Game changing innovation or bad beat? How sports betting can reduce fan engagement

In May 2018, the Supreme Court ruled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (which made sports betting largely illegal in the U.S.) unconstitutional. This set the stage for legal sports betting-a new consumer behavior (or innovation) with the potential to increase fan engagement and create new revenue streams for leagues and teams. Although many believe sports betting will lead to positive marketing outcomes for leagues and teams, we question whether it can also lead to negative marketing outcomes. Across two experiments, consumers who bet on the home team and lost reported lower positive emotions and subsequent fan engagement than consumers who did not bet. Furthermore, consumers who bet on the home team and won did not report higher fan engagement than consumers who did not bet. Thus, we uncover a potential drawback of legal sports betting, which has major implications for leagues and teams that embrace it.