Lack of Education Greatest Barrier for Sports Bettors: Study Shows

WagerWire will be releasing more data from the study over the coming months. The study was completed between July 8 and July 21 and included 500 U.S. sports bettors and 200 non-sports bettors.

“The data from our study clearly shows how a lack of adequate betting education is the greatest barrier to entry for would-be bettors. However education is also the industry’s greatest opportunity to grow and expand,” said Zach Doctor, the co-founder and CEO of WagerWire. “There is a notable impasse in the current sports betting landscape regarding operators pulling back on their promotional and marketing spend, while also striving to grow their user bases and gain market share. While promotions and free bets are flashy, basic betting education can be the formula needed to develop more confident, engaged and responsible players that will result in a stronger, more sustainable industry.”

Check out: How to bet using the odds.

In the newly regulated Ontario iGaming market, one of the advantages in this regard was the presence of a billion-dollar gray market for decades beforehand, where entities utilized foreign servers and licenses before the legal market launched on April 4. 

Former gray market operators have been onboarding to the legal side via the provincial regulator, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. According to provincial data for Q2, through Sept. 30, there was a 48% increase in total wagers, compared to Q1, and a 65% increase in revenue.

According to a spokesperson from PointsBet Canada, that gray market situation gave Ontario more of a running start in terms of bettor education compared to U.S. markets where that wasn’t the case. 

“There is no one size fits all wherever you go,” the source said. “Ontario was already a mature market going in, at a baseline level. In the early days (of market legalization), in New Jersey (education) was a big issue. We were teaching people the mechanics. What’s a moneyline? What’s a spread? That was a massive part of our early strategy.”

Check out: How to bet using the moneyline.

It’s also worth noting, the spokesperson added, that the sports betting market can be a daunting, humbling, and even intimidating one, to the new player. On Twitter, texts focus on people winning.

ESPN’s Sarah Spain, for example, made a point of announcing on social media how she was “diving into sports betting”, how she had been “scared” to try it for years, and how other women in sports had told her the same.

“The community is not the most welcoming,” the PointsBet source said. 

Aly Lalani, head of marketing for BetRegal, the WagerWire/Leger study takeaways were not that surprising. 

Check out: How to bet using the spread.

“We have long stated that if you take a cross-section of Canadian sports fans, numbers 1 & 2 are currently betting somewhere,” he said. “They are what I would consider the ‘lower hanging fruit. The real challenge is understanding the triggers for numbers three through seven, and education is the largest barrier we have to face. Given that I grew up in Ontario, I have a whole network of friends of varying sports fandom that I consider my personal focus group, and I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a statement like, ‘I don’t know what -190 on the moneyline’ means. 

“A core principle of the BetRegal marketing strategy is rooted in the concept of education, because quite frankly the average customer is coming from a process of going into a gas station, filling out a ticket and giving it to an attendant and then receiving a tangible receipt. Put that same customer in front of the BetRegal interface with hundreds of betting markets per match, live lines that are constantly moving, the ability to buy/sell points. That’s like going from 70’s Vegas to the Jetson’s. It’s an intimidating proposition and BetRegal has always said we want to be the brand that helps customers three through seven in their evolution into understanding how sports betting can enhance the fan experience.”