Sports Bettors: A Systematic Review

Sports betting is associated with problematic gambling behaviours. However, little is known about the profile of sports bettors. Also, it is still unclear if there are useful abilities in sports betting. This systematic review aims to describe gambling habits and cognitions of sports bettors, and determine the roles of chance and skill in sports betting. Addressing the chance and skill distinction in sports betting would be helpful to identify which of sports bettors' cognitions are erroneous. Out of 991 studies identified in the databanks, 31 met the inclusion criteria of this review. Results indicate that these studies are mostly conducted with male samples aged from 30 to 50 years. These gamblers bet many times per week, with weekly averages ranging from 100 to 200$ CAD. Five studies examined the roles of chance and skill in sports betting, among which three showed that sports bettors perform better than chance in predicting results accurately, but they do not win more money than they would with a random selection, due to the structure of the game. The 11 studies that focused on cognitions indicate that sports bettors overestimate the influence of skill on the outcome of the game. These results support the need to further study the role of cognitions in the behaviours of sports bettors. It also offers insights concerning the distinction between chance and skill in sports betting.