How Well Do Betting Operators Educate New Players

However, the more important question is whether first-time bettors understand risks, odds, and probabilities before they place their first wager.

In a local context, placing a bet is as simple as opening an app and making a choice, but new bettors often play without knowing crucial information.

Sportsboom analyzes the effectiveness of education in South Africa’s gambling industry and if operators are doing enough to educate new bettors.

How informed are first-time South African bettors?

While betting has gained significant ground in the South African market, the question remains whether a new player has all the information from the beginning.

Consider a hypothetical example of a first-time bettor: they see advertising for a particular sportsbook, download a mobile app, go through the registration process involving FICA, verification, and identification, and browse odds to see where to place a bet.

Although this process is quick and relatively simple, the newcomer bettor does not necessarily understand the basic principles surrounding probability and risk.

Licensed operators are required to include information related to betting age limits and the possibility of developing gambling addiction, although these often appear in small print and are overridden by promotions, welcome offers, and prompts such as ‘bet now’.

This creates an overlap in what first-time bettors are exposed to, with explanations of betting mechanics, common user errors, and probability often missing.

Local betting operators and the education of players

In South Africa’s betting environment, educating new players is mostly based on responsible gambling messages, verification processes, links to support services, and systems such as self-exclusion.

The National Gambling Board ^[1], for example, provides primary oversight over the industry and is also mandated to educate the public on responsible gambling.

The NGB’s National Responsible Gambling Programme (NRGP) ^[2] is described as integrating education, research, treatment, awareness, and counselling services.

This programme is the result of a public-private-partnership between the NGB, Provincial Licensing Authorities, and the broader South African gambling industry.

Player education is considered a regulatory responsibility, underlined by provincial authorities being required to enforce consumer protection and responsible gambling roles.

Concurrently, the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation ^[3] provides free counselling, treatment, educational materials, and industry training under NRGP oversight.

On paper, these measures are seen as sufficient, although the passive nature of this education remains open for debate over whether first-time and existing bettors are benefiting.

Is consumer education in South Africa’s betting industry enough?

For most betting operators, consumer education takes the form of online disclaimers and links or references to responsible gambling webpages, meaning users have to find crucial information themselves.

When weighing whether these measures are effective, one argument is that operators are meeting the minimum industry standards instead of making efforts to improve gambling literacy for players.

In addition, many betting platforms have little to no practical details on topics such as how to understand and read odds, expected losses, long-term outcomes, and the fundamental risks of gambling.

Another argument is that because operators are making money when consumers gamble on their platforms, there is a disconnect between the prominence of marketing and education for players.

The bottom line is that while industry regulators are playing an active role, and many operators are complying with the guidelines, more can be done to educate first-time players before their first wager.

Betting education using a real-world hypothetical example

Consider the following hypothetical example:

A South African who has never bet before sees a bookmaker advertisement on social media, highlighting a monthly English Premier League promotion.

They register on the platform, following ID verification and registration processes, with a link to the Responsible Gambling Foundation and a warning appearing at the bottom of the webpage.

The bettor then deposits R150 and builds an accumulator around the EPL and the Premier Soccer League, based on which teams are in good form.

While the bet slip shows the potential return, no clear details are given on how combined probabilities affect potential winnings, with the bettor not understanding why they lost the bet.

In this case, the bettor could be led to believe they had ‘bad luck’ and end up making risky decisions, and may miss the responsible gambling details.