In the question “How does your closest environment feel about betting?” most popular answer (69,2%) was “neutrally, some of my friends bets on sport”, 23,1% choose an option “positive, most of my friends bets on sport” and only 7,7% of respondent claimed “negative, there are not many who bets on sport”.



Figure 14. Bettors' closest environment attitude

The most common sum to bet is 100-249 rubles, 41,9% of respondent choose that option, 19,4% bets 250-499 rubles, 22,6% ready to risk 500-999 rubles, for 6,5% the average sum to bet is between 1000-1499, 6,5% are ready to risk less than 100 rubles and only 3,2% are ready to bet more than 1500 rubles.

Figure 15. Bettors' average sum of bet

For the vast majority (80,6%) mobile application of the bookmaker is the most comfortable way to bet, 16,1% will prefer to bet through the web site and only 3,2% prefer to bet via PRB.

Figure 16. Best way to bet

Huge part of the respondents (89%) never faced problems with withdrawal of money out of the bookmakers and only for 11% this problem is actual, but if there were a need to solve such a problem 67,7% will call the bookmaker customer service, 25,8% will switch their bookmaker company to another and 6,5% will not solve this problem at all.

One of the most important questions among others was the question regarding people's motivation to bet. Thus, we found out that top three factors that may influence the decision to bet are service quality (more than 50% of respondents assume it is very important), feedback from friends (about 40% of the respondents assume it is very important) and legal status of bookmaker (42% of the respondents found it crucial and 42% said it does not matter). Interesting was the fact that most of the respondents said that advertising in social media does not influence the decision to bet, and that large coefficients and additional bonuses have minor effect.



Figure 17. Factors that influence decision to bet

Earlier in the theoretical part was given the description of several techniques for risk appetite evaluation. In the questionnaire was implemented test “Can you take justifiable risk?” from «Forchun» magazine, since it includes financial cases which are familiar to the topic of sports betting. The results show the following:

Figure 18. Risk appetite

The results were counted in the base of the special matrix, and divided by the authors into five groups, where there is <20% value risk appetite, >80% risk appetite, and three groups in the middle. As we can see, more than 55% of the respondents have a good risk appetite, which means that more than they are ready to take risk with 40%-60% of probability. Less respondents are ready to face risk even in 60%-80% of situations (about 32% of the respondents). Also, there are about 13% of those, who are not so risky. Two important things should be mentioned: in this part of questionnaire we were speaking about financial risks mostly and notice that there were no respondents who were either not willing to take risk at all nor those who would do risky things in more then 80% cases.

It is important to notice that demographical factors that we got while the survey results analysis are similar to the results that Bookmaker compony & Romir presented in their study about Russian betting market in 2017 (Bookmaker ratings, Romir, 2017).

2.4 Regression analysis

While analyzing the survey the correlation between several factors was indicated. It showed that some of behavioral and socio-demographic factors correlate with such factors as size of bets and frequency of bets. We decided to combine these two variables and estimate to which extent each of the factors influence the variable that we called involvement in betting.

In the table can be seen all the explaining variables that were taken into consideration and the results of the analysis.

Table 1. Regression statistics

Multiple R	0,56394723
R-square	0,71803648
Normalized R-square	0,28306399
Standard error	0,83453064
Observations	124



Table 2. Variance analysis

	df	SS	MS	F	Significance F
Regression	6	38,0002292	6,33337154	9,093904662	3,6854E-08
Remainder	117	81,4836418	0,69644138
Total	123	119,483871

Table 3. The value of influence

	Coefficients	Standard error	t-statistics	P-Value	Bottom 95%	Top 95%	Lower 95.0%	Top 95.0%
Y-intersection	1,21638249	0,50260911	2,42013616	0,017053107	0,22099148	2,2117735	0,22099148	2,2117735
Family status	0,65453819	0,23365344	2,80132057	0,059571484	0,1917998	1,11727659	0,1917998	1,11727659
The level of education	0,23907802	0,07271256	3,28798771	0,013328918	0,09507459	0,38308144	0,09507459	0,38308144
Occupation**	-0,1074145	0,12505029	-0,8589708	0,003921131	-0,3550701	0,140241	-0,3550701	0,140241
Financial situation	0,10311715	0,07314095	1,40984161	0,161239203	-0,0417347	0,24796897	-0,0417347	0,24796897
Risk appetite**	0,14976301	0,12524971	-1,1957154	0,002342254	-0,3978135	0,09828747	-0,3978135	0,09828747
Attitudes close to betting***	0,49592282	0,08467498	5,85678133	4,42E-08	0,32822847	0,66361718	0,32822847	0,66361718

