In Europe, especially since the legalisation of online gambling in most jurisdictions, sport and gambling industries are increasingly converging in a process known as 'gamblification'

1. The gamblification of sport
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Author: Hibai Lopez-Gonzalez, Nottingham Trent University (UK)
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2. Theoretical Approach
Sport Integrity Perspective1
• Match-fixing
Public Health Perspective2
• Problem gambling
• Adolescent gambling
Two main perspectives on sports betting as detrimental
behaviour:
1European gaming and Betting Association (2014). Sports Betting: Commercial and Integrity Issues.
2Derevensky, J (2012). Teen Gambling: Understanding a growing epidemic. Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield.

3. • Problem Gambling in Spain has a prevalence rate of
0.6% (DGOJ, 2016).
• The volume of online sports betting in Spain last year
(money staked, Oct 2015 to Sept 2016) amounted to 5,029
million euros, excluding illegal betting operators.
• In Sept 2016 there were 732,000 active online
gamblers (any form) in Spain
• Gambling operators spent in 2016 around 30M€
quarterly in advertising, 25M€ in bonuses, and 5M€ in
affiliation.

5. Codere
Madrid, 4 May, 2017

6. Codere
Madrid, 5 May, 2017

7. Sportium
Barcelona, 6 May, 2017

9. Gambling Disorder Motivational Factors
(adapted to Online Sports Betting)
Individual Situational Structural

10. Gambling Disorder Motivational Factors
(adapted to Online Sports Betting)
Individual Situational Structural
Biological
(genetic profile, dopamine receptors,
attention deficit…)
Availability
(ubiquity, anonymous access,
affordability…)
Event Frequency
(global sport audience,
simultaneity of bets, virtual
games…)
Psychological
(arousal, impulsivity, personality traits…)
Legitimation
(i) Social acceptance
(ii) Legalisation (May 2011, Gambling
Act; May 2012, first licenses)
(iii) Advertising (soft watershed)
Event Duration
(cash out, contextual betting,
virtual games [2-3 min]…)
Social
(peer influence, familiar situation,
sociodemographic…)
Other structural features
(i) near-miss psychology
(ii) In-play betting: excitement
transfer

11. Individual Situational Structural
Biological
(genetic profile, dopamine receptors,
attention deficit…)
Availability
(ubiquity, anonymous access,
affordability…)
Event Frequency
(global sport audience,
simultaneity of bets, virtual
games…)
Psychological
(arousal, impulsivity, personality traits…)
Legitimation
(i) Social acceptance
(ii) Legalisation (May 2011, Gambling
Act; May 2012, first licenses)
(iii) Advertising (soft watershed)
Event Duration
(cash out, contextual betting,
virtual games [2-3 min]…)
Social
(peer influence, familiar situation,
sociodemographic…)
Other structural features
(i) near-miss psychology
(ii) In-play betting: excitement
transfer

12. Individual Situational Structural
Biological
(genetic profile, dopamine receptors,
attention deficit…)
Availability
(ubiquity, anonymous access,
affordability…)
Event Frequency
(global sport audience,
simultaneity of bets, virtual
games…)
Psychological
(arousal, impulsivity, personality traits…)
Legitimation
(i) Social acceptance
(ii) Legalisation (May 2011, Gambling
Act; May 2012, first licenses)
(iii) Advertising (soft watershed)
Event Duration
(cash out, contextual betting,
virtual games [2-3 min]…)
Social
(peer influence, familiar situation,
sociodemographic…)
Other structural features
(i) near-miss psychology
(ii) In-play betting: excitement
transfer

13. Individual Situational Structural
Biological
(genetic profile, dopamine receptors,
attention deficit…)
Availability
(ubiquity, anonymous access,
affordability…)
Event Frequency
(global sport audience,
simultaneity of bets, virtual
games…)
Psychological
(arousal, impulsivity, personality traits…)
Legitimation
(i) Social acceptance
(ii) Legalisation (May 2011, Gambling
Act; May 2012, first licenses)
(iii) Advertising (soft watershed)
Event Duration
(cash out, contextual betting,
virtual games [2-3 min]…)
Social
(peer influence, familiar situation,
sociodemographic…)
Other structural features
(i) near-miss psychology
(ii) In-play betting: excitement
transfer

