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UK Gambling Commission Looks into Relationship Between Major Sporting Events and Betting
By Jeff Osienya Aug 19, 2023 IndustryThe United Kingdom gambling regulator has published a new study establishing how major sporting events affect betting patters for Britons. Here’s a comprehensive look at the main findings of the research and what it mean’s for the sports betting scene.The entire gaze of the UK will undoubtedly be cast on the Women’s World Cup Final due to be held in Sydney Australia where ‘The Lionesses’ will be taking on Spain’s women’s team. As this event happens, the UK Gambling Commission has shared findings on the impact of major sporting events on the betting industry. To carry out the study, the UKGC enlisted the help of fieldwork and data collection company Yonder Data Solutions to examine activity with a specific focus on the Men’s FIFA 2022 World Cup.
On the weekend of the World Cup Final, Yonder made contact with people who had reported betting on the World Cup or playing a related free-to-play game during the Qatar-hosted tournament. The questions put out by Yonder were about the respondents' behaviors and attitudes over the duration of the four weeks during which the world cup had been taking place. Yonder then re-established contact with the same respondents in March to establish whether there had been any changes in their gambling behaviors since the world cup ended. The company received 811 responses. The study was commissioned to enhance its regulatory measures and to promote responsible gambling practices.
The World Cup Played a Pivotal Role in the Sports Betting Sector
Yonder’s findings revealed that the World Cup had a major effect on the bettors. For starters, despite the respondents of the second survey having a shorter period of gambling (from the world cup till date), there was a general increase in gambling noted since the world cup. The survey unsurprisingly showed that the proportion of football fans that betted on football generally increased. Also, unsurprisingly, it was noted that the wagering amounts since the World Cup took place have significantly gone down.
This data conforms to the various data that has been coming out of numerous FIFA World Cup tournaments. Respective tournaments have shown that we should always expect a windfall with every major tournament that is on the horizon. The 2018 FIFA world cup, for example, produced a gambling handle of $146 billion (Data collected from the world football governing body FIFA). Fast forward to 2022 and the gambling numbers are sure to be even more phenomenal.
Sharp Focus on the World Cup’s Social Standing
The UK Gambling Commission also sought to look into the betting habits of bettors during the 2022 world cup, with the regulatory body enlisting its Path to Play framework in the study. For greater context, the Path to Play framework was debuted by the commission in 2022 and it examines the key milestones as well as stages that gamblers go through and it also showcases how various gambling experiences may differ from one person to another. The path-to-play framework ascertains that certain influences are more impactful for specific gambling types. It also ascertains that problem gamblers are more likely to be influenced across all the stages of their path to play.
With that in mind, the study on the 2022 World Cup determined that most world cup bettors participated in betting on the tournament with the intention of adding excitement to their World Cup experience. Most people were influenced to participate with huge influences from their friends. As such, the findings are quite encouraging with the heavy matter of 'problem gambling' in mind. With these findings, we can infer that gamblers are doing it for the love of the game rather than for the love of money, which is one of the highest triggers of problem gambling. It also reinforces the idea that the World Cup is more of a social experience rather than it being an opportunity for football bettors to place their wagers on their favorite teams.
The ‘Gateway Event’ Status of the World Cup
Despite the world cup’s social status being highlighted repeatedly throughout the study, it was noted that of the 811 people that had taken part in the first and second stages of the study, there were 101 that had not partaken in any form of football betting 12 months prior to the happening of the FIFA 2022 World Cup. With that in mind, the study also sought to find out how the betting behaviors of this cohort changed over the course of the next couple of weeks.
In the 11 to 12 weeks after the world cup, 34 of the aforementioned cohort reported placing a wager on sports in that period, whilst 72 reported engaging in non-national lottery gambling in total. This represented about a third of the people who had initially discovered gambling through the FIFA World Cup 2022, continuing with the habit weeks after the tournament’s completion. This would further ascertain the World Cup’s status as a 'gateway' event.
Data of Negative Impacts on Gambling Inconclusive
Additionally, the UKGC made use of its problem gambling severity index to measure the impact of gambling on the FIFA World Cup, with regards to having a severity on the day-to-day lives of chaps who want to wager on major sporting events. The gambling harm data was inconclusive on this matter with the regulatory body deciding to focus on the FIFA Women’s World Cup that is concluding to gain deeper insights into this matter.
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