SBC News

Kindred has revealed that it is funding gambling education sessions designed for players and staff at Rangers FC.

In line with the operator’s ten years of collaboration with the Scottish football team, the independent sessions will be led by gambling harm minimisation consultancy, EPIC Risk Management.

Sam Mead, UK General Manager at Kindred Group, commented: “Kindred wants to run a sustainable business built on people enjoying themselves safely. That’s why we have reaffirmed our commitment not only to this project with Rangers but to our Journey towards Zero too.”

The group’s Zero % Mission holds the aim that over time, 0% of revenue should be generated from harmful gambling.

It also marks the next step in driving towards a better model of sponsorship that benefits sporting organisations and their communities.

“Added to that, we are investing in our technology stack to further develop our sophisticated detection software,” Mead added.

“This, allied with a greater emphasis on e..

Blackpool FC, with its principal partner LeoVegas, are demonstrating solidarity for Safer Gambling Week.

During this Saturday’s (18 November) home fixture against Shrewsbury Town, the operator’s regular branding on the front of all home shirts will be replaced by key messaging and logos surrounding safe betting practices.

Sam Behar, LeoVegas Group Director of UK and Ireland, commented: “Responsible gaming is at the heart of our offering at LeoVegas.

“We are incredibly proud to work with Blackpool and to make sure all fans understand the range of tools we have on offer to ensure our players keep their play safe.”

Taking place 13-19 November, the annual campaign returns to promote safer betting practices across the UK and Ireland with the support of a wide range of partners.

“Safer Gambling Week is an important time of the year and, as such, ensuring that we replace our logo on the front of shirts to promote the week was crucial to us at LeoVegas,” added Behar.

“We thank Blackpoo..

GamCare is making good progress on delivery of its youth training and outreach initiatives this year, according to an update from the charity.

The group explained that over 100,000 young people have now attended its training sessions, with the 100,000th person stepping through the doors this week.

On top of this, over 25,000 professionals such as teachers and youth workers have also been trained by the group, as part of a plan to ensure those working with and in positions of influence with young people have skills in dealing with gambling-related issues.

Alexa Roseblade, Head of Youth at GamCare, said: “We are incredibly proud of the work the Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme has accomplished in raising awareness about the risk and prevalence of gambling for young people.

“Equipping 100,000 young people with the facts about gambling, supporting them to make informed decisions and giving them the knowledge of where to go if they need help is a significant achievemen..

Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency (NRA) has confirmed that the country’s self-exclusion scheme has seen more than 24,000 newly registered people since December 2022.

After being brought to a halt with a series of regulatory changes back in 2020, the scheme was reactivated again on 12 December 2022 by the NRA to encourage consumers who believe they could or have been influenced by gambling harm to sign up for the self-exclusion scheme.

The registry itself is not in the public domain, with only a limited number of employees being given access by the General Director of the NRA, which was designated in 2020 as the supreme legislative authority overseeing gambling activity in the country after the abolition of the State Gambling Commission.

To ensure that they stay in line with local laws, gambling operators can request access to the registry so that they can monitor their customer base and flag down any person who has self-excluded.

Recent regulatory shifts also saw the NRA imple..

Drogenbeauftragter, the Federal Drug Commissioner of the Bundestag, has published the ‘Gambling Atlas of Germany’, providing comprehensive statistics and data on the harms and addiction associated with problem gambling.

The Atlas is the first ‘scientifically grounded report’ to measure problem gambling in Germany following the launch of the Fourth Interstate Treaty on Gambling (GlüNeuRStv), which came into effect on 1 July 2021. The law regulates online gambling activities across Germany’s 16 federal states.

The report was co-authored by academic stakeholders from the Institute for Interdisciplinary Addiction and Drug Research of ISD Hamburg and the Gambling Research Unit at the University of Bremen, with the support of the German Centre for Addiction Issues (DHS).

As stated by the report’s authors, “published today, the ‘Glücksspielatlas Deutschland 2023: Numbers, Data, Facts‘ offers a comprehensive and clear representation of all relevant impacts of the cross-sectional topic of ga..

