An examination of consumer reactance to daily fantasy sport and sport gambling regulatory restrictions

Stephen L. Shapiro, Joris Drayer and Brendan Dwyer

Sport Management Review, 2020, vol. 23, issue 5, 797-809

Abstract: •Psychological reactance theory was examined in the context of sports gambling and daily fantasy sport.•An experimental design was used to test the impact of proposed restrictions on consumer behavioral intentions.•Significant differences were found between high and low levels of consumer reactance to proposed government restrictions.•Results regarding restrictions to freedom were contrary to previous literature on consumer reactance.•Consumer reactance should be considered as governments decide on sports gaming legislation.According to psychological reactance theory (PRT), when an individual’s freedom is threatened or eliminated, a state of reactance will occur in an attempt to have the freedom restored. Consumer reactance to firm marketing strategies and governmental restrictions have been examined in a variety of contexts. However, an examination of consumer reactance regarding participation in sport gaming activities, such as daily fantasy sport and sport gambling is non-existent. Two studies were developed using experimental designs to: (a) identify whether sport gaming participation intentions were influenced by government restrictions; (b) examine the influence of reactance tendencies on behavioral intentions; and (c) test whether consumer reactance moderates the relationship between government restrictions and gaming intentions. Our results showed significant differences in intentions based on government restrictions for both daily fantasy sport (DFS) and sport gambling participants. Mean intention scores were highest in the scenarios where the activities were legal, which is contrary to previous consumer reactance literature. However, varying state regulations may be playing a role, as individuals can participate in these activities in states where they are legal. Additionally, consumer reactance played a moderating role for groups that were discouraged or restricted from the activity. Consumers with high reactance tendencies reacted unfavorably to threats of freedom as anticipated, extending our knowledge of the impacts of consumer reactance within the sport gaming industry.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1016/j.smr.2020.02.006 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rsmrxx:v:23:y:2020:i:5:p:797-809

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rsmr20

DOI: 10.1016/j.smr.2020.02.006

Access Statistics for this article

Sport Management Review is currently edited by Sheranne Fairley

More articles in Sport Management Review from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().