The results show that significant influence on respondents' involvement in this case have three variables: occupation (p-value = 0,00392), risk appetite (p-value = 0,00234) and attitude of close people to betting (p-value = 4,42E-08).

The regression model in our case is the following:

y = 1.216 - 0.107x1 + 0.149x2 + 0.495x3 (2)

Where:

y - the rate of involvement in betting;

x1 - occupation;

x2 - risk appetite;

x3 - the attitude of the closest groups to betting.

The occupation variable shows negative influence which means that the better occupation respondents have the less they are involved in the betting process. It is interesting, since in the beginning we supposed that there is a correlation between the financial situation and betting involvement: people who live better are more involved in betting process. However, the regression shows that the financial situation in each particular example doesn't influence betting involvement at all, while the better occupation the respondents have, the less they are involved in betting process. It may be explained that there is no correlation between the financial situation and the occupation, and with higher occupation people are less interested in betting or at least spend less time on it. The hypothesis 3 is disproved.

On the other hand, the risk appetite variable shows positive influence, which means that the more people are ready to take risk in life, the more they are involved in the betting process. It may be explained by the suggestion that betting is always a risk and you can never know whether you win or no. If the finances do not influence the amount of money people spend on betting, then maybe it is quite obvious that risk attitude is one of the main factors that have influence. The hypothesis 5 is approved.

Another crucial result is that attitude of close people to betting has a significant influence on the respondents' engagement. It shows that the more people close to the respondents are involved in betting the more the respondents are involved in betting themselves. So that means that our close groups of influence in life influence on our decision to bet as well. The hypothesis 6 is approved.



Conclusion

The outcome of the research is the systematization of information about Russian betting market and identification of the Russian bettors' main characteristics. The Russian betting market analysis showed that the main factors that influenced significant growth of the market in the last decade were FIFA Cup and online betting markets growth. It will also define that the government regulation is weak and cannot offer clear rules in terms of taxes and law. It makes Russia unattractive to foreign companies and investors and does not allow us to observe the competition to the full

As soon as Russian bettors are concerned, in this paper was found out what motivate people in Russia to bet, which demographic and behavior factors influence the rate of bettors' engagement in Russia. The survey showed that the portrait of the target auditory in the market are young men, well-educated, with quite high revenues and wealthy lifestyle. It also gave a lot of information regarding the question what motivates people to bet. Among the most important factors were risk appetite, the people around and their attitude to betting.

Nevertheless, the research had certain limitations. First of all, most of the bookmaker companies do not share information concerning their finances, strategies, vision, etc., which made it difficult to do marketing research.

Despite the fact that the research proved that sports betting is a rapidly growing and important part of our economy, in Russia there are still a gaps in understanding how to regulate this sphere from the site of government and develop industry in such way to transform it into the secure, fast and comfortable sphere where sport lovers can spend their leisure time with like-minded person.

In general, this research will be useful for bettors, potential investors and people who are interested in sport sphere. Furthermore, this paper can be used in future researches in this field.



Appendix 1.

Survey about demographic and behavioral features of sports bettors in Russia:

Part 1. Demographic factors identification

1.Your age: *

o 18-22

o 23-28

o 29-34

o 35+

2.Your gender: *

o Female

o Male

3.Family status: *

o Married

o Single

o Widow(er)

4.The level of education: *

o Lower secondary

o The average

o Secondary special

o Incomplete higher

o Higher education

o I have a scientific degree

5.Occupation: *

o Student

o Employment

o I do not work

o Owner (co-owner) of own business

Part 2. Behavioral factors identification:

