Do betting advertisements contain attention strategies that may appeal to children? An interpretative content analysis

Issue addressed: Concerns have been raised about the expansion of sports betting marketing and the impact it may have on children's gambling attitudes and behaviours. This study aimed to investigate the content of Australian betting advertisements to identify if they contained specific attentio...

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Main Authors: Pitt, H., Thomas, S., Bestman, A., Randle, M., Daube, Mike
Format: Journal Article
Published: Australian Health Promotion Association 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/73692
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author Pitt, H.
Thomas, S.
Bestman, A.
Randle, M.
Daube, Mike
author_facet Pitt, H.
Thomas, S.
Bestman, A.
Randle, M.
Daube, Mike
author_sort Pitt, H.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Issue addressed: Concerns have been raised about the expansion of sports betting marketing and the impact it may have on children's gambling attitudes and behaviours. This study aimed to investigate the content of Australian betting advertisements to identify if they contained specific attention strategies that have been identified by tobacco, alcohol and gambling researchers as having particular appeal to children. Methods: An interpretative content analysis of 91 advertisements from 11 corporate bookmakers was conducted. A search of specific attention strategies that may appeal to adults, but also have been demonstrated in the public health literature as having particular appeal for children was used to develop a coding framework. This framework was then applied to analyse the advertisements. Descriptive statistics were used to generate quantitative data and qualitative illustrations were used to provide examples of the strategies found within the advertisements. Results: On average there were 7.6 attention strategies found per advertisement. The most common attention strategies were music (n = 80), voiceovers (n = 79) and catchy slogans (n = 78). There were some attention strategies that related specifically to betting, such as technology, and risk-reducing promotions. Conclusion: This research has demonstrated that the content of betting advertisements contains attention strategies that, based on the research findings from other areas of public health, may have particular appeal for children. So what?: This research provides important evidence which could encourage researchers, regulators and policy makers to consider changes to current advertising regulations, to ensure children are protected from the potentially engaging and harmful attention strategies present in betting advertisements.
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format Journal Article
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T10:57:39Z
publishDate 2018
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-736922019-07-30T07:49:28Z Do betting advertisements contain attention strategies that may appeal to children? An interpretative content analysis Pitt, H. Thomas, S. Bestman, A. Randle, M. Daube, Mike Issue addressed: Concerns have been raised about the expansion of sports betting marketing and the impact it may have on children's gambling attitudes and behaviours. This study aimed to investigate the content of Australian betting advertisements to identify if they contained specific attention strategies that have been identified by tobacco, alcohol and gambling researchers as having particular appeal to children. Methods: An interpretative content analysis of 91 advertisements from 11 corporate bookmakers was conducted. A search of specific attention strategies that may appeal to adults, but also have been demonstrated in the public health literature as having particular appeal for children was used to develop a coding framework. This framework was then applied to analyse the advertisements. Descriptive statistics were used to generate quantitative data and qualitative illustrations were used to provide examples of the strategies found within the advertisements. Results: On average there were 7.6 attention strategies found per advertisement. The most common attention strategies were music (n = 80), voiceovers (n = 79) and catchy slogans (n = 78). There were some attention strategies that related specifically to betting, such as technology, and risk-reducing promotions. Conclusion: This research has demonstrated that the content of betting advertisements contains attention strategies that, based on the research findings from other areas of public health, may have particular appeal for children. So what?: This research provides important evidence which could encourage researchers, regulators and policy makers to consider changes to current advertising regulations, to ensure children are protected from the potentially engaging and harmful attention strategies present in betting advertisements. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/73692 10.1002/hpja.12 Australian Health Promotion Association restricted
spellingShingle Pitt, H.
Thomas, S.
Bestman, A.
Randle, M.
Daube, Mike
Do betting advertisements contain attention strategies that may appeal to children? An interpretative content analysis
title Do betting advertisements contain attention strategies that may appeal to children? An interpretative content analysis
title_full Do betting advertisements contain attention strategies that may appeal to children? An interpretative content analysis
title_fullStr Do betting advertisements contain attention strategies that may appeal to children? An interpretative content analysis
title_full_unstemmed Do betting advertisements contain attention strategies that may appeal to children? An interpretative content analysis
title_short Do betting advertisements contain attention strategies that may appeal to children? An interpretative content analysis
title_sort do betting advertisements contain attention strategies that may appeal to children? an interpretative content analysis
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/73692