Behavioural Science in Sports Betting

As the Euros 2020 (aka 2021) kick off, fans are starting to place their bets on who will be taking home the trophy. Behavioural Science plays a crucial role when it comes to sports betting and many of your bets are unknowingly driven by heuristics, such as…

Desirability bias: individuals bet on what they want to happen, although this may not always be logical.

Availability bias: individuals overvalue more recent trends rather than taking the whole picture into consideration.

The fallacy of hot hands: the tendency to believe that someone who has been successful in an activity is likely to be successful again in future activities.

More successful football bettors focus on trying to overcome these heuristics by thinking objectively, pulling all the relevant information and knowledge together to make rational decisions.

If you have any questions on this topic, or how Impact’s behavioural science team could help you with your market research projects, do not hesitate to reach out to us.

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