Gambling and the FIFA World Cup 2022 – Part 1

Gambling and the FIFA World Cup 2022 – Part 1 150 150 Shaun Richards

Gambling and the FIFA World Cup 2022
Part 1

The men’s FIFA World Cup is upon us again after 4 years away. People around the UK are watching the wins and losses of each team, cheering on their country and hoping they will go all the way to the final. 

Wins and losses are also being tallied off the field among those who will bet on this year’s men’s World Cup. As of November 2022, the Gambling commission for Great Britain says that the British gambling industry is worth £14.1 billion. However, according to Bloomberg via Barclays Barclays PLC analysts, this 2022 World Cup tournament will provide an additional “$35 billion betting boon for bookmakers” around the globe. Indeed, each game of the 2018 men’s FIFA World cup experienced an average betting turnover worth €2.1 billion globally. So it’s a huge global event not only for viewership numbers, but also for the gambling industry.

What did we do?

Using the CitizenMe Marketplace, CitizenMe and expert in the study of risk behaviours, Joshua Weller (University of Leeds) conducted a case study looking at Gambling and the FIFA World Cup 2022 among users (Citizens) of the CitizenMe app. The CitizenMe app gives Citizens the ability to gather and share their own data in a fully consented and anonymous way via questions and answers. Citizens are able to see their personal human data in one place – on their smartphone – and be in control of how that data is used.

When asked, some 970 UK Citizens said they would be watching the FIFA World Cup 2022. Of these, we filtered out those who had never gambled in their life, leaving 724 UK Citizens. We then split the respondents between those who said they had/would place a bet versus those who would not:

Betting on the FIFA World Cup 2022 (‘bettors’)

43% (312)

Not betting on the FIFA World Cup 2022 (‘non-bettors’)

57% (412)

What we found?

Delving into the data, we found some insightful habits and personality types, based on those who were planning to bet on this World Cup:

44%

Bettors on the World Cup are classified as moderate (16%) or severe (28%) in experiences towards gambling, according to the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI)*

World Cup bettors

are lower in agreeableness*

compared to non-bettors

World Cup bettors

are much higher ‘thrill seekers’*

compared to non-bettors

Males are more likely to bet

on the World Cup

Bettors are more excited and more avid viewers, watching as many games as they can

60%

World Cup bettors normally** bet at least a few times a month

12%

World Cup bettors normally** bet at least £50 per bet

4 out of 5

World Cup bettors normally** bet always/mostly online

1 in 10

World Cup bettors will make over 20 bets on the World Cup

Over 30%

World Cup bettors have increased their betting habits due to the World Cup

1 in 3

World Cup bettors are actually confident about their World Cup bets

Over 50%

World Cup bettors bet to compete and chase the win

*  These are psychometric results produced by a scoring mechanism from multiple questions via mobile on-the-edge technology

** Outside of World Cup betting

Read on for Part 2

The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) is a measurement used in the Health Survey for England, the Scottish Health Survey, and the Welsh Problem gambling Survey respectively. The PGSI was developed by Ferris and Wynne (2001) specifically for use among the general population rather than within a clinical context. It helps to determine the potential level of risk a person has to gambling.

In part 2 of this case study, you can see the splits of different gambling consequences levels among those who said they would bet on the FIFA World Cup 2022.

Perhaps this is something you wish to investigate further yourself. You can do this all through the CitizenMe Marketplace platform. Check out how to do this here: