Tag Archives: addiction

Entain Marks National Awareness Month with New Initiatives to Promote Safer Betting and Gaming

Entain, the leading global sports betting and gaming entertainment operator, has today unveiled a number of initiatives in support of Problem Gambling Awareness Month, taking place across the US throughout March.

The initiatives build on Entain’s commitment to provide the world’s safest and most trusted betting and gaming experience for its customers around the globe. Via its not-for-profit, Entain Foundation, the Group has heavily invested in the research, education and treatment of problematic behaviours as well as in educating and promoting the integrity of sport.

The initiatives announced by Entain today include:

o       Together with BetMGM, the joint venture it operates with MGM Resorts, Entain is promoting the Eighth Annual Gambling Disorder Screening Day led by Harvard Medical School faculty at the Division on Addiction, Cambridge Health Alliance. The event provides resources including an online screening toolkit to enable individuals to identify if they may be exhibiting behaviours associated with increased risk of harm. BetMGM will promote the screening day to its customers in the U.S., while Entain will promote to its UK customers through the Ladbrokes and Coral brands.

o       Platinum membership of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling.  Entain is pleased to join the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling as a supporting Platinum organizational member. Incorporated in September 1984, the non-profit Council serves as an advocate, information resource, and a provider of programs and services to meet the needs of individuals and families who are affected by problem gambling in Nevada.

o       Support for a nationwide survey in the U.S. with partners NAADGS,  EPIC Risk Management and Kindbridge to establish the extent of existing provision and support for individuals who do identify as suffering from gambling-related disorders in the U.S.

“It is our ambition, with our partners and support from BetMGM, to provide the most comprehensive portfolio of responsible gambling initiatives, partnerships and services in the gaming entertainment sector in the United States,” said Martin Lycka, Senior Vice President for American Regulatory Affairs & Responsible Gambling.  “We are proud of our commitment and will continue our leadership in serving this vital area.”

The screening day event is one of several initiatives on responsible gambling that Entain is pursuing with Harvard Medical School faculty at the Division on Addiction, with whom it has a five-year research program underway into drivers of addiction. The program is wide-ranging, across all areas of sports betting and gaming including around recommendations for markers of activity that can be used to help protect those at risk. Entain is pioneering a technology-led, proactive approach to help protect those at risk.

The announcement by Entain follows the recent extension of its responsibility and player protection initiatives to support related sectors, including video gaming and esports earlier this year. It has partnered with NAADGS, Kindbridge, and EPIC Risk Management to deliver these projects.

Entain is also working with organizations to feed into the next iteration of the APGSA (Association of Problem Gambling Service Administrators) survey. Last conducted in 2016, the survey is the most frequently cited study in legislative debates across the U.S. in relation to responsible betting and gaming.

Entain Pioneers Preventative Approach To Player Protection

Entain, the leading global sports betting and gaming entertainment operator, has completed the initial stage of its pioneering preventative approach to customer protection, known as ARC (Advanced Protection and Care). As a first outcome the company has significantly extended behavioral indicators used to identify players potentially at risk and is now developing models using more than three times the previous number.

Entain believes ARC will provide unprecedented safeguards for customers of its online sports betting and gaming brands by minimising problems before they arise. This promises to revolutionise conventional thinking around responsible gaming and usher in a new era of more personalised and proactive, technology-driven player protection, widely applicable across many forms of online sports betting and gaming entertainment.

“ARC is fundamental to our future strategy for sustainability and growth,” said Jette Nygaard-Andersen, Chief Executive of Entain. “We are putting customers first, both by prioritizing their safety through our use of technology to limit individual exposure to risk, whilst also enhancing their experience across all our brands.  We will do this not only in our traditional markets of sports betting and gaming, but also as we grow into new areas, like videogaming and esports as a global entertainment company.” 

Since 2018 Entain has monitored customers using markers of protection based on things such as frequency of play, changes in spend patterns and length of time of online play. The new markers being trialed include additional checks on, for example, fluctuations in stake levels, erratic play during a single session and signs that a player might be chasing losses. These were identified as potential danger signs by world-leading academics and gambling support groups taking part in scientific workshops held by Entain earlier this year.

Data scientists at the company are now building models to test the extended range of new behavioral indicators in real situations, seeking to identify customers who, according to the research, may show signs of potential problems as well as people exhibiting intermittent signs of being at potential risk. Eventually, Entain hopes to offer every customer both a personalised playing experience and protection tailored to their individual risk profile.

“We’re using our technology, leveraging our data and behavioral science, to deliver a fundamental shift in customer care,” said Peter Marcus, Entain Group Operations Director, who is overseeing the development of ARC. “The real innovation is to apply hyper-personalisation, to customer protection – using insight into the individual behaviors of customers to manage their exposure to risk in real time.”

Data from the new models is to be assessed prior to further development of ARC in the coming months. Entain will also seek further input from Harvard Medical School Faculty, Division on Addiction collaborating with Entain on a multi-year research project, Dr Michael Auer, from the scientific management of the Gambling Research Centre at the University of Hohenheim in Germany and Dr Mark Griffiths, a Distinguished Professor of Behavioral Addiction and Psychology, who participated in the workshops and contributed expertise to feed into the design of the new system. 

Entain will launch ARC first in the UK in the summer, offering real time online player protection for customers across all its brands and products, and plans to roll it out internationally from later in the year.