A University of Stirling study found that TV commercials for live betting during UK soccer matches are misleading to players.
The study looked at live-odds gambling commercials during two months of televised English Premier League matches and found they were biased towards complex and highly specific bets. The study found that about 60 percent of advertised bets involved a specific player scoring. Also popular were advertisements with odds for a team to win with an exact score line.
“Live-odds TV gambling adverts that promote betting on specific, complex gambles during sporting events are becoming increasingly prominent in the UK,” said study author Dr. Philip Newall. “These types of bets are attractive to gamblers due to the high potential win: however, due to the vast number of potential outcomes, they are very difficult to rationally quantify and forecast and, as a result, result in significant average losses.”
The study found that such longshot bets were advertised the most often and had the highest bookmaker profit margins. The study also found that as the complexity of the bet increased, bettor’s optimism about winning grew, but the odds actually become less fair.
“It seems football fans are rarely able to rationalize the likelihood of a win for the complex events that now dominate gambling advertising in the UK,” Newall said. “Everyone, from die-hard football fans to novice gamblers, struggled to estimate the outcome of live-odd bets and may be underestimating the cost of these gambles.”
