Young women sports bettors in the United Kingdom: an overlooked demographic?

Biggar, B. , Kesaite, V., Ukhova, D. and Wardle, H. (2023) Young women sports bettors in the United Kingdom: an overlooked demographic? In: McGee, D. and Bunn, C. (eds.) Gambling and Sports in a Global Age. Series: Research in the sociology of sport (18). Emerald: Leeds, pp. 145-167. ISBN 9781801173056 (doi: 10.1108/S1476-285420230000018010)

Abstract

Despite increasingly persuasive women-focused marketing of gambling products, there has only been limited investigation around women sports betting. Men remain the focus of much of the conversation about sports betting as they have generally been found to be the most active sports bettors and the most at risk of experiencing harms associated with their behaviour. This chapter aims to fill this gap by exploring the characteristics of young women sports bettors in the United Kingdom and the relationship between sports betting and the experience of gambling harms. To do this, we created two models of analysis. Our analysis is based on data from the first wave (2019) of the Emerging Adults Gambling Survey (EAGS) dataset (n = 3,549). The EAGS is a non-probability longitudinal survey that includes individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 who were residents in Britain at the time of data collection. Firstly, we examined the associations between women sports bettors and several factors identified as important predictors of sports betting. Secondly, we sought to understand the relationship between women's sports betting and the harms associated with this activity. From these models, we found that women's sports betting was most reliably predicted according to fandom and peer influence. We also found that women sports bettors were more at risk of experiencing harms associated with difficulties with family and friends than women gamblers using other products.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kesaite, Dr Viktorija and Wardle, Professor Heather and Ukhova, Dr Daria and Biggar, Dr Blair
• Authors: Biggar, B., Kesaite, V., Ukhova, D., and Wardle, H.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Publisher: Emerald
• ISBN: 9781801173056
• Published Online: 17 November 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 Blair Biggar, Viktorija Kesaite, Daria Ukhova and Heather Wardle
• First Published: First published in Gambling and Sports in a Global Age: 145-167
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
314613		Technological changes and the health and wellbeing of youth: A case study of gambline	Heather Wardle	Wellcome Trust (WELLCOTR)	200306/A/15/Z	S&PS - Sociology