14. Individual Situational Structural
Biological
(genetic profile, dopamine receptors,
attention deficit…)
Availability
(ubiquity, anonymous access,
affordability…)
Event Frequency
(global sport audience,
simultaneity of bets, virtual
games…)
Psychological
(arousal, impulsivity, personality traits…)
Legitimation
(i) Social acceptance
(ii) Legalisation (May 2011)
(iii) Advertising (soft watershed))
Event Duration
(cash out, contextual betting,
virtual games [2-3 min]…)
Social
(peer influence, familiar situation,
sociodemographic…)
Other structural features
(i) near-miss psychology
(ii) In-play betting: excitement
transfer

15. Individual Situational Structural
Biological
(genetic profile, dopamine receptors,
attention deficit…)
Availability
(ubiquity, anonymous access,
affordability…)
Event Frequency
(global sport audience,
simultaneity of bets, virtual
games…)
Psychological
(arousal, impulsivity, personality traits…)
Legitimation
(i) Social acceptance
(ii) Legalisation (May 2011, Gambling
Act; May 2012, first licenses)
(iii) Advertising (soft watershed))
Event Duration
(cash out, contextual betting,
virtual games [2-3 min]…)
Social
(peer influence, familiar situation,
sociodemographic…)
Other structural features
(i) near-miss psychology
(ii) In-play betting: excitement
transfer

16. Individual Situational Structural
Biological
(genetic profile, dopamine receptors,
attention deficit…)
Availability
(ubiquity, anonymous access,
affordability…)
Event Frequency
(global sport audience,
simultaneity of bets, virtual
games…)
Psychological
(arousal, impulsivity, personality traits…)
Legitimation
(i) Social acceptance
(ii) Legalisation (May 2011, Gambling
Act; May 2012, first licenses)
(iii) Advertising (soft watershed))
Event Duration
(cash out, contextual betting,
virtual games [2-3 min]…)
Social
(peer influence, familiar situation,
sociodemographic…)
Other structural features
(i) near-miss psychology
(ii) In-play betting: excitement
transfer

17. Individual Situational Structural
Biological
(genetic profile, dopamine receptors,
attention deficit…)
Availability
(ubiquity, anonymous access,
affordability…)
Event Frequency
(global sport audience,
simultaneity of bets, virtual
games…)
Psychological
(arousal, impulsivity, personality traits…)
Legitimation
(i) Social acceptance
(ii) Legalisation (May 2011, Gambling
Act; May 2012, first licenses)
(iii) Advertising (soft watershed))
Event Duration
(cash out, contextual betting,
virtual games [2-3 min]…)
Social
(peer influence, familiar situation,
sociodemographic…)

18. Fast pace growing industry: +30% in three years (2012-2015)3.The
Internet has changed the rules of the game:
3European Commission (2014). Impact Assessment on principles…
4Griffiths MD & Auer M (2013). The irrelevancy of game-type in the acquisition, development and maintenance…
Traditional sports betting
• Asynchronous
• Discontinuous
• Anecdotal reporting of PG
cases
Online sports betting4
• Synchronous
• Continuous
• Proliferation of the most
addictive form of sports
betting: In-play
Public Health Perspective

20. 1. Higher event frequency means higher
addictiveness (faster impulse-reward response)
2. Easy to access and permanently available
3. Natural side order to sport viewing experience
(normalisation, acceptance)
4. Highly publicised and heavily endorsed by
athletes and celebrities (again, normalisation
and acceptance)
5Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (2016). Datos Juego online 2015…
In-play betting
Online Sports Betting
Market in Spain, 20155
Fixed-Odds
Bets
In-play
Bets
1,068M€
(26%)
3,022M€
(74%)

21. Individual Situational Structural
Biological
(genetic profile, dopamine receptors,
attention deficit…)
Availability
(ubiquity, anonymous access,
affordability…)
Event Frequency
(global sport audience,
simultaneity of bets, virtual
games…)
Psychological
(arousal, impulsivity, personality traits…)
Legitimation
(i) Social acceptance
(ii) Legalisation (May 2011, Gambling
Act; May 2012, first licenses)
Advertising (soft watershed))
Event Duration
(cash out, contextual betting,
virtual games [2-3 min]…)
Social
(peer influence, familiar situation,
sociodemographic…)

22. My Project
“Understanding sports
betting advertising to
prevent problem
gambling in adolescents”

23. Let’s decompose this goal into three parts:
“Understanding sports betting advertising to prevent problem gambling in adolescents”

