Effects of Sports Betting Motivations on Sports Betting Addiction in a Turkish Sample

Cash outs during in-play sports betting: Who, why, and what it reveals

Cashing out is a popular feature of modern 'in-play' sports betting that allows sports bettors to withdraw a bet before the sporting event on which the bet was placed is finalized. Previous studies have shown that use of the cash out feature is positively related to problem gambling symptomatology. However, little is known about demographic and psychological characteristics of in-play sports bettors who use the cash out feature, or their motivations for use. To fill this knowledge gap, we recruited 224 adults (18 + years) from Ontario who engaged in in-play sports betting in the past three months. Participants completed self-report measures of psychological and gambling-related variables. Participants also provided qualitative responses for their motivations for using the cash out feature. Approximately half (51.8 %) of the participants reported using the cash out feature. No statistically significant demographic differences were found between participants who used and did not use the cash out feature. Participants who used the feature (compared to those who did not) reported higher problematic alcohol and cannabis use, feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress, and were motivated to gamble to make money. The primary reasons for cashing out were to access money immediately, to cut losses, and because cashing out felt like a less risky option. The current findings shed light on underlying psychological vulnerabilities associated with individuals who use the cash out feature, which can inform initiatives to reduce the harms associated with this popular feature of sports betting.

Examination of the Factors That Encourage University Students to Sports Betting. A Q-Method Study

This study aimed to examine the factors that motivate university students to sports betting through the Q-method. The study is designed with the Q-methodology. According to this method, qualitative and quantitative research methods are applied in the same study. Interviews were conducted with the participants of the study, question expressions were created and similar studies in the literature were used. With this feature, the current study has both structural and non-structural pattern features. In the study, the snowball sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was employed as a sampling method. The people recommended by the participants with at least five years of sports betting history were included in the study. A total of 29 university students constituted the study group. In the analysis of the data, basic components analysis was applied and it was concluded that the participants were gathered under two factors, and the value of 0.55 was reached as the significance value. As a result, it can be stated that different factors motivate the participants to bet, such as making money, seeking excitement, having social relations, sports betting as a profession, endeavor, killing time, and betting because of addiction.

Changes in sports gambling behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada

Sports betting is one of the most popular forms of gambling in Canada; recent prevalence estimates indicate that 7.9% of Canadian adults endorsed gambling on sports in the past year. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic led to the temporary closure of most major sports leagues worldwide beginning in March of 2020. These sudden closures created a dramatic decrease in the availability of sports betting opportunities in the early stages of the pandemic, followed by a subsequent increase in availability as most sport leagues returned during the summer of 2020. Using a retrospective self-report measure of gambling participation, the present study investigated how the gambling behaviors of N = 85 past-year sports gamblers changed over the course of the pandemic. It was hypothesized that sports gamblers would report an initial decrease in gambling behaviors from pre-pandemic baseline levels to the early stages of the pandemic in May of 2020 when the availability of sports gambling was heavily restricted, followed by an increase in gambling behaviors from May to August, in accordance with the re-emergence of live sporting events. The general pattern of results supported the hypotheses, though gambling behaviors did not completely return to baseline levels. Beyond quantifying the changes in gambling behaviors over the early stages of the pandemic in Canada, results may have implications regarding the utility of voluntary gambling exclusion programs as well as legislation concerning gambling access.