Key findings

• Tens of thousands of UK children follow and engage with betting accounts on Twitter. 41,000 UK followers of gambling-related accounts are likely to be under 16. Children make up 6% of followers of ‘traditional’ gambling accounts and 17% of esports accounts. 13,000 replies to and retweets of gambling content were sent from UK children’s accounts.

• 28% of those responding to esports Tweets in the UK are children. Children and young people are highly engaged in betting on esports. This arena sees the worst advertising practice; poor labelling of warnings and apparent flouting of regulations.

• Betting advertising is widely shared on Twitter. Over nine months in 2018, 888,000 Tweets were sent from Twitter accounts known to be related to betting, reaching 4.8 million users (700,000 in the UK).

• Half of the bets advertised by gambling accounts on Twitter were ‘free’ or ‘matched’ bets. Half of the Tweets from gambling accounts related to ‘free’ or ‘matched’ bets, which minimise the perceived risks of gambling and often contain complex conditions. These messages were often highly visually appealing.

• Very little Twitter gambling advertising mentions age restriction, responsible gambling, or terms and conditions within the initial text of the post. Only 7% of Tweets sent from a gambling account on Twitter include a warning message within the text of the post.

• Most of the Tweets raised some regulatory concern. 68% of traditional sports and 74% of esports Tweets appeared to the researchers to contravene regulations in some way, for example by presenting gambling as an income source, or by encouraging gambling as a regular activity or at unsociable times.

• Advertising Tweets are seldom labelled as advertising. CAP Code 2.1 states that “marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such.” However, no overt labelling was found. Children or vulnerable young people may not understand that the Tweets are designed to elicit a behaviour that profits a third party.

• Much Twitter gambling advertising is “content marketing” designed to build awareness and emotional attachment to the gambling brand and to encourage sharing. The most common tactics used to engage Twitter audiences with gambling brands are humour, surprise, admiration and the content that makes people feel like insiders or niche experts. These tactics are likely to appeal to children.

• Parents and teachers are likely to be completely unaware of gambling advertising on social media. They probably know little of the potential role of esports betting in initiating children into gambling, and the possibility that, through the use of cryptocurrencies, children may be able to place bets without owning a bank account. Parents and teachers may also not know about content marketing designed to create a positive feeling about gambling brands and promote the sharing of content.

Authors

Professor Agnes Nairn, University of Bristol
Josh Smith, Demos