Expertise matters: why consumers are less likely to follow AI recommendations in sports betting

Purpose The legal sports betting market in the United States has rapidly grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry. As a result, a secondary industry for sports betting recommendations has emerged. Because sports betting is widely considered as skill-based gambling, consumers may turn to experts for recommendations. While many sports betting recommendations come from humans, technological advances have enabled recommendations from artificial intelligence (AI). Therefore, we investigate how an AI versus human recommendation source affects consumer perceptions of expertise and subsequent likelihood to follow the sports betting recommendation. Design/methodology/approach We conducted three lab experiments, with three distinct undergraduate samples. We manipulated the recommendation source as either AI or human. We examined the impact of recommendation sources on consumer perceptions of expertise and subsequent likelihood to follow the sports betting recommendation via ANOVA, ANCOVA and the PROCESS macro. The collection of human data was performed according to the ethics standards established by the Declaration of Helsinki 2013 and was approved by the local Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects at the authors’ respective institutions. All participants gave informed consent prior to completing any experiment. Findings Across all lab experiments, we found that an AI (vs human) recommendation source decreased consumer perceptions of expertise and subsequent likelihood to follow the sports betting recommendation. Originality/value As the legal sports betting market continues to grow, both firms and consumers are investing in sports betting recommendations—including recommendations from AI. However, we are not aware of any research that examines sports betting recommendations from AI. We found that an AI (vs human) recommendation source decreased consumer perceptions of expertise and subsequent likelihood to follow the sports betting recommendation.