Understanding the links between anxiety, depression, and sports betting: The mediating role of sports betting motivations.

Sports betting has grown in popularity in recent years in the US and Canada, and is now a major form of gambling. In the present research, we examined which motivations for sports betting mediated the association between emotional vulnerabilities (i.e., anxiety and depression) and sports betting and gambling problems. We recruited sports bettors in Ontario, Canada (final N = 915; 77.2 % men) and categorized them as in-play bettors (n = 221), single-event bettors (n = 531), and traditional bettors (n = 163). Participants completed an online battery of questionnaires measuring depression, anxiety, sports betting behaviour, problem gambling, and sports betting motives. Analyses showed that depression and anxiety were highly correlated in this sample of sports bettors. Both depression and anxiety were associated with greater gambling problems, and these associations were mediated primarily through coping motives. On the other hand, mediation analyses showed that depression and anxiety were associated with greater sports betting frequency primarily through enhancement motives. We also found that the associations did not differ significantly for type of sports betting, nor did they differ between men and women. These results demonstrate that depression and anxiety may be more likely to be comorbid in those who partake in sports betting, and that coping motives are related to gambling problems in sports bettors. Thus, our findings support the pathways model of problem gambling, suggesting that interventions for those who primarily engage in sports betting should focus on comorbid depression and anxiety, and should bolster coping styles.