Like many young men, Riley Pershouse gambles on sports with his friends.
It's become a central feature of group chats with his mates.
"We could go from sending random memes to betting odds of a horse we think might get up. So yeah, it could vary from anything, but it does usually come back to that," he said.
Mr Pershouse, who lives in Rockhampton, said he's addicted to sports, not gambling, putting $5 into his account every couple of weeks to bet on sports ranging from American basketball and European football to local Australian games of cricket.
In the last few years he and his friends have started using a group betting tool in the gambling app they use on their phone which allows everyone to chip in to bet together.
"It just makes it so easy to go around to a mate's place, and you put in five bucks, 10 bucks on the horses or whatever — and boom, there's your afternoon sorted," Mr Pershouse said.
"If you do it in groups, there's the peer pressure aspect, but there's also the fun of bagging out a mate if he loses. If he wins, everyone's happy and do it more."
Researchers looking at the transition of these groups onto apps are worried.
Associate Professor at RMIT University, Dr Lauren Gurrieri, who specialises in marketing and consumer culture, is taking part in an Australian Research Council funded project on the "shifting" nature of gambling, as it transitions from machines in bars to mobile phones in pockets.
Dr Gurrieri said the move towards mobilised betting was already happening, but gambling companies capitalised on the trend when it hit fast forward during the pandemic.
"We saw different social arrangements changing around sports betting. WhatsApp groups, for example, became really popular. People who were isolated in their homes were still able to engage with their friends, and harness new ways of being together — and betting at the same time," she said.
"They harnessed social media technologies to enable that same type of social practice to occur [within the apps]."
Free bets entice gamblers to stay
Mr Pershouse said the betting company was keen to push the tool onto his group, offering free bets to keep them engaged with the app.
"For a number of months, we got free bonus bets every week ranging from $10 to $100. I didn't understand why we kept getting them," he said.
"We couldn't believe it at first, but they kept coming through, so we stuck around."
Dr Gurrieri said gambling companies were constantly making offers and inducements through digital marketing to encourage people to use the applications.
Paired with an "extremely saturated" advertising market, she said it can be hard for young people to get away from gambling content.
"At sporting events, you'll see just an inundation of different types of gambling advertising, but I think what's possibly more harmful is the extremely targeted nature of individual promotions now through the sports betting applications — you'll get pop-up banners, you'll also have targeted emails, targeted texts which will be encouraging you to bet more," Dr Gurrieri said.
"There's a constant lure to re-engage with the applications."
Group bets 'amplify the win'
Mr Pershouse said he had seen "extravagant bets" amongst his friends, some putting as much as $1,000 on the line.
"You do see that and think, 'I hope he's OK,'" he said.
Craig, who attends a weekly Gamblers Anonymous meeting in Nundah in Brisbane's north, says they are getting new members every week.
"We're getting a lot more of the younger generation coming through, males and females," he said.
"The common theme when the young people come in is that they're betting with mates, especially through a chat messenger."
Craig said the effect of betting in groups is twofold.
"When they have a win, the adrenaline rush is actually four or five times higher, because they're all cheering each other — It's amplified the win."
On the flip side, "when they're gambling with their friends, it doesn't seem as bad [when they lose]".
He said young gamblers often find it hard to tear themselves away from the group.
"Some of them have said that they know that they've got a problem, but they feel like they're a part of the group, they've got to be a part of the group to be in it," he said.
'Too soon to identify behavioural trends'
Hayden Cahill, a Phd student at QUT who is involved in the same project as Dr Gurrieri, said the research showed group betting helped young people feel connected to their peers.
"I've had a participant talk about how sort of dropping insights in relation to sports betting is like a way to kind of help with conversation among friends. So we can see that in terms of socialisation that sports betting is helping to shape people's relationships, but also becoming ingrained in their relationships," he said.
"It is a kind of social, cultural phenomenon that we have going on at the moment."
A spokesperson for Responsible Wagering Australia, the peak body for Australian-licensed wagering service providers, said the introduction of group betting within apps was relatively new and it was too soon to identify behavioural trends.
"But there are clear benefits in regard to player safety and harm minimisation", the spokesperson said.
"Members of groups within sports betting apps, unlike other unmonitored platforms, have access to the full suite of player safety tools, such as deposit limits and taking a break/time out.
"There is also the added benefit of peer monitoring, where people within the group can hold each other to account if need be."
