SBC News

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) begins a new leadership era by welcoming Grainne Hurst as the CEO of the trade and standards body of UK gambling.

Announced in April, Hurst succeeds Michael Dugher as CEO, who, as part of a leadership restructure, chose to take on the role of Chairman.

The BGC describes Hurst as a ‘standout leader’ for UK gambling, possessing unparalleled experience and knowledge in the public affairs and political complexities of the industry.

Prior to the appointment, Hurst served as the Group Corporate Affairs Director of the FTSE100 gambling group Entain Plc. During her decade-long tenure, Hurst launched and oversaw the development of the Entain Foundation, a multi-million-pound sustainability initiative of the FTSE business, which is committed to raising £100m for ESG initiatives in the UK, Europe, North America, and Africa.

Additionally, Hurst led the expansion of the industry DEI organisation Global Gaming Women, where she is a board member. She currently..

UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom has recognised an improvement in Twitch’s accuracy in labelling mature content after reviewing the streaming platform’s classification guidelines.

In June 2023, Twitch updated its content classification guidelines due to a rise in content aimed at mature audiences, including gambling streams.

The platform now requires streamers to apply content classification labels that indicate the presence of mature themes in their streams.

Twitch provided streamers with six specific labels for mature content: mature-rated games, sexual themes, drugs, intoxication or excessive tobacco use, violent and graphic depictions, significant profanity or vulgarity, and gambling.

As the UK’s regulator for video-sharing platforms and online safety, Ofcom evaluated Twitch’s rule changes and published its findings earlier this month.

The 66-page report found that content labelling improved “significantly” after the introduction of CCLs, but noted that viewing behaviour and th..

GAMSTOP has reached the milestone of recording more than 500,000 registrations for its self-exclusion scheme for online gambling.

This morning, GAMSTOP, which operates the national self-exclusion scheme across all UK-licensed online gambling operators, stated that “half a million vulnerable consumers have registered with GAMSTOP since 2018.”

The milestone follows a record-breaking April, which saw GAMSTOP register 8,686 users, marking its highest-ever volume for self-exclusion.

At present, GAMSTOP has prevented more than 440,000 users from engaging with online gambling operators, half of whom have chosen the longest exclusion period of up to five years.

The announcement that half a million consumers have registered to self-exclude comes ahead of the third annual Self-Exclusion Day on September 12th, when clubs from all divisions in the football pyramid will come together to raise awareness about GAMSTOP among their supporters.

Self-exclusion messaging will be displayed at EFL foot..

2024 sees the UK gambling sector stand at a point of inflection, marked by intense competition and yet-to-be-settled regulatory proceedings.

In an exclusive interview for the SBC Summit, Steve Birch, Chief Commercial Officer of Sky Betting & Gaming (Sky Bet), underscores a proactive approach to mitigating challenges, based on customer trust, sustainability, and compliance-first innovations.

SBC: Hi Steve, thanks for this interview on the status of UK gambling. From your perspective, what elements and dynamics are at play in the UK market in 2024?

Steve Birch (CCO @ Sky Betting and Gaming): The market is as competitive as it has ever been, with all the big operators upping their game in terms of what they offer. Across the sector, we are also generally seeing more focus on the return on investment of campaigns and product developments. This comes at a time when operators are rightly continuing to focus more on looking after customers. It’s a fascinating time to be working in the UK ..

The government of Brazil has elected Giovanni Rocco Neto to serve as the first National Secretary of Sports Betting for the Economic Development of Sport.

Neto will take charge of the newly created role to ‘coordinate and supervise the economic development of Brazilian sports’, benefiting from the launch of the Bets market—the federal framework that will regulate online betting and gaming in Brazil in 2025.

The government’s gazette noted that Neto had served as a counsellor of the Ministry of Sport, where he led the Committee of Integrity, Rights and Duties in Betting and Gaming. The Committee provided the Ministry of Sport with feedback on integrity protections and safeguards to finalise the modalities of the Bets market.

Neto’s role will be independent of the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA), the department that serves as the regulatory authority of Brazilian gambling, led by Secretary Regis Dudena, reporting to the Ministry of Finance.

In his remit, Neto will report to Sp..

Responsible gambling platform Rdentify has released a new update which expands its customer-facing AI functionality.

Thanks to the changes, Rdentify can now offer the igaming industry not only risks of player harm in customer support conversations but also a full analysis of user interactions.

Some of the added functionality includes customer voice recognition across an operator’s live chat, social and phone channels, which in turn will compile service data on customer preferences, frustrations, and more.

Daniel Brookes, CEO and founder of Rdentify, commented: “Rdentify has been trusted by many of the biggest names in gaming for some years now to detect at-risk players. With this update, we’ve dramatically expanded its scope to the entirety of the customer experience.

“This is about elevating support by better understanding customer preferences and the way your CS team interacts with the user. Those who are using Rdentify are already reporting cost savings and improved performan..