SPORTS BETTING MARKETING AND ADVERTISING: A BRIEF OVERVIEW

Full text

SPORTS BETTING
MARKETING
AND ADVERTISING:
A BRIEF OVERVIEW
arkeng strategies are essenal in a market
environment such as online sports beng wherein
product differenaon is minimal and price
inelascity robust (Hing, 2014). Business insiders
widely accept that product innovaon is instantly replicated
across competors, which are permanently seeking to
generate, so far unfruiully, a disrupve compeve edge. In
a context where the number of licensed bookmakers is
constantly growing, adversing plays a big part in luring
customers who cannot tell the difference between companies.
Adversing and markeng spend on sports beng has greatly
increased over the last five years in Europe (Lopez-Gonzalez,
Estévez & Griffiths, 2017).
In a recent paper, we outlined two of the most ulized master
narraves in online beng promoons, namely skill-enhancing
narraves – in which there is an over-emphasis on the capacies
and knowledge of the beor, and, at the other end of the
spectrum, risk-lowering narraves which under-emphasise the
risks involved in beng and typically overesmate the probability
of winning (Lopez-Gonzalez, Estévez & Griffiths, 2017).
Skill-enhancing adversing: Vahe Baloulian, CEO of the
beng soware company BetConstruct, declared that new
features were there to give customers ‘a chance to feel more in
control by engaging more oen and making decisions’ (Lopez-
Gonzalez, Estévez & Griffiths, 2017), with ‘feel’ and ‘control’ being
the keywords here. The ‘feel’ component refers to a perceived
non-factual sensaon that lies at the heart of the adversing
endeavour. The percepon of control over the beng acvity has
been found to be a common aribute of gambling narraves in
Sweden, in which elements of skill have been exaggerated (Binde,
2009), as well as in televised commercials from Canada, wherein
beng has been associated with the imagery of media sport
Mark D. Griffiths,
Ana Estévez,
Frederic Guerrero-Solé
& Hibai Lopez-Gonzalez
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Mark D. Griffiths

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communicaon, skills, and long-meditated strategies, while luck
was downplayed (McMullan & Miller, 2008).
Many beng features newly added to online plaorms are
said by commercials to enhance the control of the user over the
outcome of the event bet upon, including more gamified
experiences (where passive beors supposedly become players),
immersive beng experiences, and fantasy sports (where the
player acvely recruits a team). In these examples, the beng
experience demands a higher involvement from the beor,
arguably resulng in a psychological transference between the
acve role of a beor execung acons and the actual influence
a beor’s acons may have on the outcome of an external event.
In essence, beng adversing contributes to the myth of
gambling as a sport (McMullan & Miller, 2008), an acvity that is
healthy, harmless, and that can be mastered with pracce and
talent.
Among the most used selling points that enhance the self-
efficacy and control of the sports beor are the narraves of
masculinity. Aributes such as loyalty to the team, being a real
man, and being brave enough to prove sporng knowledge have
been implicit in some sports beng messages, including
stereotyped gender depicons and sexualized imagery (Thomas
et al., 2015). According to Hing et al. (2016), the prototype sports
beor is male, young, tech-savvy, and professional, which aligns
with the target audience of beng adversing. This reinforces
the idea of male providers that sublimates in gambling their manly
insncts for aggression, compeon, and combat.
Risk-lowering adversing: In parallel to the skill-enhancing
strategies, adversing diminishes the harmful consequences of
excessive beng by represenng it as a risk-free acvity. The
combined narrave would be that of a safe environment where
intelligent people possess the tools to succeed. In an aempt to
lower the perceived risk inherently embedded in any beng
acvity, three major messages have been emphasized by
adversers: (i) beng is a perfectly normal acvity; (ii) errors in
beng predicons are not fatal; and (iii) beng is a social acvity
(Lopez-Gonzalez, Estévez & Griffiths, 2017).
