Are sports betting apps designed to keep you hooked?
About this Event
Synopsis
With the rise of online apps, sports betting has grown rapidly in popularity. In Australia alone, the market is estimated at over $5 billion, with nearly 25% of the population regularly placing bets.
Sports betting used to be a slower activity, with bets placed before an event and outcomes known once it finished. In this talk, I show how modern apps have shifted this into a continuous, fast-paced experience, with features like in-play betting and instant cash-out.
Combined with frictionless transactions, these changes increase engagement and can create a stronger sense of control, which can lead to bigger and riskier bets.
Behavioural science can help offset this. Well-designed safer gambling messages, along with clear information about how odds and outcomes favour the house, can help reduce the harms linked to excessive gambling.
Speaker biography
Elliot Ludvig is a professor who studies how people and other animals learn to make decisions, especially in situations involving risk and reward. His work brings together ideas from psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence to better understand how simple learning processes shape behaviour. His research looks at how people respond to uncertainty and delay, how habits form, and why people sometimes make risky or dishonest choices. He also studies curiosity and learning in animals, including pigeons. Across his work, he builds and tests computer models to explain how the brain learns, with a focus on improving our understanding of decision-making in everyday life.
Where is it happening?
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