Elucidating the association of sports lottery bettors’ socio-demographics, personality traits, risk tolerance and behavioural biases

• Bettors with extroversion, openness, and agreeableness have higher risk tolerance.
• We confirmed the existence of herding behaviour in sports lottery betting.
• Betting frequency was found to be negatively related to risk tolerance.
• Elderly bettors show less normative herding behaviour.
• There is significant gender difference in sport lottery betting patterns.

The goal of this study was to explore the psychological and socio-demographic factors of bettors that are associated with the herding behaviour of sports lotteries through a combination of interdisciplinary perspectives. The multidimensional instrument consisted of five-factor personality inventory, the measures of risk tolerance and two types of herding behaviours, betting patterns and socio-demographics was developed, and then nationwide on-site bettors (n = 1032) responded to the questionnaire to conduct a structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis through stratified proportional random sampling and quota sampling methods. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed that two structural models displayed goodness-of-fit with respect to the data. Empirical results confirmed the existence of herding behaviours and a gender difference in sports lottery betting. The bettors with neuroticism have lower risk tolerance, and the bettors with greater neuroticism, openness and agreeableness exhibit apparent normative herding behaviours. However, the risk tolerance has only a positively and significantly prediction for informational herding behaviour.