The Sports Betting Influencer Boom – Should You Trust Tipsters?

Posted by Harry Kane on Tuesday, July 2, 2024

There’s no doubt that we live a growing culture of influence, especially in the social and online realms. Certainly, so-called “influencers” have become increasingly seminal in the digital age, with some 69% of contemporary consumers now trusting influencer recommendations to guide their purchasing decisions.

This trend is prevalent across different markets and verticals too, including sports betting. Of course, sports betting is an online gambling vertical in which skill and insight can afford punters a competitive edge over sportsbooks, so many are more than happy to listen to the insights of tipsters who regularly market their expertise. Of course, such tipsters can now leverage social media and digital spaces to reach a much wider audience turning them into de facto influencers in the process.

Sports Betting Influencers and the Impact of Covid-19

Of course, influencer marketing has become increasingly impactful over time, thanks to the incredible rise and proliferation of social media. As of April 2024, there were 5.44 billion Internet users globally, with 5.07 billion people known to regularly frequent social media platforms. The latter figure equates to 62.6% of the world’s population, highlighting the relentless growth of social media across the board.

Of course, this trend accelerated markedly during Covid. At this time, people were spending more time online, and became increasingly reliant on social media and influencer-led marketing for their purchasing decisions. During this time, people also spent more time engaging in casino and sports betting, especially in developing economies like Africa.

Certainly, Nigeria saw a significant spike in both online sports betting and forex market trading during Covid, with both Internet connectivity and influencer marketing driving this trend. More specifically, influencers helped to popularise betting in a region where the practice was once stigmatised, while providing actionable advice and insight for young punters to act on.

One such influencer is 30-year-old Peter Moran, a former investment banker who operates out of a Manhattan apartment. As someone who specialised in risk management during his financial career, Moran is a highly credible and seemingly trustworthy individual, who has leveraged his reputation to build a highly engaged following and make sports betting his full-time job.

However, it would be naive to think that he makes the bulk of his income through placing bets himself. Instead, he livestreams his market research and picks to an audience of more than 50,000 followers, while explaining his analysis and thought processes. He subsequently profits from customer subscriptions and the indirect sale of specific bet and parlay picks.

He has profited markedly as demand continued to boom during and after Covid, but there are obvious issues with the rise of so-called influencers in the sports betting vertical. Notwithstanding Moran’s expertise and focus on bankroll management, this space is now accessible to everyone, meaning that tipsters without any kind of relevant experience of expertise can offer actionable advice to bettors.

What’s more, Gamble Alert (which is a Nigerian nonprofit that helps people with gambling addiction) have reported an exponential increase in people seeking treatment in recent years. This has coincided with the rise of aggressive influencer marketing campaigns and emergence of online betting experts, while it’s a trend that has also been observed in other areas of the globe.

Ethics and Viability – How Trustworthy are Sports Betting Influencers?

There’s no denying the link between influencer marketing and rising sports betting activity, or the role that Covid has played in accelerating the trend. At the same time, we can see how influencer marketing has gradually changed other types of consumerism, with some 75% of people now using social media and specific accounts to inform purchasing decisions.

As people have become more active and reliant on social media, so too they’ve sought out advice and insights across a wider range of applications. This includes sports betting, which is a vertical in which punters are always looking for an edge and actionable way of defeating the house edge boasted by sportsbooks.

The question that remains, however, is just how trustworthy are sports betting influencers? Well, while some individuals are undoubtedly more qualified than others, the growth of online sports betting and increasingly accessible nature of remote sportsbooks has encouraged more people than ever to become influencers in the vertical.

Even in the US, the decision of the Supreme Court to strike down the 1992 PAPSA legislation (which had previously prohibited sports betting at federal level), has led to more than 35 state authorities legalising and taxing the practice. This has created a huge spike in betting volumes and turnovers, encouraging a growing number of people to market themselves as expert tipsters and pundits.

The upshot of this is that it can be incredibly difficult to identify skilled tipsters with a track record of success, and subsequently distinguish them from opportunists with little or no expertise. In this case, simply taking the world of an influencer can be incredibly risky, at least without understanding their background or the success that they’ve enjoyed in successfully betting or picking results.

The Bottom Line – Should You Listen to Sports Betting Influencers?

Ultimately, betting experts and handicappers have monetised their expertise for years, selling tips and information to punters on a large scale. Betting experts are also employed directly by betting brands and comparison sites, so this is not a new concept or one that’s entirely questionable in the modern age.

So, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with listening to sports betting influencers and tipsters, whether they operate largely on social media or publish their insights elsewhere online. However, it’s important to be discerning and carry out your own market research as a sports bettor, as you look to understand implied probability values and make the most informed picks possible.