Adversing has been frequently proposed as a significant
mechanism of gambling normalisaon including new social media
channels. The portrayal of gambling atudes and behaviours in
media representaons as well as in real life environments
promotes the idea of gambling as an intrinsic form of
entertainment. This is true for all forms of gambling but sports
beng presents some singular intensifiers. Unlike any other
gambling form, sport insls in beng its health and sanizaon
aributes (McMullan & Miller, 2008). Aributes such as fair
compeon, success through talent and perseverance, equal
opportunies and big rewards, respect for nature, green and
healthy habits are transmied to beng behaviour. Celebries
deepen that connecon as they have been proven to reduce the
perceived risk by the public of the products they endorse (Lamont
et al., 2016). Sportspeople tell the story of young, talented risk-
takers who challenged the odds but emerged successful in the
end, arguably a perfect incarnaon of the beor’s own
aspiraonal narrave.
Another markeng technique broadly employed by beng
operators concerns the provision of risk-free bets. Adversements
typically offer welcome bonuses for new customers, free bonuses
for loyal clientele, and money-back excepons in mulple
complex accumulated bets (Lopez-Gonzalez, Estévez & Griffiths,
2017). All of these free offers pose a dual threat. On the one hand,
the so-called free money requires beors to engage in further
beng in order to reclaim their benefits (leading to money losses
in the process). On the other hand, even if it is a bona fide free
bonus, problem gamblers might conceptualise beng as a riskless
acvity that entails no responsibilies even when done
excessively.
A third main risk-lowering technique used in commercials is
the representaon of beng as a social form of entertainment
to be conducted alongside other people. Solitary gambling, like
solitary drinking, has been thought to be a determinant and/or
consequence of problem gambling (Griffiths, 1995). However,
some studies have raised the alarm about the misconcepon that
gambling, when done in group, cannot be problemac (Deans,
Thomas, Daube and Derevensky, 2016). In fact, peer facilitaon
has been idenfied as a fundamental contribung factor to
impulse beng, with excessive beng being more plausible
when sport matches are viewed in the company of others
(Lamont et al., 2016). Sport is a cultural product, socially
consumed (watched, pracced, discussed, and bet upon). The
social sgma aached to gambling habits might be shiing
towards its naturalisaon, a long-term process that adversing
cannot carry out on its own but can certainly facilitate.
The growth of the online sports beng industry
The online sports beng industry is a solid and rapidly growing
sector of the global economy. Drawing on the wide influence of
sport content in society and backed by nascent Internet
regulatory frameworks, bookmakers appear to have succeeded
in normalizing the acon of wagering money on the outcome of
a sporng compeon (Parke et al., 2014). Sports beng,
especially in the context of football, has tradionally been an
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<< The media reassure the relationship built on
trust between betting bookmakers and bettors.
Since their inception, sports media and gambling
have had parallel trajectories. >>

SPORTS BETTING
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asynchronous experience wherein game watching served, among
other things, as a verificaon of the outcome of a bet placed
hours or days before the game. However, online beng via
mobile phones incorporang in-play beng opons, has
synchronized the beng and watching acvies, making them
both happen simultaneously and hence allowing a larger degree
of synergies between adjacent industries.
As we have argued, fans have become more familiarised with
sport compeons, their involvement with sport (and sports
beng) has grown accordingly (Lopez-Gonzalez & Griffiths,
2018a). The development of the telecommunicaon technologies
and the reduced cost of transming sports events worldwide
have brought compeons and fans together in unprecedented
ways. Consequently, it comes as no surprise that sport is
frequently among the most viewed television programmes in
every country and among every age group. Beng operators have
been wise enough to capitalize on the massive amount of
televised sport available to the consumers. Television has made
spectators integrate sports into their everyday life experiences,
and enhance their knowledge, awareness, loyalty, team
idenficaon, and belonging. Over the last couple of decades, the
progressive transformaon of sport into a commodity would not
have been possible without the fundamental contribuon of
mass-mediated sport. Given this context, online sports beng is
arguably a predictable ramificaon of the complex
commodificaon process traversing sport today (Lopez-Gonzalez
& Griffiths, 2018a).
The media reassure the relaonship built on trust between
beng bookmakers and beors. Since their incepon, sports
media and gambling have had parallel trajectories. The honour of
being the first sports-based media outlet in history is commonly
aributed to the Boston Gazee of 1733. The magazine included
racing fixture tables so readers could bet money on horses (Boyle,
2006). In an era when informaon did not travel as quickly and
as reliably as today, gamblers needed assurances about the facts
they were beng on. The true outcome of a game or a race
happening miles away required an uninterested third party to
objecvely deliver the informaon needed. The trust between
bookmakers and consumers evolved toward more sophiscated
ways as the transmission plaorms became more capable of
presenng the spectators with vivid and oen live proof of the
contests (Lopez-Gonzalez & Griffiths, 2018a).
