#Sponsored: A Systematic Literature Review and Theoretical Framework of Gambling Sponsorship Research

Abstract

This systematic review of research on gambling sponsorship provides insight into the current state of the art of gambling sponsorship research, a theoretical framework for understanding the mechanisms underlying gambling sponsorship’s effects, and a future research agenda to guide advertising scholars. Literature searches in Scopus and Web of Science resulted in a total of 46 publications that focus on gambling sponsorships, which can be grouped into three research clusters: exposure, impact, and ethics of gambling sponsorships. The review shows that extant research has mainly focused on sports sponsorships by gambling companies and that these sports sponsorships are omnipresent in the lives of both adults and minors. Although a positive association between exposure to gambling sports sponsorships and consumers’ gambling attitudes and intentions may be assumed, causal and longitudinal research investigating the impacts of gambling sponsorships is limited. The review also shows that there is a lack of theory explaining consumers’ responses to gambling sponsorships, although the gambling industry is a very specific industry and gambling sponsorships can be considered unhealthy sponsorships. We therefore propose a theoretical framework to better understand how gambling sponsorship works, which may guide future research on this topic.