How esports is quietly spawning a whole new generation of problem gamblers
Esports betting adverts and children
Our research, sponsored by GambleAware and in collaboration with Ipsos MORI, the thinktank Demos and the University of Sussex, analysed 880,000 tweets from 417 UK-based accounts related to gambling operators. We looked at data from their 621,000 UK-based followers, and the 166,969 UK-based individuals who engaged with these tweets by commenting, liking or sharing them. We analyzed tweets related to both traditional sports and esports betting, with the latter making up about a tenth of the accounts studied.
We identified three particular concerns. First, people following esport gambling accounts are very young. We found that 17% of followers were under 16, and another 69% were aged 16-23. In other words, 85% of esports betting-account followers are under 24. The same is true for those commenting on, liking or sharing these tweets: 28% were under 16, and 66% were aged 16-23.
Second, the advertising techniques used by gambling operators are somewhat different from those used for traditional sports (with an older audience). Rather than getting people to sign up or make impulsive gambles by offering “free bets”, “matched bets” or “sign-up bonuses”, esports betting appears to concentrate much more on tweets that are funny, using gifs, memes and esports insider-knowledge.
This content doesn’t look like a hard sell or an incitement to gamble. Childrenmight not even realiseit is commercial content designed to make them part with their money, and might do little to resist.
Funny stuff is also highly shareable. As these posts are circulated on social media, more children – who may have previously had no interest in gambling – are inadvertently looped in. So while gambling is illegal for many engaging with these adverts, with a minimum age of 18 in the UK, a positive image is slowly and implicitly building in the back of their minds.
Third, when our researchers analyzed a sample of all the tweets in depth, many appeared to contravene the UK’sCAP gambling advertising code. We found esports gambling tweets that used cartoons and animated characters, associated themselves with youth culture or featured esports stars under 25 years old. All of this activity breaches the code.
Other researchhas highlighted issues with gambling advertising potentially appealing to children, but our focus on esports highlights a worrying trend that has been under the radar of researchers and policymakers.
Next steps
With the pandemic unlikely to disappear soon, esports playing, following and betting will continue to grow. We need to act now to stop social-media advertising turning children’s gaming into gambling.
After reading our research, the Gambling Commission and ASA sent all UK esports betting operatorsa reminderof the advertising rules, andpublished a responseto the findings pointing out that many tweets were from non-UK operators and therefore beyond the remit of the CAP code.
However, we found that it is possible in many cases for children to click through to non-UK sites and open accounts by saying they are 18, highlighting a major effectiveness issue with a UK-focused code in a world of international social media. We also believe that the ASA needs to call more UK transgressors to account with sanctions for those who fail to comply.
In our view, the rules do not adequately address the peculiarities of social-media marketing, where funny content can quickly and effectively make esports betting more appealing to children and normalise the link between popular games and gambling. An awareness campaign for parents is also needed. Many parents might know that their children are playing esports in their bedrooms or following professional tournaments, but most are probably unaware of the strong link with betting. Last but not least, we also need a lot more research.
Asked to comment, a spokesperson for the Betting and Gaming Council, whichrepresents most operatorsin the UK betting industry, said:
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyRaffaello Rossi, Doctoral Researcher in Marketing,University of BristolandAgnes Nairn, Professor of Marketing,University of Bristolunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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