The Evolving Landscape of Sports Betting: A Risk for Young People?

Abstract

Watching sport and attending a sport event are generally considered popular, enjoyable, and valorized activities in our society. The last few years have seen a development in digital technologies (i.e. smartphones, tablets, computers), which now offers the possibility to gamble on almost every sport events, at every moment, e.g. before or during a game in play. Moreover, the level of exposure to sports betting advertisements is unprecedented. Promoted by this around-the-clock availability and ubiquity of cues, sports betting and gambling is becoming increasingly popular, in particular in adolescents and young adults, with a growing concern that this population could develop unprecedent levels of gambling-related problems. Our objective here is to elaborate on how the increased popularity of sports betting is currently reframing the way sport is experienced by young fans and student-athletes. After describing current levels of sports betting involvement and related problems among young people, we will review the available evidence documenting the growing normalization and popularity of gambling in sports and its impact on cognitive and affective processes in children and adolescents, including young athletes. The last section focuses on regulation strategies addressing current concerns on the consequences of sports betting in children and adolescents.

A taxonomy of technology design features that promote potentially addictive online behaviours

“…Among the new types of online gambling opportunities, sports betting is becoming increasingly popular, in particular among adolescents and young adults 83 . In most industrialized countries, it is now possible to bet, at every moment, on almost every sport event.…”

Increased ventral anterior insular connectivity to sports betting availability indexes problem gambling

“…This recruitment procedure resulted in PGSI scores that were not normally distributed (Chapiro Wilk p < 0.001), with only 8% ( n = 6) of our sample with a PGSC score of ≥8 (i.e., corresponding to moderate level of problem gambling; PGSI data are available at https://osf.io/dkrhw ). Hence, future studies should recruit a sample with PGSI scores distribution that matches the proportion of problem sport betting observed in the population of sports bettors 1 , 66 , 67 and ranging continuously at both extreme ends of the spectrum of problem sports betting severity. This would allow the adoption of a dimensional—rather than categorical—approach by examining how the magnitude of the PPI effect is modulated by the degree of problem sports betting severity.…”

“…In recent years, online sports betting has become increasingly popular and widespread among the general population, including in young adults and adolescents. 1 , 2 An inherent feature of this type of gambling is that it combines macro (e.g., betting on the outcome of a game) and micro (e.g., in‐play betting) sports outcomes with the prospect of winning money. 3 Furthermore, with the advent of online technology design features, it is now possible to place a bet on almost any sporting event, at any time and any place.…”

Comparing the healthy development of youth Australian Rules Footballers across talent development and community settings

“…Gambling risk may be higher in talent development athletes (divisions I-III collegiate athletes from team and individual sports) than in the general population. 16 HEALTHY FAMILY AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS Adolescent and youth soccer talent development athletes report higher coach closeness relative to community athletes. However, differences in social support, schoolrelated quality of life and closeness between teammates and parents were not detected.…”