Driven to Win, Destined to Lose? A Process Model of How Sports Betting Escalates Into Gambling Harm and Shapes Help‐Seeking

ABSTRACT

Sports betting has become a routine part of watching sport. Online and mobile platforms let consumers bet continuously, receive instant feedback, and respond to new odds throughout a match. Frequent betting is known to raise the risk of gambling‐related harm, but far less is known about the psychological mechanisms through which that harm develops and about the conditions under which gamblers decide to seek help. This research develops and tests a process model of the sports betting harm spiral across five studies. Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c show that higher betting intensity increases problem gambling severity through two mechanisms, where competitive intensification strengthens the drive to outperform other bettors while overconfidence bias inflates belief in predictive skill, which yields evidence consistent with the proposed ordering in which competitive motivation precedes distorted judgment. Studies 2a and 2b show that severe losses increase intentions to seek help, especially among highly engaged bettors, yet this response depends on attribution style, as gamblers who attribute losses to external causes report stronger help‐seeking intentions than gamblers who blame themselves. Theoretically, the findings integrate consumer culture theory, cognitive bias theory, and attribution theory into a single process model that explains how gambling harm escalates and when recovery‐oriented behavior emerges. Practically, the findings offer guidance for consumer protection, gambling policy, and responsible platform design.