24. “Understanding sports betting advertising to prevent problem gambling in adolescents”
The Message The Bettor The Prevention
Programme

25. Phase 1(2016)
The Message
Phase II (2017)
The Bettor
Phase III (2018)
The Prevention Programme

26. Phase 1(2016)
The Message
Phase II (2017)
The Bettor
Phase III (2018)
The Prevention Programme
Content Analysis (UK and Spain, N=113)
Grounded Theory (N=133)
Metaphor Analysis (N=133)
Online Questionnaire
(sports bettors from general population,
N=667)
Focus Groups with sports bettors
recovering from gambling disorder
Educational intervention: gambling
literacy
Responsible gambling advertising
guidelines (specific for OSB) for (i)
policymakers; (ii) gambling industry;
(iii) public institutions; (iv) media

27. The context: The convergence of sports betting
online sports betting
Digital Integration Sporting Integration Gambling Integration
 Data
 Social gaming
 eSports
 Immersive reality
 Sport journalism
and influencers
 Sponsorship and
endorsement
 Virtual sports and
Fantasy sports
 In-shop and in-stadium
wagering
 Poker
 Trading
Lopez-Gonzalez, H. & Griffiths, M.
(2016). Understanding the convergence of
markets in online sports betting.
International Review for the Sociology of
Sport,
https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690216680602

28. Data

29. eSports

30. eSports

31. Social Gaming on sport

32. Sport journalists
Top 10 Most Followed Spanish sports journalists* (September 2014)
Name Followers (millions) Bookmaker
Mr Chip 1.15 thepicklounge.com
Guillem Balagué 0.83 Sportingbet
Julio Maldini 0.67 Betfair, crackreport10.com
Tomás Roncero 0.57 Luckia, asapuestas.com
Josep Pedrerol 0.44 Sportium
Manu Carreño 0.41 LBapuestas (Ladbrokes)
Pipi Estrada 0.40 Sportium
Michael Robinson 0.38 Bwin
Manolo Lama 0.36 LBapuestas (Ladbrokes)
Sid Lowe 0.35 Bwin
* Lopez-Gonzalez, H & Tulloch, C (2015). Enhancing media sport consumption: Online gambling in
football. Media International Australia, 155 (May): 130-139.

33. Sponsorship
• Gambling in European big five football leagues: one jersey
sponsor in 2002/03, 26 jersey sponsors in 2010/11
• English Premier League 2016/2017: 10 out of 20 teams carry a
gambling operators on their shirts

34. Fantasy
Virtual Sports

35. Poker
Trading:
forex,
binary

36. 1. In Spain betting advertising can only happen before the 10pm
watershed, provided the following criteria are met7:
a. The advertisement is in connection with the sporting
event in play
b. Advertisements can only communicate ‘the possibility of
betting’, identify the betting operator and the sporting
elements of the match upon which betting is possible
c. Communication about odds or jackpots is not allowed
d. Commercial communication must be clearly non-
integrated in the narration of the commentators
The Irony: Watershed
7Ministry of Finance (2015). Draft Bill on commercial communications of responsible gambling and gambling activities

37. The content of sports betting adverts

38. Prototypical representation
Gender
– 2.23 active male characters
– 77.9% do not include any active female
characters
– Only 3.6% include at least two active
females

39. Prototypical representation
Interaction
– Only 28% of ads show characters
interacting while betting
– When interaction happened, it was
almost always between friends (88%)

40. Prototypical representation
Space & time
No space is prevalent:
– 23% outdoors
– 21% house
– 11% pub
– 19% stadium
…
In-play betting is associated with
living room
Only 24.8% occurred during
nightime

41. Prototypical representation
Platform
Among those ads with a
character betting:
– 87.7% betting on a mobile
phone
– 0% betting offline

42. Prototypical representation
Prototypical bet
Stake: Mean £ 15.71 (SD
11.4)
Odds: 6.14 (SD 4.5)
Potential return: £ 140.64
– 36.3% of ads include a
claim about “free money”
– Minimal return promised
by any ad was 50%

43. Prototypical representation: Discussion
• Sports betting behaviour: Limited male interaction over an
inherently individual consumption
• Overrepresentation of mobile phone use
• Ubiquity of sports betting: dynamic places and times (Wooley
2003)
• Exotic multi bets over “short odds”. Higher expected losses
are predominantly advertised (Newall, 2015, Hing & Sproston,
2016)
• Risk-free betting, false sense of control, “insurance type of bet”
(Deans et al., 2016)

