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DOI

  • Matthew S. M. Lim
    University College London
  • Henriette Bowden-Jones
    Imperial College London
  • Maria Salinas
    University of Oxford
  • Jonathan Price
    Warneford Hospital, Oxford
  • Guy Goodwin
    Warneford Hospital, Oxford
  • John Geddes
    Warneford Hospital, Oxford
  • Robert Rogers
Media reports suggest high rates of gambling amongst professional footballers but little is known about how footballers develop and then seek help for gambling problems. Here, we report the findings of in-depth, qualitative interviews with 11 British professional footballers who had, or who were, being treated for gambling problems at a residential clinic. These individuals experienced gambling as a highly salient feature of life as a professional football player in UK professional leagues. Often gambling began as part of social networks of young players, but then progressed to gambling problematically in isolation. Factors that facilitated this transition included structural aspects of professional football as an occupation (e.g. high salaries, spare time, gambling as a shared leisure pursuit) as well as the competitive and emotional challenges of the game (e.g. loss of form, injury or contract release and their effects upon mood). Seeking help was delayed by a reluctance to disclose problems to peers and club managers, but facilitated by recommendations from other players with similar experiences.

Keywords

  • Problem Gambling, Football, Mood regulation, Qualitative, Social Norms, Theory of Planned Behaviour
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)129-138
Number of pages10
JournalAddiction Research and Theory
Volume25
Issue number2
Early online date18 Aug 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2017

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