Gambling-like digital assets and gambling severity: a correlational study with U.S. sports bettors consuming cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and fan tokens

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the relationship with gambling severity of a relatively new set of speculative digital products, namely cryptocurrency trading, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and fan tokens. These products have gained notoriety in sports marketing strategies (among other realms) and are considered to be potentially problematic because, disguised as non-gambling products, they include gambling-like design features that might make sports fans more vulnerable when consuming them. A sample of regular sports bettors (N = 525) based in the U.S. was recruited in 2023 via an online panel to understand the association between these types of consumptions. The findings revealed a significant overlap between experiencing gambling problems and consuming cryptocurrency trading products, NFTs, and fan tokens. The results indicate a modest relationship between the severity of gambling and the likelihood of owning the studied digital assets, of holding positive attitudes toward them, and of being more frequently exposed to their advertising and marketing promotions. The relevancy of these findings resides in the fact that sports bettors might be perceiving and treating gambling and gambling-like assets as part of the same product category, when in reality the latter are legally required to comply with fewer consumer protection measures than gambling products.KEYWORDS: Sports bettinggamblingcryptoNFTfan tokensport AcknowledgementsWe thank CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya for institutional support.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Authors’ contributionsHL-G conceived and planned the study, conducted the analysis of the case study and wrote the first draft. BP contributed to the interpretation of the results and edited the final draft of the manuscript. All authors provided critical feedback to the submitted version of the manuscript.Availability of data and materialNo supplementary data is available for this study. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.Code availabilityOutput code from statistical analysis is available upon request.Supplementary materialSupplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14459795.2023.2279125Data availability statementThe data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.Ethical statementThe study was granted ethical approval by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s IRB. IRB Number: 20230122237EX Project ID: 22237.Additional informationFundingThe first author receives funding through the Serra Húnter Programme of the Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement, Generalitat de Catalunya.Notes on contributorsHibai Lopez-GonzalezHibai Lopez-Gonzalez is a Serra Húnter Lecturer with the Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media of the University of Barcelona. In 2015, he obtained his doctorate in Public Communication at Pompeu Fabra University. He was a Postdoctoral researcher at the International Gaming Research Unit from Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom and at the Department of Psychology at the University of Deusto.Brian PetrottaBrian Petrotta is an assistant professor of Sports Media and Communication at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 2021, he obtained his doctorate in Mass Communication from the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.