Industry News
Operators Unite To Trigger A National Conversation About Safer Gambling
The gambling industry is coming together to stage the biggest ever campaign to promote safer gambling in the UK and Ireland.
Responsible Gambling Week 2019, which takes place from November 7th-November 13th, is the public face of the industry’s year-round commitment to safer gambling. More than 120,000 staff at thousands of gambling venues and online sites are taking part and this year it is also being supported by machine operators, who are opening their networks to promote responsible gambling messages, and by pubs across the country.
The campaign is led by the Industry Group For Responsible Gambling, comprised of all the gambling trade associations, and in Ireland by the Irish Bookmakers Association. The objective is to stimulate a national conversation about safer gambling, highlighting the tools, advice and help available to customers, and the initiatives being taken by operators to promote social responsibility.
A UK summit ‘Building a safer gambling industry’, hosted by ERG in association with Responsible Gambling Week, will take place on November 7th at Twickenham Rugby Stadium, bringing together leading online gaming operators, affiliates, regulators and the wider gaming community to discuss safer gambling strategies. Speakers include Tim Miller, executive director of the Gambling Commission.
During Responsible Gambling Week, staff from across the entire industry, including arcades, bingo clubs, bookmakers and casinos, will be empowered to initiate conversations with customers about safer gambling and messaging will be prominently displayed at venues. Some operators will have dedicated responsible gambling areas where experts will be available to speak to customers and others are organizing special events, including ‘take a break sessions’, and sponsored fundraising initiatives by staff. Operators will document their staff’s involvement in the campaign and have made an on-going commitment to invest in staff training, equipping them with the tools to advise customers about safer gambling.
Online websites will promote responsible gambling messages to their customers through pop-ups and banner ads. All operators will post responsible gambling content and information about advice and help for customers on their own social channels.
A new website, www.responsiblegamblinguk.org which goes lives in October, will act as an information hub, providing a comprehensive one-stop service for consumers all year round, educating them about all aspects of responsible gambling. Operators can also download assets and resources from the website to use during Responsible Gambling Week.
The responsible gambling information hub has been developed in conjunction with campaign partner GamCare, and the charity is running training courses during Responsible Gambling Week in London, Glasgow, Sunderland and Bath for professionals working with young people. The National Gambling helpline, 0808 8020 133, run by GamCare, helps anyone who has a problem with their gambling, or has been affected by gambling, and is being extended into a 24-hour service from the beginning of October.
Other key supporters of Responsible Gambling Week include:
Punch Pubs and Co, which will offer promotional kits, including posters and beer mats with responsible gambling messages across its portfolio of 1,300 pubs
The English Football League and sponsors SkyBet, who are offering advertising space at football grounds across the country and in matchday programmes; gambling operators, including Kindred and Betway, who sponsor Premier League, EFL and Scottish Premier League clubs, which will display responsible gambling messages on their team kit; Paddy Power Betfair, who are donating advertising space and providing sponsorship assets
The Racecourse Association and the British Horseracing Authority, which will display responsible gambling messages at racecourses across the UK during Responsible Gambling Week
Machine manufacturers, Astra Games, Scientific Gaming, Reflex and Inspired Gaming, who will be communicating responsible gambling messages through their network of gaming machines
Last year, the #RGWeek18 hashtag generated nearly 20 million impressions and safer gambling content is already being posted on Responsible Gambling Week social channels: Twitter: @RGWeek19; Facebook: facebook.com/RGweek19; and, for the first time on Instagram: Instagram.com/rgweek19.
John Hagan, chairman of the IGRG, said:
“We are confident that Responsible Gambling Week, now in its third year, will be our biggest campaign yet, but this is not just about one week in the year, it is about promoting safer gambling all year round. We want to make this an open and inclusive conversation, connecting with the widest possible audience, including those who do not think messages about responsible gambling are aimed at them. We want to take the message about safer gambling even further this year, through our own social channels, with the support of our partners inside the industry and beyond”.