6.How do you assess your financial situation? *

o I live extremely economically, I have enough for daily expenses, and buying clothes is already difficult

o There is enough food and clothes but buying large household appliances is not problematic without recourse to a loan.

o In general, provided, but I cannot afford expensive acquisitions (travel, car, etc.) without recourse to the loan or prior accumulation of the required amount

o Well secured, I can easily afford to buy a car or expensive vacation

o Difficult to answer

7.Your motivation for betting: *

o Entertainment mode

o One-time extra income

o Permanent extra income

o Main type of income

o Make watching the game more interesting

o For company with friends / colleagues

8.How often do you bet? *

o Put once

o Once a year or less

o 1 time in half a year

o 1 time in 2-3 months

o 1 time per month

o 2-3 times a month

o Once a week

o 2-3 times a week

o 4-5 times a week

o Every or almost every day

9.Average sum of bet: *

o <100?

o 100-249?

o 250-499?

o 500-999?

o 1000-1499?

o >1500?

10.How does your closest environment feel about betting? *

o Negative, few people bet

o Neutral, some are betting

o Positively, many are betting

11.What sports do you put on more often? *

o Football

o Hockey

o Basketball

o Volleyball

o Tennis

o Online gaming

12.Which of the following options is most convenient for you to place a bet? *

o Come to the bookmaker personally

o Put through the website of the bookmaker

o Take advantage of the bookmaker's mobile application

13.To what extent do the following parameters affect your choice of bookmaker? *

	Affects	Slightly affect	Does not affect
Official registration with TsUPIS (Gives legal status to the bookmaker)
Positive feedback from friends / acquaintances
Quality of service
Large odds
Advertising in social networks (YouTube channel, Instagram account, etc.)
Registration Bonuses

14.How often do you run into a withdrawal problem? *

o Never

o Almost never

o Occasionally

o Is always

15.Which solution to problems when withdrawing money from betting companies you choose (would you choose)? *

o Moving to another betting company

o Contacting the betting company support service

o Calling for help from third-party resources

o Lawsuit in court

o Nothing

Part 3. Risk appetite evaluation:

16.You got the winner of the television game show. What prize will you choose for yourself: *

o $ 2 thousand in cash

o Fifty percent chance to win $ 4 thousand in the future

o Twenty percent chance to win $ 10 thousand

o Two percent chance to win $ 100 thousand

17.You lost $ 500 poker. How much would you put on the game to wager your $ 500: *

o Over $ 500

o $ 500

o $ 250

o $ 100

o Nothing

18.A month after your stock purchase, their exchange rate unexpectedly rose by 15%. What will you do without additional information: *

o I will hold these shares without additional acquisitions or sales.

o I will sell them and get the difference

o I will buy more of the same shares, perhaps their rate will increase even more.

19.The rate of your shares began to fall unexpectedly a month after their acquisition. But the main indicators of the corporation, whose shares you bought, look convincing. What are you going to do: *

o Buy more; if these stocks looked attractive at the same price, then at lower prices they became even more profitable

o I will only hold these stocks and wait for the price to return to the previous level

o Sell them to avoid even greater losses.

20.You are the leading specialist in the newly formed company. You can choose the method of receiving annual bonuses; Which of the following methods will you choose: *

o $ 1500 in cash

o Instead of cash, I will take opshion (a document giving the right to purchase new shares) to purchase shares of a company as a premium, which can bring me dividends of $ 15,000 next year if the company succeeds (but these shares will not do anything if the company tolerates fail)



Reference list

Abbott, M., Stone, C. A., Billi, R., & Yeung, K. (2016). Gambling and Problem Gambling in Victoria, Australia: Changes over 5 years. Journal of Gambling Studies, 32(1), 47-78.

Hing, N., Cherney, L., Gainsbury, S. M., Lubman, D. I., Wood, R. T., & Blaszczynski, A. (2015). Maintaining and losing control during internet gambling: A qualitative study of gamblers' experiences. New Media and Society, 17(7), 1075-1095.

Wohl, M. J. A., Davis, C. G., & Hollingshead, S. J. (2017). How much have you won or lost? Personalized behavioral feedback about gambling expenditures regulates play. Computers in Human Behavior, 70, 437-445.

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