A number of examples illustrate the extent of the
normalisaon of beng in everyday sports media. First, media
sports websites are big affiliate partners of beng operators.
Affiliaon in online markeng means that if a reader is redirected
by a banner from a sports site to a beng site, and later this fan
places a bet there, the sports site gets a proporon of the net
gaming revenue generated in the beng acvity. Although no
concrete figures are available as to the extent of this affiliaon
market between sports and beng, two proxy figures may shed
some light. More specifically, the proliferaon of beng banners
placed in online sports outlets (and in illegal live streaming feeds),
make a compelling argument concerning the existence and
volume of affiliate traffic (Lopez-Gonzalez & Griffiths, 2018a).
Furthermore, back in 2012, gambling websites (sport and non-
sport) were believed to aract 50% of its clients through affiliate
markeng. If this was the case for online sports beng, then it
would be safe to assume that a large proporon of that 50% must
come from sites producing sports content and targeng sports
fans (i.e., sports journalism).
Second, on a subtler narrave level, beng odds increasingly
feature in news themselves. For instance, in 2016, Brish football
club Leicester City were the unexpected Premier League football
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champions. The story of a team overcoming the budget obstacles
and winning the Premiership tle was consistently emphasised
using a beng narrave. The angle selected by many outlets was
not the underdog defeang the Goliaths of English football but
focused on the 5000-1 odds that Leicester City were given at the
start of the 2015-16 season to win the league. Beors who
wagered money before the season began (and under such
disadvantageous circumstances), were portrayed as true fans.
Bookmakers, with esmated losses in the area of £25 million
(Rayner & Brown, 2016), did not wait to capitalise on the event
and promoted themselves as a business that delivered big money
to fans.
Third, and sll on a narrave level, the fact that data
companies deliver informaon to both media outlets and beng
companies makes it more probable that the kind of news that is
published is at the same me conveniently shaped for beng
purposes. Stascs and ephemerides (also supersous
numerical coincidences) idenfy paerns in past confrontaons
between two teams and project them for the build-up of the next
game, manufacturing the narrave of a probable outcome
without explicitly encouraging a bet on it (Lopez-Gonzalez &
Griffiths, 2018a).
Fourth, sport media has been very successful in helping
journalists in the transion from sport experts to beng experts.
In a study conducted in Spain, researchers cross-checked a list of
the top ten sport so-called journalists in the country with the most
Twier followers to see if they had any sort of relaonship with
the beng industry. The results showed that all of ten sports
journalists had current or past endorsement deals with beng
companies, with some even launching their own online beng
plaorm (Lopez-Gonzalez & Tulloch, 2015). These journalists are
regarded as knowledgeable experts that can provide followers
with inside informaon (i.e., ‘good’ ps) about the status of the
teams and sportspeople. Some of these journalists, managing
accounts with over one million followers, funcon as influencers,
promong and normalising the use of beng sites to adults and
minors alike.
Empirical research on sports beng adversing
Over the last 18 months, we have published a number of papers
examining various aspects of sports beng adversing (i.e.,
Guerrero-Solé, Lopez-Gonzalez, Griffiths, 2017; Lopez-Gonzalez,
Estévez & Griffiths, 2017, 2018; Lopez-Gonzalez, Estévez,
Jimenez-Murcia & Griffiths, 2018; Lopez-Gonzalez & Griffiths,
2016, 2018a, 2018b; Lopez-Gonzalez, Guerrero-Solé, Estévez &
Griffiths, 2018; Lopez-Gonzalez, Guerrero-Sole & Griffiths, 2018).
A number of these papers have come from an in-depth analysis
of Brish and Spanish sports beng television adverts (N=135)
from 2014 to 2016. Our aim has been to understand how beors
and beng are being represented. In one of the studies using
content analysis (i.e., Lopez-Gonzalez, Guerrero-Sole & Griffiths,
2018), 31 different variables grouped into seven broad categories
were assessed, including general informaon about the advert,
the characters and situaons represented, the idenficaon of
the characters with sports, the use of online beng, the co-
representaon of gambling along other risky behaviours such as
eang junk food and drinking alcohol, the amount of money
wagered, and other variables such as the representaon of free
bets, humour, and celebries. The results showed a male-
dominant beng representaon with no interacon between
women. We found that beors were typically depicted
surrounded by people but isolated in their beng, emphasising
the individual consumpon pracce that mobile beng
promotes. In-play beng was observed in almost half of the
adverts. We also found some evidence of beng while watching
sport in beng adverts being associated with emoonally
charged situaons such as celebraons and/or alcohol drinking.
