The Morality of Football-Betting in its Intersections with Capitalism and Social Reproduction

An ethnographic encounter with the world of foot-ball betting

Abstract

Gambling involves a mixture of luck, knowledge, skill and nerve. Through interview discussions with my informant Stew I seek to analyse the ideologies of economy, money, and exchange that interplay into forming the moralities and motivations for Sports betting. Furthermore, Sports-betting via the online bookmaker Paddy Power involves multiple moralities that shape the practice around accumulation and leisure. These forces speak to larger capitalist and societal moralities and spheres of exchange including the nature of money as begetting more money. However, the goal of my informant is to combine pleasure and knowledge in what becomes a socially reproductive activity.