Sport, sports betting, and gambling from the perspective of university students: Case of the Czech Republic

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Sport in the 21st century represents a multidisciplinary field its an indispensable role in the lives of individuals and society. Sport is associated inter alia with winning, victory, defeat; teamwork and individualism, professionalism and amateurism, feelings of joy and happiness, as well as with feelings of tension, uncertainty, excitement, and taking risks. Risk also appears within the context of sports betting and gambling, being a characteristic phenomenon there. This kind of risk brings both positives and negatives for the participants. University students represent a specific demographic group for whom this risk holds a certain appeal and interest. AIM: The primary aim of this paper was to determine whether there is a correlation between the experience of the survey sample of respondents in sports betting, as a category of gambling, and their biological age, gender, and the type of faculty they study. The secondary objective was to identify the preferred sports concerning sports betting among respondents in the Czech Republic. METHODS: In this research paper, various scientific research and mathematical-statistical methods were applied. Furthermore, citation and reference databases Scopus, and the bibliographic and citation database Web of Science were used. SAMPLE: The research sample consisted of two categories of respondents. Those with a prior experience in sports betting (N = 391) and those without any prior experience in sports betting (N = 679). The respondents were university students in the Czech Republic. RESULTS: The results suggested that biological age does not significantly impact the experience of the survey sample of respondents regarding sports betting, as a category of gambling. Additionally, it was discovered that gender, as well as the type of faculty the respondents study influenced the experience of the respondents in sports betting, as a category of gambling. CONCLUSIONS: The most frequently preferred sports activity for sports betting among university students in the Czech Republic is football.