Online betting intentions : the effect of perceived fairness, navigational enjoyment and playing for fun or to beat the odds

Abstract

The online betting industry has exhibited significant growth in recent years, yet it has received scarce attention and an understanding of customer decision-making remains limited. Perceived fairness and navigational enjoyment are identified as potentially impacting online betting intention. Perceived fairness is a basic requirement for online betting intention with navigational enjoyment proposed as playing a mediation effect. In addition, the motivation of customers in terms of whether they report playing for fun or to beat the odds is also considered. The results of the analyses support a partial mediation effect of perceived fairness on online betting intention via navigational enjoyment for those who play to beat the odds. In the case of customers who play for fun a fully mediated effect occurs. Both perceived fairness and navigational enjoyment are worthy of management attention which needs to ensure open and transparent systems and online interaction processes that can provide excitement and enjoyment to customers. Navigational enjoyment represents an interesting construct that is worthy of further attention in an online business and marketing context. Moreover, playing for fun and playing to beat the odds can potentially provide a basis for the behavioral segmentation of customers in an online betting context.