Operators promote safe gambling messages in just under 2% of tweets, according to the research, which amounts to slightly more than one in every 100.

The study was carried out by researchers at Northumbria University across a two-week period and looked at more than 8,000 tweets from 40 of the UK’s highest-grossing gambling companies.

It grouped the tweets into categories based on content and calculated the percentage of messages in each area.

The study found nine different categories; direct advertising, betting assistance, sports content, customer engagement, humour, updates of current bet statuses, promotional content, safer gambling and "other."

Operators had a higher frequency of posts in the sports and humorous sections, while affiliates had a higher proportion of posts within the direct advertising and betting categories.

A statement from the study read: "These findings suggest affiliates were more direct in their posting style, whereas operators followed a more indirect approach, reflective of branding strategy.

"Future research should address how interacting with different types of gambling content on social media impacts upon gambling attitudes and behaviour."