Gambling generates significant health and social harms in Australia. This project aims to better understand how young adults use, communicate about and experience mobile phone sports betting applications. There is little research on the use of betting apps, even though sports betting is the fastest growing segment of the gambling market.
The project is interdisciplinary, drawing upon social practice theory and assemblage thinking; and combines ethnography and cognitive neuroscience to examine how use of sports betting apps is becoming established as everyday social practice – normalising problem gambling.
The findings will enhance understanding of the social contexts of sports betting; and inform gambling policy and programs leading to better health and social outcomes.
Our researcher
Our partner investigators/team members
- Professor Gerda Reith, University of Glasgow – Partner Investigator
- Professor Gordon Waitt, University of Wollongong, Chief Investigator
- Associate Professor Joseph Ciorciari, Swinburne, Chief Investigator
- Dr Lauren Gurrieri, RMIT, Chief Investigator
- Dr Theresa Harada, QUT – Research Fellow
- Hayden Cahill, QUT – PhD Student
Publications and outputs
- Waitt, G., Cahill, H., Gordon, R. (2020). Young men’s sports betting assemblages: masculinities, homosociality and risky places. Taylor & Francis Online.
- Gordon, R., Reith, G. (2019). Gambling as Social Practice: A complementary approach for reducing harm. Harm Reduction Journal, 16: 64.
- Gordon, R. (2019). The odds you’ll gamble on the Grand Final are high when punting is woven into our very social fabric. The Conversation, September 27, 2019.
Funding / Grants
- ARC Discovery Project (2019-2022)
