UK Students Are Being Incentivised For Betting App Downloads

A recent investigation by The Observer has once again put the gambling industry under the spotlight after information emerged of how gambling operators are encouraging students to gamble. The investigation showed that students at UK universities are being recruited to promote betting apps on campus. Some of them are actually handing out free cash and free drinks to entice young people to start sports betting.

Student promoters at the University of Manchester are accused of encouraging their peers to use the “free bets” on Kwiff and Betbull, two popular gambling apps. They added further encouragement by giving out £5 notes in locations all over the campus.

Critics have already accused the marketing agencies behind this recent promotion of being highly unethical. The National Union of Students (NUS) is also raising objections too this new promotion. However, the companies behind the two betting apps say they are not involved in this promotion and claim no knowledge of the scheme.

According to reports, student promoters can potentially earn up to £12 for every person they sign up. The usual recruitment method is by sharing links on various social media platforms but face-to-face encouragement is just as common.

It is still not clear whether the cash and gifts that student promoters hand out are being encouraged by marketing agencies or if students are doing it out of their own initiative. One student promoter said that they were given no guidance on what to do when it comes to promotion. The goal was to as many people as possible to download the app and make a bet. Students could use whatever methods they thought best to accomplish this goal.

Betting Apps Place Blame On Affiliates

Student promoters can be found in various other areas including Birmingham, Nottingham, Newcastle and Sheffield. However, there has been no evidence that they have handed out cash to promote things.

Kwiff, one of the apps being accused of these promotions, claims that it is unaware of what its marketing affiliates do when they promote on university campuses. They have said they are against recruiting on university campuses and state that handing out gifts would be a breach of contract and whichever affiliate was caught doing so would be terminated.

BetBull, the other party accused, says that the flyers with its logo were unauthorised and that they do not condone on-campus marketing activities.