Betting and gaming media publisher XLMedia (XLM) has entered into a partnership with safer gambling organisation Better Change.

The agreement commences at the start of the UK’s Safer Gambling Week, a seven-day initiative focused on prompting responsible gaming across the country’s betting and gambling sector.

Initially, the partnership will focus on XLM’s whichbingo.co.uk brand, with the wider arrangement encompassing delivery of Better Change’s training programmes to XLM staff around safer gambling best practices.

Karen Tyrrell, Chief People and Operations Officer, commented: “WhichBingo.co.uk exists to provide our audiences with hours of entertainment and fun, key to protecting that entertainment is for us to ensure that wherever we can, we act in a safe and responsible way.

“Partnering with Better Change will give us direct access to a dedicated and knowledgeable team of experts who will help us in that endeavour. We are proud to be able to further educate our teams to deliver s..

The UK gambling sector has pledged the highest participation and coverage to promote Safer Gambling Week (#SGWeek23) taking place from 13th – 19th November 2023.

Organised by the trade bodies of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), bacta and the Bingo Association, Safer Gambling Week is now in its seventh year, which sees “the whole industry coming together to further promote safer gambling, by highlighting the tools available so customers can stay in control and signposting help and advice to those who need it.”

SGWeek is supported by the government and UKGC and will once again see a blitz of safer gambling messages both online and in land-based venues, to spark a nationwide conversation about responsible gambling.

DCMS Gambling Minister Stuart Andrew said: “Safer Gambling Week is a good reminder of the work already underway by government, industry and the regulator to prevent harm. “

“We are taking action to prevent gambling addiction, improve safer gambling tools and strengthen..

Sky Bet the English Football League (EFL) have announced the launch of the Building Foundations Fund to provide £6m towards community projects across England and Wales.

Sky Bet – Flutter Entertainment‘s UK sports betting brand – in its role as the current title partner of the EFL, will invest £1m per year into what has been described as a ‘vital’ fund.

The initiative represents the largest multi-year sponsor-backed fund dedicated solely to community activity, and will give the 72 EFL clubs a chance to bid for grants of up to £100,000 to invest in ongoing programmes or to develop new initiatives.

Dan Colton, Managing Director of Sky Bet, emphasised how the firm is ‘incredibly proud’ of its long-standing partnership with the EFL.

“It’s a relationship that has gone from strength to strength over the past decade and we wanted to raise the bar further still with the ‘Building Foundations’ Fund,” he said. “The Fund is a core pillar of our new agreement with the EFL and we’re very excited..

Microgaming is demonstrating vast support for responsible gambling practices in partnering with several safer gaming charities.

Some of the charities that have received support from the online gambling provider in 2023 include Ygam, Gordon Moody, Beacon Counselling Trust, Betknowmore UK and Motiv8 Addiction Services.

The firm is reportedly in ‘close cooperation’ with each charity to identify projects that will benefit customers, whilst providing financial support for projects, expanding services, creating educational content, developing websites and improving digital infrastructure.

Director of Compliance at Microgaming, Sarah Campbell, commented: “Safer gaming and responsible gambling is in our DNA.

“We take huge pride in working with and supporting a range of charities that are doing truly great work in this area. Together, we can create a safer and more responsible gambling environment for all.”

In detail, Ygam utilised its Microgaming donation to expand its educational train..

Creating the right balance for safer gambling strategies requires a collaborative effort between operators, regulators and players, according to Tereza Tokmajyan, the Chief Marketing Officer of TotoGaming.

Speaking during the ‘Balancing Player Protection and Growth’ panel at SBC Summit Tbilisi, Tokmajyan detailed the importance of operators providing players with the opportunity to make informed decisions about their gambling.

“Catch the right balance, as responsible gaming represents more than just the tools provided; it also takes into account the user interface and user experience when delivering these resources,” she explained.

“When we display the timely pop-ups, reminding users how much time and finances they have spent, we’re not just offering information, we’re giving them an opportunity to embrace responsibility.”

The session, which saw Tokmajyan joined on stage by RomBet President Dan Alexandru Ghiță and 4H Agency Partner Ivan Kurochkin, examined the growing importance..