2.3 - Sports betting The fast development of technology contributed to the growth of the sports betting market (Moriconi and de Cima, 2019) and sports betting is considered a form of gambling associated with increased risk for gambling related harm, especially for athletes (Mazar et al., 2020). It is skill-based gambling which could replace the competition provided by sport, formerly or normally (Lim et al., 2016) and it has fewer or no stigmatising connotations (Hing et al., 2015; Lopez-Gonzalez et al. (2019). The growth of sports betting also influenced the sports industry as it generated new betting possibilities such as in-play betting and live betting which created risks and threats to sports integrity through match-fixing linked to an entire game, the end results or certain parts of the game (Moriconi and de Cima, 2019). In-play betting is believed to be more harmful than other gambling activities for athletes as they have more control over the outcome of events and have the chance to bet against themselves anonymously (Derevensky et al., 2019).
Athletes with their own history of extensive gambling practices are more likely to engage in match-fixing in order to satisfy their gambling activities (O’Shea et al., 2021). Rhind et al. (2014) found that in the UK, male athletes were more likely to take money to underperform, provide inside information to people, affect the outcome of an event and place bets on events in which they were involved, in comparison to female athletes. Grall-Bronnec et al. (2016) also found a strong link between problem gambling and betting on one’s own game.
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