secretary, Lisa Nandy to get to work on the issue — and just over two weeks later a Survation poll found that 51% of respondents agreed that ‘all gambling advertising, promotion, and sponsorship should be banned’. Whether this sentiment leads to tangible action remains to be seen, but the foundation for reform is being laid.

Australia

In September Sky News reported that the Labor Party government was planning to introduce a ban on online gambling advertising, but nothing happened on that front in the month following the report. This caused Australian Greens to put forward a bill entitled the ‘Ban Gambling Ads Bill’ to the country’s Senate on October 9. 

• The Greens have limited power in the chamber (11 of 76 senators) and will need significant support from more other parties for the bill to progress. As of the publication of this research, the situation is ongoing. 

Canada, Ontario

The only legal sports betting market in the country — issued a ban on the use of celebrity endorsements in gambling advertisements that went into effect in February. This doesn’t explicitly limit advertising, but the goal is to put downward pressure on its effectiveness.

• There is a loophole that allows celebrities to appear in advertisements if they are ‘advocating for responsible gambling practices’ which could take some of the teeth out of it.

There is no doubt that the growth of legal sports betting is having a significant impact on the sports viewing experience. 

Both leagues and broadcasters are likely to welcome this change as it brings in advertising revenue in two ways. Firstly, it has the potential to put upwards pressure on ratings — and as a result increase the price of advertising slots. It has also created a new class of potential advertisers that have shown a willingness to heavily invest in sports broadcasts.

These benefits to the industry come with associated costs that are difficult to quantify in definite terms. There is evidence to suggest that sports fans are dissatisfied with what they perceive as an oversaturation of gambling advertising — and that advertising seems like it may help drive problematic gambling behavior in some cases.

Of particular concern is how constant exposure to gambling marketing may affect children who are just beginning to form their opinions on betting and the risks associated with it. These worries have resulted in action for a few markets, and it will be interesting to monitor how that pushback evolves in the years to come.

The age of normalized gambling content is relatively new, and it’s still not entirely clear how it will affect the world of professional sports in the long term. What we already know is that its entrenched presence already shows signs of having clear benefits and meaningful drawbacks. How those are balanced will determine how healthy the addition of legal betting will ultimately be to the sports ecosystem.

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