Are gambling company sports sponsorships a losing game? Investigating consumer responses on gambling, brand and team outcomes

Abstract

The current study investigates the causal relationships between exposure to gambling sports sponsorship and consumers’ gambling-linked, team, and brand outcomes, as well as the underlying explanatory mechanisms. We conducted two single-factor between-subjects experiments (sponsoring brand: banking company vs. commercial gambling provider), among 200 adult participants per experiment. The results reveal that the participants did not see a good fit between a commercial gambling provider and a soccer team, they perceived gambling sponsorship as morally inappropriate (among people who did not experience any risks or problems with gambling) and found the gambling sponsor insincere. We also found that gambling (vs. banking) sports sponsorships directly negatively influenced the sponsoring brand and sponsored team. Finally, gambling-linked outcomes were indirectly negatively affected by gambling sponsorships via sponsor moral appropriateness and normalization and risk perceptions about gambling.

Keywords:

• Gambling marketing
• gambling sponsorship
• sports sponsorship
• social norms
• risk perception

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Bram Hartmann for his help in the development of the stimulus material.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Belgian Federal Ministry of Justice (grant code 173C0123) and Research Foundation Flanders (grant code 12R9222N).

Notes on contributors

Steffi De Jans

Steffi De Jans is a postdoctoral researcher (FWO fellow) at the Department of Communication Sciences at Ghent University. She conducts research on how consumers (both minors and adults) can be empowered to cope with advertising (such as social media advertising, influencer marketing) for dark consumption behavior (i.e., advertising for potentially harmful products or behaviors such as gambling and unhealthy eating behavior).

Liselot Hudders

Liselot Hudders is an associate professor in marketing ethics at the department of Communication Sciences at Ghent University in Belgium and director of the Center for Persuasive Communication. Her research focuses on the role of digital media in the formation of consumer socialization processes.

Bram Constandt

Bram Constandt is an assistant research professor (BOF ZAP) of sport management at the Department of Movement and Sports Sciences at Ghent University. His research agenda focuses on responsible management in sport, with a special emphasis on understanding the normalization of gambling in and via sport.