44. Narratives banned from gambling advertising
(European Commission 2014, UK Code of Broadcast Advertising 2014, and industry’s self-regulatory codes)
• Sexual success, seduction: <1%
• Alternative to employment: 0%
• Social transformation: 0%
• Magical thinking: 2.7%
• Pressure to gamble: 0%
• Taking priority in life: 0%
• Toughness, resilience, recklessness: 0%
• Minors: 0%
Regulatory compliance

45. Why?
(1) Perhaps because gambling operators have become socially responsible
and advertise their products accordingly
(2) Perhaps because those narratives are present, but in a latent form
(3) Perhaps because advertising narratives are a more complex issue and
evolve influenced by (i) gambling type; (ii) new structural characteristics
of gambling platforms
Unprotected narratives that do appear in the ads are:
– Humour (64%)
– Celebrities (22.1%)
Regulatory compliance: Discussion

46. • 23% of the ads contain a character drinking alcohol (or at least display alcohol)
• Ads wherein characters bet in-play are 49% likely to include alcohol
• Alcohol consumption in the ads is significantly correlated with (1) isolation; (2) luxury; (3) satisfaction
Alcohol and junk food

47. • 28% of the ads contain junk food
• Junk food consumption predicts “betting with significant others” (fundamentally friends)
• Simultaneous junk food and alcohol consumption is not statistically significant, though
Alcohol and junk food

48. • Vicious circle of risky consumption: alcohol, unhealthy food and gambling (Lindsay et al., 2013); children’s
implicit recall of junk food and gambling brands in Australia (Bestman et al., 2015)
• Food eating as mood management strategy was found in CA of junk food commercials (Roberts et al., 2007)
• Misconception: Gambling or drinking, when it is done socially and publicly, cannot be harmful (Strate 1992;
Deans et al., 2016)
Alcohol and junk food: Discussion

49. The metaphors of sports betting

50. Introduction
Background
Exposure to sports betting advertising has grown in recent years
(European Commission 2014, Sproston et al. 2015, European Gaming and Betting Association 2016)
Sports betting advertising normalizes gambling behaviour
(Parke et al. 2014, McMullan and Miller 2008, Hing et al. 2016, Gainsbury et al. 2015, Thomas et al. 2015, Deans et al. 2017)
Does advertising exposure lead to higher gambling-related harm?

51. Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980)
Lakoff and Johnson defined a metaphor as ‘understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in
terms of another’
Ordinary language is permeated with metaphors that speakers do not notice or recognise as such in
conversational situations
‘Time is Money’ metaphor: wasting time, saving time, investing time, running out of time, putting aside
some time, or time being worth your while.

52. LOVE BETTING
Love relationship Love for another human being
Being loyal to someone
Cheating on someone
Being loved in return
Dull relationship
Love for a team
Betting on your team
Not betting on your team
Winning money
Following sport without betting
Sex Physiological manifestations
Orgasm
Emotion of betting
Won bet
Friend relationship Loving friends
Giving good advice to friends
Betting with friends
Giving betting tips to friends
Table 1. ‘Betting is an act of love’ metaphor

53. MARKET BETTING
Market Rational
Supervised by authorities
Fair trade
Predictable
Legal and regulated
Fair odds
Broker Professional, expert
Trend analysis
Intermediary
Competition
Expert bettor, knowledgeable fan
Sport data and statistics analysis
Bookmaker
Other bettors
Functioning Stock price fluctuation
Missing purchase
Selling stock
Insider trading
Bet value change
Missing bet
Cashing out
Tipping
Table 2. ‘Betting is a market’ metaphor

54. NATURE BETTING
Survival Natural selection
Adaptation mechanism
Evolutionary advantage
Act of nature (e.g. bad storm)
Competition, winning of the smartest
Functionality to change the bet
Live betting tools, platform
Unexpected turn in the game
Population Predator
Prey
Other species
Bettor
Bookmaker / other bettors
Other bettors
Animal behaviour Natural instinct
Escape, run
Alert
Ferocity
Fear
Intuition, superstition
Cash out
Attention
Fast decision-making, reaction
Anxiety, emotion
Table 3. ‘Betting is a natural environment’ metaphor