ABSTRACT
Sports betting has emerged as an important part of everyday life in many poor resource urban spaces, firstly as a livelihood option and secondly as a space for leisure. However, the impacts of the multiple post-2000 economic crises have left most people in Zimbabwe impoverished and struggling to meet their basic needs. The problems are characterised by the closing down of industries and, in turn, high formal unemployment and the emergence of various informal and alternative livelihood strategies. In this context, sports betting has emerged as a livelihood option for the people living in low-resource urban areas in Zimbabwe. Against this background, the chapter discusses the nature of sports betting in low-resource metropolitan area of Budiriro 5b in Harare, Zimbabwe. The chapter is based on a portraiture methodology that provides a vivid narrative from the experiences of six sports bettors and a worker in a sports betting shop in this community. It also utilises the maladaptive coping mechanisms theory to analyse the portraits drawn from the participants. The research findings indicate that due to economic meltdowns that have left many without sources of livelihood, soccer betting has risen to fill that void in areas such as Budiriro 5B shops. However, it is a bait for the bettors to further drown in heavy losses that will worsen their economic position through the trap of addiction, which further develops into problem betting. The chapter concludes that though soccer betting has become a livelihood in many low-income settlements, it is equally the downfall of many through addictions and problem betting, which affects lives in these spaces.
