Sky Betting & Gaming (Sky Bet) has donated more than £250,000 to fund life-changing support at one of Yorkshire’s leading charities – the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.

Hundreds of staff and guests gathered at SBG’s Annual Charity Gala in Leeds on Wednesday for a night of fund-raising activity, hosted by ITV Racing’s Oli Bell and Ed Chamberlin.

A silent auction, raffle prizes, sponsorship packages and a Mascot Race helped raise an extraordinary amount on the night.

Sky Bet parent company Flutter UKI rounded off the evening by donating £120,000 towards to help pay for a new, state-of-the-art echo software package at the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit.

The software provides highly-detailed analysis of a patient’s heart and can help free up doctor’s and other clinicians to do other crucial duties.

The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund (CHSF) is a not-for-profit organisation that provides lifesaving and life-changing support for children with congenital heart disease across Yorkshire.

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The Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) has reported a significant increase in the reach and coverage of Safer Gambling Week (#SGWeek), noting a 70% rise in promotional activities compared to the previous year.

The surge resulted in over 50 million interactions on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and another unnamed platform.

In its seventh iteration, Safer Gambling Week, held from November 13 to 19, continued its mission to unite the gambling sector in emphasizing available resources for players. The focus remains on helping players manage their gambling activities, offering advice, and fostering discussions about safer gambling practices among friends and family.

Organised by the BGC, bacta and the Bingo Association, the initiative’s website received half a million visits during the week, several cross-party senior MPs and peers backed the campaign, and the UK Gambling Commission supported the event as well.

The more than 50 million impressions on social media for Safe..

SKS365 has announced that a corporate forest of 1,000 trees has been planted as part of the PlanetGreen365 corporate sustainability program.

This is the first initiative that the Italian market operator has completed in its plan to promote environmental sustainability and support rural communities in different parts of the world. The trees were planted across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Brian Dean, Chief People Officer of SKS365, expressed that the group is extremely aware of the urgent need to address the issue of climate change and environmental sustainability.

“From heat waves to hurricanes, from droughts to floods and fires, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly frequent, putting human lives at risk and the future of our planet in jeopardy,” he said.

“Therefore, it is necessary to raise awareness and responsibility among all of us in the fight against climate change and to safeguard the environment: governments, businesses, communities, and even individuals, ev..

The betting brand members of Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) are donating more than $3m over three years to provide financial counselling services for Australians.

Entain, bet365, betfair, PointsBet, Sportsbet and Unibet are each participating in the initiative, which has seen RWA partner with the Federal Government, the financial counselling sector and a range of industries including banking, energy and insurance.

This initiative effort aims to establish a not-for-profit body that will distribute funding to financial counselling services around the country from early 2024, aiding Australians in accessing sessions ‘promptly if needed’. 

CEO of RWA, Kai Cantwell, emphasised that financial counsellors play a ‘vital role’ helping Australians in financial difficulty by providing free, independent and confidential advice on ways to manage debts, make informed choices about their money and build a future with financial freedom.      

“RWA members are proud to set the industry standa..

GambleAware has called on partners and stakeholders to actively engage in addressing the stigma associated with problem gambling treatment which, it claims, continues to represent a major barrier for those seeking support.

The announcement comes as new data commissioned by GambleAware reveals that nearly two-thirds (64%) of adults in Great Britain who have experienced gambling problems have not discussed their issues with anyone, with 39% attributing their silence to stigma.

This data underscores GambleAware’s concerns about the high incidence of silence among those suffering from gambling harms and addiction. In response, it is launching the next phase of its stigma campaign to encourage those experiencing harm to seek support.

Chief Executive Zoë Osmond said: “It’s alarming to see the number of people who are struggling in isolation. As a hidden addiction, gambling harms can be incredibly hard to spot from the outside.

“It is therefore critical that people impacted are aware of t..

Gordon Moody has published its ‘Insights Report’ for the first half of 2023/2024, providing a detailed overview of its efforts to deliver localised therapy and treatment for victims of problem gambling.

The report aims to provide UK stakeholders with an understanding of the day-to-day dynamics impacting problem gambling interventions and treatments, which Gordon Moody has offered since 1971.

The charity details significant progress in the reach and effectiveness of its interventions, reporting a 10% increase in applications (481 patients) compared to the previous year.

The report underscored the ‘evolving make-up‘ of patients receiving treatment by gender, age, and ethnic origin, showing trends and changes over time. Regarding gender, 76% of applications were male, 23% female, and 1% transgender or other.

Mirroring wider UK problem gambling trends, Gordon Moody saw the age group of 24-34 as the largest segment of applicants. However, the charity underlined improved reach and effect..

Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Netherlands Gambling Authority, has initiated a ‘pilot campaign’ to raise public awareness of CRUKS, the Dutch gambling central self-exclusion register.

Pilot campaigns have commenced across social media platforms, informing audiences about how to self-exclude from all Dutch licensed gambling operators via CRUKS.

Operated by the KSA, the CRUKS register was launched on 1 October 2021 to coincide with the Dutch government’s introduction of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) marketplace, regulating online gambling services.

CRUKS allows gamblers in the Netherlands to “voluntarily take a break from gambling.” Once registered, they cannot participate in legal online casinos and other gambling offers in the country for a minimum of six months and up to 99 years.

During H1, KSA launched its revamped CRUKS 2.0 register. The update made it easier to unsubscribe from gambling activities and added an eight-day reflection period for those considering unsubscribing.

Th..