When we think about sports betting and Responsible Gaming, we always think about preventing gambling addiction among ordinary users.

However, little is said about the relationship between professional gamblers and sports betting, and how Responsible Gaming can contribute to the integrity of the sport.

With the popularization of online betting, it is increasingly easy for athletes to be involved in betting-related controversies, sometimes playing, sometimes manipulating results. And in both situations, the consequences are very serious.

Lucas Paquetá Case and Maximum Penalty Operation

More recently in the media, the case of player Lucas Paquetá is a very good example to alert us to the need to bring athletes into the debate on sports betting and the integrity of sport, with the aim of raising awareness and educating them.

Regardless of whether he is guilty or not, this situation illustrates the importance of alerting athletes that they are involved , directly or indirectly, in the sports betting industry.

In this specific case, there are indications that the athlete carried out manipulation , committing fouls with the intention of being penalized with a yellow card.

All this so that the bets of people who live in the place where the athlete was born would be successful.

Lucas Paquetá, a professional athlete with a solid, successful career and a candidate for the Brazilian National Team, may have put his future as a professional player at risk due to an attitude that, most likely, he did not know would have all these repercussions and consequences.

Perhaps due to a lack of knowledge about how the industry and the inspection of the integrity of the sport work, he thought he could not be punished.

This thinking was also very present in the cases of Operation Maximum Penalty , in which several athletes were caught manipulating results in Brazilian competitions, again in the matter of cards. The examples of consequences are diverse, with athletes being banned or away from the field for a long time, practically decreeing the end of their careers.

Responsible Gaming, applied as a philosophy of healthy involvement with the practice of sports betting, also emerges as an alternative to raise awareness among athletes about the importance of knowing the risks of manipulation and their involvement with games, regardless of whether they are the ones betting or people around them.

It is interesting that clubs attract professionals related to the sports betting industry and the mental health area to talk and teach about the integrity of the sport, how the monitoring mechanisms of betting houses work and the importance of fair play, while at the same time warning about the risk of developing gambling addiction as they are considered a risk population.

Professional athletes are directly linked to the betting industry, as their actions are related to the markets made available by bets.

It is important to bring the notion of Responsible Gaming into clubs, understanding that the betting industry and the sports industry mix.

Clubs can provide lectures and activities related to the integrity of the sport, to understand how the sports betting market works and what penalties can be applied in case of manipulation, including explaining what can be considered result manipulation.

In Brazil, Athletico-PR recently partnered with Genius Sports to promote the integrity of sport for its athletes and employees.

Furthermore, it is important to have health professionals in the mental health area with experience in sports betting, with the aim of predicting behaviors that may indicate the development of gambling addiction, carrying out activities related to Responsible Gaming with awareness, information regarding the risk as they are considered a risk population due to the profession they practice.

It is also possible to apply scientifically valid questionnaires anonymously and regularly to assess the presence of harmful behaviors in relation to betting or casino games.

Clubs should not only focus their efforts on top athletes, but also carry out prevention work, especially with young athletes, who are even more exposed to risk as they are just starting out in their careers.

Tonali, Fagioli and Toney case

The issue of sports integrity is often the topic when discussing professional athletes’ involvement in sports betting, but it is also important to bring up the element of addiction.

Some scientific studies have identified that professional athletes constitute a population at risk of developing gambling addiction.

While for people in other professions, the percentage of gambling addiction is between 0.2% and 5.5% of the population, depending on the country, among professional athletes this percentage reaches up to 8.8% (M. Grall-Bronnec, 2016).

Some reasons that may justify this prevalence of professional athletes with the potential to develop Gaming Disorder may be:

• The professional environment contributes to selecting individuals with competitive traits, who are people with higher rates of gambling problems. (Weiss & Loubier, 2008).
• Sharing betting tips between players during training and concentration periods;
• The combination of high salaries, very rapid financial advancement, unsupervised time and free time can facilitate gambling and, thus, facilitate the development of gambling problems (Revheim & Buvik, 2009)
• The personality of chasing euphoria, excitement, constantly seeking pleasure
• Betting to regulate the same emotions achieved when they scored a goal, had a victory or won an important title
• Free time outside of training and games
• Cause relief from frustrations caused by poor performance, being taken off the team or being injured.

Some reports also show that problems with betting are often masked in clubs, making them difficult to detect due to high salaries that are unlikely to leave the athlete in a difficult financial situation, unlike problems with alcohol and drugs.

Integrity and awareness: protecting athletes and sport

The growth of the sports betting scene must be directly linked to athletes’ awareness of the market, the importance of sport integrity and the risks.

In addition to preventing addiction among athletes who constitute a population at risk of developing gambling addiction, providing quality information and education, explaining how the market works and increasing awareness among athletes contributes to reducing their involvement with betting, directly or indirectly.

Clubs must understand their social responsibility and get involved in the discussion, preparing with professionals with experience in the area and/or establishing partnerships with companies in the sector, not focusing only on sponsorship, but mainly on preventing and raising awareness of problems related to betting, whether it be match-fixing or gambling addiction.

It is important to understand that athletes are involved in the betting industry, whether they like it or not, and are even the subject of bets by users.

Bringing athletes into the debate on the topic is fundamental for the ethical growth of the sector, combating the population’s prejudice about match-fixing and aiming for a sustainable, corruption-free industry.

Bibliographic references

MSM Lim, H. Bowden-Jones, M. Salinas; J. Price; GM Goodwin; J. Geddes & RD Rogers (2016): The experience of gambling problems in British professional footballers: a preliminary qualitative study , Addiction Research & Theory.

Revheim T, Buvik K. 2009. Opportunity structure for gambling and problem gambling among employees in the transport industry . Int J Mental Health Addict. 7:217–228.

Weiss SM, Loubier SL. 2008. Gambling behaviors of former athletes: the delayed competitive effect . UNLV Gaming Res Rev J 12:53–60