Professors Aphra Kerr & John O'Brennan collaborate on research project assessing the exposure of young people to gambling marketing through sport on the island of Ireland

Thursday, January 19, 2023 - 11:15

YouGaMSI: Assessing the exposure of young people to gambling marketing through sport on the island of Ireland (2022-2024)
 
Prof. Aphra Kerr and Prof. John O’Brennan, of the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University are collaborating with Dr. Paul Kitchin of Ulster University on the YouGaMSI project: Fair Play? Assessing the exposure of young people to gambling marketing through sport on the island of Ireland (Sept. 2022-2024). Dr. Paul Kitchin is Head of the School of Sport at Ulster University. Ms Erin McEvoy joined the research team as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dec. 2022.
 
This project will be the first of its kind on the island of Ireland to compare the exposure of youth and young adults (14-17 years and 18-24 years) to gambling marketing through live sports in Ireland and Northern Ireland. It will assess the extent of such marketing on traditional broadcast and online media, determine how such marketing targets young people, and work with partner charities to develop educational resources to raise awareness of the range of harms that gambling can lead to. It will also contribute to the evidence base and policy discussions currently ongoing in Stormont and Dublin in relation to updating gambling regulatory regimes in both jurisdictions.
 
The project will work with Extern Problem Gambling and Gambling with Lives, two charities working with communities to address gambling harms across the island of Ireland.  Each charity has witnessed the exponential rise of gambling across all ages but particularly in young people.  This project seeks to boost their capacity to develop educational programmes about sport, marketing and gambling-related harm that are locally relevant.
 
“This funding will enable us to gather important data about the prevalence and content of gambling marketing through sport across media, and the impacts of this on young people, and on the integrity of sport on the island of Ireland” – Professor Aphra Kerr, Maynooth University.
 
“This funding will enable academics, young people and our charitable partners to co-create contextually considerate educational resources for preventing gambling-related harm” – Dr. Paul Kitchin, Ulster University.
 
The YouGaMSI project is funded under the North-South Research Programme, a collaborative research scheme funded by the Government’s Shared Ireland Fund and administered by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.   Sixty two awards, totalling €37.3 million were announced under the first funding call from this programme in 2022.
 
 
Kerr and O’Brennan received seed funding of €3,000 from the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute in 2020 to develop the research proposal.  
 
Kerr and O’Brennan have previously worked on research for the Department of Justice in 2021, evaluating financial data on the Irish Gambling Market and reviewing International Approaches to Gambling Taxes and Social Levies. They also made a submission to the All-Party Group on Reducing Harm Related to Gambling in Stormont, Northern Ireland in late 2020.
 
Kitchin, together with Dr Damian Gallagher, Dr Kyle Paradis and Ms Erin McEvoy made a submission to the All-Party Group on Reducing Harm Related to Gambling in Stormont, Northern Ireland in December 2019.