Keeping betting on track
In 2020 when Australia went into its first round of COVID-19 lockdowns, there was a dramatic uptick in online gambling. As betting venues closed, and AFL games were played with no crowds in attendance, Australians shifted to placing their bets on online platforms, with a surge in online gambling spending. Betting on sports or races can be legally done by downloading an app from a registered provider. Once you have the app, placing bets is effortless and can be done from anywhere.
BETA partnered with leading academics from the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Tasmania and the University of New South Wales to determine whether providing the participants with information about their total online betting would reduce their spending.
The goal of our project was not to prevent people from having a good time, but to make it easier for them to keep their betting in line with their budget, and to notice if betting was creeping up over time. It is very difficult to keep track of multiple small payments and people tend to focus more on the big wins when they occur.
Making a statement about online gambling
We designed activity statements that provided online gamblers with real time feedback to empower online gamblers to make informed decisions and help reduce harm from gambling.
In order to test the statements we commissioned the development of an impressive game with small pixelated horses racing across a vivid green racetrack. The game was dynamic, so although we pre-programmed the payout odds and the probabilities of winning each race, every player experienced a slightly different mix of wins and losses. We needed it to feel realistic in order to stimulate people to gamble in the game (with lab dollars) the way they would in real life.
Each and every bet was visible in the data, and showed real variation: bets going up and down, some bets being sat out. The comments (from real online gamblers) also indicated that people were getting into the races. They talked about sitting out bets if the odds were too high or if they didn’t like the name of the horse. Would you bet on “Ancient Bolt” or “Easy Hazel”?
Activity statements for the win
The results backed the value of activity statements in assisting casual gamblers to keep their betting on track. These behavioural insights were used to inform government’s policy decision making and resulted in state and territory governments making it mandatory for online wagering companies to provide monthly activity statements to their customers, using BETA’s design as a template.
This video provides the detail on how the statements incorporated behavioural insights, how the game was developed to test them, and how we watched our evidence impact legislation. You can also read the full report on our project page if you would like to skip ahead to the results or immerse yourself in the technical appendices. We hope you enjoy the video and hearing firsthand from our wonderful academic partners.