Question of Usefulness
It is not exactly easy to tell whether the wide use of social media in the last decade has had a positive or negative impact on online sports betting. On the one hand, the availability of information on the Internet allows for informed decisions on betters’ part. They no longer solely depend on their own intuition or predictions concerning the odds of a particular team winning (Lopez-Gonzalez & Griffiths 810). At the same time, if these people’s end goal is strictly the money that they can gain from winning a bet, they can even put their personal preferences aside. Instead, they can concentrate on a team’s history and experts’ opinions.
Spheres of Use
On the other hand, social media can trick betters into thinking that a specific team or a player is more successful than they are in real life. Social media marketing is a developing field of expertise with a variety of tools that can present a person or a product in the best way possible. Many sports events launch their own hashtags, generating more traction and gaining followers on Twitter and Instagram. Athletes themselves are also going online and reach out to their fans, creating an illusion of camaraderie.
Some sports teams have outstanding SMM specialists working on their online image and reputation. In this case, the motives of a better can be classified as somewhat emotional: he or she is no longer guided by objective facts but by a sense of novelty and excitement. In summation, social media gave both betters and marketing experts more agency and tools of influence. While betters now can be independent researchers and cross-reference information, online specialists do everything possible to promote a specific team and manipulate betters’ judgment.
Work Cited
Lopez-Gonzalez, Hibai, and Mark D. Griffiths. “Understanding the Convergence of Markets in Online Sports Betting.” International Review for the Sociology of Sport, vol. 53, no. 7, 2018, pp. 807-823.