Relationships between the consumption of gamblified media and associated gambling activities in a sample of esports fans

Recent years have seen increasing academic attention to the ways in which the convergence of video gaming and gambling creates novel activities, relationships, and business practices. The scale and pace of this convergence has been such that observers have referenced not only the gamification of gambling but, additionally, the gamblification of gaming. The phenomenon of esports, or competitive video game play, is the environment which is most obviously characterised by this process, combining as it does both novel forms of gamblified content and established gambling activities from the world of traditional sports. Given the concerns about the normalisation of gambling in young people there is a pressing need to investigate the ways in which the consumption of esports, as a gamblified media product, is associated with participation in gambling activities. The findings of this study highlight the importance of spectating esports as a predictor of involvement in gambling associated with esports, while also providing empirical evidence of under-age participation in gambling. Finally, it offers a snapshot of gamblified media consumption during a period of rapid change, serving both as a historical record and as a basis for comparison with subsequent developments in the field.