Beors were typically depicted staking small amounts of money
with large potenal returns, implying high risk bets.
In another study (i.e., Lopez-Gonzalez, Guerrero-Solé, Estévez
& Griffiths, 2018), we used the same dataset to carry out a
metaphorical conceptualisaon of online sports beng
adversing. We found four main structural metaphors that
shaped how online sports beng adversing can be understood:
beng as (i) an act of love, (ii) a market, (iii) a sport, and (iv) a
natural environment. In general, these metaphors, which were
found widely across 29 different beng brands, facilitated the
percepon of beors as acve players, with an execuve role in
the sport events bet upon, and greater control over bet
outcomes. Again using the same dataset, we carried out a
‘grounded theory’ analysis (Lopez-Gonzalez, Estévez & Griffiths,
2018) and found that individual themes found in online sports
beng adverts aligned in a single core narrave, construcng a
dual persuasive strategy of sports beng adversing. The core
narrave was (i) to reduce the perceived risk involved in beng
(with themes such as beng with friends, free money offers,
humour, or the use of celebries) while (ii) enhancing the
perceived control of beors (including themes of masculinity and
sport knowledge). We also found that new technological features
of sports beng plaorms (e.g., live in-play beng) were being
used by adversers to build narraves in which the ability to
predict a sports outcome was overlapped by the ability of beors
to use such plaorms, equalizing the ease of beng with the ease
of winning. We concluded that the construcon of a magnified
idea of control in sports beng adversing is a cause for concern
that requires close regulatory scruny.
Conclusions
Although many influences for beng behaviour exist, this short
arcle has outlined some of the contemporary areas in the
markeng and adversing of sports beng. The product
innovaons prompted by the internet have essenally
transformed the essence of sports beng acvity. Our arcle
raises awareness about the issues and challenges that might lie
ahead as our sociees connue collecng more data concerning
the long-term consequences of the commercialisaon strategies
of beng brands. Unl now, the social concern about perceived
excessive markeng and adversing of beng products has
conflicted with the paucity of definive research demonstrang
their unequivocal contribuon to problem gambling behaviours.
Further research is needed in order to scienfically inform the
most appropiate interacon between bookmakers, media,
regulators, and consumers.
::
CGi
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Dr. Mark Griffiths is Disnguished Professor of Behavioural
Addicon at Nongham Trent University, and Director of
the Internaonal Gaming Research Unit. He is
internaonally known for his work into gambling and gaming
addicons. He has published over 650 refereed research
papers, five books, 150+ book chapters and over 1500 other
arcles. He has won 18 naonal/internaonal awards for his
work including the US Naonal Council on Problem
Gambling Lifeme Research Award (2013).
Hibai Lopez-Gonzalez is a postdoctoral Research Fellow at
the Internaonal Gaming Research Unit of Nongham
Trent University (UK) and the University of Duesto (Bilbao,
Spain). He is currently invesgang the structural and
persuasive characteriscs of mediated sport content and
sports beng adversing and their influence on sports
beng behaviour, with emphasis on a problem gambling
perspecve, and has published numerous papers in the
gambling studies field.
Ana Estévez is senior lecturer of psychology at the
Department of Personality, Psychological Assessment and
Treatment of the University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain). She
is also director of the MSc in general health psychology
there. Her research interests are addicve behaviours,
cognive and emoonal processes, and early maladapve
experiences, and has published widely in the addicons
literature.
Frederic Guerrero-Solé is a lecturer of Sociology of
Communicaon at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona
(Spain), where he obtained his PhD in Public
Communicaon. He is a member of the research group
UNICA (Audiovisual Communicaon Research Unity). He has
published over twenty arcles in naonal and internaonal
journals.
DR. MARK GRIFFITHS, HIBAI LOPEZ-GONZALEZ,
ANA ESTÉVEZ & FREDERIC GUERRERO-SOLÉ