At its core, gambling does not necessarily force you to go ahead of yourself and implement complicated strategies or betting systems. Betting apps are so well-crafted that every possible journey you can take right after accessing the platform will most likely feel natural, pleasant, and entertaining.
Fantasy football hasn’t been an actual iGaming product for a long time, but it is worth looking at how it developed into becoming one that is actually responsible for addiction development. This is how developers construct their apps, with the purpose of encouraging their users to spend as much time playing and betting on them:
Defining Dark Patterns
Dark patterning is a form of marketing where developers, together with marketers, collaborate to craft an interface to sell or promote a product that would exploit the cognitive biases of humans in order for them to act in favour of reaching a conversion goal.
Basically, in certain conditions, as humans, we would decide to act according to what we consider to be best for us. A dark pattern will interfere with our instinct and lead us into making a decision favoring the operator, provide or seller.
Can you guess which industry is massively relying on dark patterns to monetize its audiences? You’re right. iGaming! For the sake of helping you understand that you are not always the one making your own decisions, here are some examples of dark patterns or addictive app design forms you have never thought of questioning before.
- Default deposits that exceed the minimum required amount. If the minimum deposit amount is $10, why would the “enter amount” field be already filled in with $20?
- Bets or deposit actions require just one click and no other confirmation.
- A registration process that only requires you to have a Facebook/Google account.
- You must have a certain amount of money in your balance to be eligible for withdrawals.
- No information whatsoever about how much money a user has already lost in his current session.
- Push notifications generating FOMO around certain offers and promotions.
- The inability to completely erase an account and self-exclude for good.
How Betting Apps Hook You
The majority of betting apps feature attractive graphics, colourful elements and enticing sound effects, creating the perfect environment for the betting activity to be enjoyable, relaxing and worthwhile.
However, we would like to approach this “hooking process” from a scientific point of view and discuss what happens to your brain when you get in contact with casino games or involved in betting activities.
We looked into Lia Nower’s work, and we will try to simplify the steps of how a person’s behaviour changes with time in the context of being actively involved in wagering acts.
- As a gambler, you will most likely begin to overemphasize your wins and get too excited about them, which will eventually lead to you wanting to play more.
- The more you play, the greater the chances you will hit a losing streak or phase. You see, casino games are guaranteed to be profitable for those who own them, not for those who play them. You will begin chasing losses, which only translates to you playing more.
- The last phase is falling into desperation and depression and losing hope, which can lead to destructive financial decisions and lying to your family, and it only goes down from there.
We have to mention one more time that this is the classic scenario of gambling addiction development, and the proper “hooking” takes place due to dopamine and serotonin secretions that take place inside our brains.
Of course, the sole action of pressing a single “spin” button that starts an animation that takes approximately two seconds, concluding with a financial prize, massively increases your dopamine and serotonin activity. This explains why slots are the most addictive type of casino game in the world.
Is Fantasy Football Addictive?
According to how this type of game evolves into a genuine gambling activity, we would say that fantasy football has all the required elements to become as addictive as any other casino game.
For many, fantasy football is still something they have yet to discover, so let us help you understand this game better.
What is Fantasy Football?
Fantasy football functions as a peer-to-peer competition where each participant is responsible for their team of players. At the start of each tournament, the user must select his team members. Depending on what real players do and how they perform in real life, each team will be rewarded with points accordingly.
The team with the most accumulated points wins. In its traditional form, fantasy football only had a season-long format and a daily format.
Season-Long Fantasy Football
As stated above, the season-long tournament is the traditional type of tournament that you can take part in alongside thousands of other fantasy football enthusiasts. Based on your team of players, you will earn points according to how they perform in real-life events. In the fantasy tournament, you must outscore your opponents every week and make sure you accumulate as many points as possible.
However, the person with the most points does not necessarily win the tournament; it highly depends on the platform hosting it.
DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports)
The DFS is a format where tournaments are way shorter, limited to only 24 hours of play. But these daily tournaments are probably responsible for why fantasy football became a gambling activity.
You see, there are a lot of operators out there that you can go to and join DFS by paying an entry fee. Now, because there is money involved, winners usually get to enjoy prizes if they win the tournament, creating this context for players to get a taste of the “potential financial winnings.”
DFS 2.0
Of course, based on their behaviour traits, certain providers explored the possibility of increasing this “potential financial winning.” The DFS 2.0 is a more advanced form of a daily tournament, but you are competing in an “against-the-house” structure. This means that you are once again using your money in a digitally controlled environment where mathematical odds govern the results. DFS 2.0 is a modern form of virtual football that has more advanced systems.
The main difference between traditional fantasy football and DFS 2.0 is with this modern version, you have professional oddsmakers creating the proper context for you to choose between multiple odds and types of bets, very similar to a traditional sports betting platform.
If you take into consideration how all these apps hook you, how addiction develops and why users find it so hard to let go of casinos, you can imagine why fantasy football became an addictive form of gambling.
Closing With Advice
No matter what type of addiction you are struggling with, there will always be solutions. Get out of your comfort zone, ask for help and do not let destructive habits affect your life. Responsible Gambling is a platform that offers free consultation and a lot of information on prevention.
