ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1608414
This article is part of the Research TopicSports marketing evolution: Emerging trends, challenges, and future directionsView all articles
All Bets Are On: Obsession, Engagement, and Moral Tension in Sports Betting Behavior
Provisionally accepted
- Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, Maryland, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
As legalized sports betting becomes increasingly integrated into American sports culture, particularly within the NFL, questions arise about how these practices influence fan behavior, emotional engagement, and moral perceptions. This study examines the variation in sports betting engagement across age groups and identifies the factors that best predict media consumption, perceived dependency, and concern about others' betting habits. A cross-sectional online survey (N = 492) was administered to NFL fans via snowball sampling, with branching logic to ensure that only those with direct betting experience completed all attitudinal items. Fifteen Likert-scale questions assessed cognitive, behavioral, and emotional responses to sports betting. Exploratory factor analysis revealed four latent dimensions: Personal Betting Habits, Betting-Driven Enjoyment, Concern for Others, and Perceived Social Addiction. Regression models and bivariate correlations were employed to investigate four research questions regarding sports media engagement, emotional concern, dependency, and attitudes toward confronting others about problematic behavior.Findings indicate that self-identified obsession with betting was the only consistent and strong predictor of increased sports engagement, supporting Uses and Gratifications Theory.Demographic variables such as age and gender did not significantly predict engagement, and moral concern about others' betting behavior was only weakly associated with media Formatted: Font: Bold Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman Formatted: Normal consumption or dependency. While concern for others was moderately correlated with confrontation attitudes, it did not predict changes in one's own engagement or risk perception.These results suggest a form of cognitive dissonance, where fans recognize problematic behavior but do not act on it, particularly when they are highly engaged themselves. Conceptual figures illustrate two regression models: one based on theoretical predictors and the other on observed behavior, highlighting the dominant role of perceived obsession in driving fan engagement.This study contributes to research on sports gambling by offering a multidimensional model of engagement that distinguishes between behavioral participation, emotional concern, and moral judgment. It underscores the need for future longitudinal research, improved psychometric instruments, and stakeholder awareness of how betting can both deepen fan immersion and complicate psychological well-being.
Keywords: Sports betting, Fan engagement, obsession, Gambling behavior, NFL, Uses and gratifications theory, Moral concern, Digital media consumption
Received: 08 Apr 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yaros. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ronald A. Yaros, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD 20742, Maryland, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.