Neil McArthur, chief executive of the Gambling Commission, said:
“The week’s strapline, ‘Let’s talk about safer gambling’, is an important message not only for customers but also for the staff and industry leaders whose role is to look out for their customers. It provides an opportunity for people across the gambling industry, no matter what their role is, to focus on what part they can play to make gambling safer and reduce gambling harms”.
Anna Hemmings, chief executive of GamCare, said:
“Safer gambling is a key priority for GamCare, and we are pleased to support initiatives that promote and extend safer gambling messaging, such as RG Week. In particular, we are delighted to be offering training to youth-facing professionals through our national youth education programme: BigDeal. This focusses on delivering education to young people directly, as well as the youth workforce to promote more informed choices about gambling behavior and an understanding of the potential for harm. As usual, if anyone has any concerns about their gambling, they will be able to get in touch with us at any time for help and support via the National Gambling Helpline.”
Industry News
MiFinity to Showcase Innovative iFrame at SiGMA 2024
MiFinity, a leading global payment services provider, is excited to announce its participation at SiGMA 2024, held in Malta from 12 to 14 November. Visitors can find MiFinity at Stand 2012, where the team will be showcasing its award winning PayAnyBank service, and the latest version of the MiFinity iFrame and demonstrating how it helps iGaming operators acquire and retain players with a seamless, flexible payment experience.
Paul Kavanagh, CEO of MiFinity, commented: “SiGMA is a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our latest developments and engage directly with the iGaming community. The MiFinity iFrame is a game-changer for operators looking to streamline their payment processes and enhance the player experience. We look forward to demonstrating its capabilities and connecting with both existing and prospective partners.”
MiFinity’s Business Development and Account Management teams will be on-site to discuss the new iFrame features in-depth and highlight how MiFinity can optimise payments for iGaming operators. They will also be showcasing MiFinity’s innovative suite of payment solutions developed specifically for the iGaming sector, including MiFinity PayAnyBank — a powerful tool that enables operators to send payouts directly to players’ bank accounts in multiple countries and currencies, enhancing the user experience with faster, more localised transactions and reduced FX fees.
The MiFinity Affiliates team will also be available to explain the benefits of MiFinity’s affiliate program, which offers some of the highest commissions in the industry and unique promotional opportunities via the MiFinity Bonus website.
Meet the MiFinity team at Stand 2012 at SiGMA 2024 to learn more about the company’s solutions and how they are transforming the iGaming payment landscape. Pre-book a meeting with the MiFinity team or drop by the stand during the event to explore how MiFinity can support your business.
Book a meeting here > outlook.office365.com/book/[email protected]/
Industry News
Dutch Mental Health Care Calls for Total Ban on Online Gambling Advertising
The Dutch mental health service is calling for a total ban on online gambling advertisements in the Netherlands.
Although a ban on untargeted gambling advertisements and a ban on the use of role models has been in effect since 2023, a recent research by KRO-NCRV’s Pointer shows that (illegal) gambling companies and sports tipster platforms are still enticing young people via social media such as TikTok and Snapchat.
By using influencers and terms like “free money”, they try to attract a young audience and thus lower the threshold to start gambling. This concerns both legal online casinos and online casinos that do not have a license in the Netherlands. The Gaming Authority has started an investigation based on Pointer’s findings.
Pointer’s research shows that part of the gambling industry deliberately targets young people who are often susceptible to promises such as “fast money” and the influence of role models. Ruth Peetoom, chair of the Dutch mental health service, compares this approach to that of the tobacco industry, where similar marketing strategies were used to get young people to smoke.
Despite the existing advertising ban, gambling companies continue to explore the boundaries of the law, according to Peetoom. The Dutch mental health and addiction care associations in the Netherlands therefore push for a total ban on online gambling advertising and stricter rules for the duty of care of gambling providers.
With the call for a total ban, the Dutch mental health care sector hopes to prevent further normalisation of gambling behaviour among young people and to protect them from the temptation and consequences of online gambling.
Compliance Updates
UKGC: Market impact data on gambling behaviour – operator data to Oct 2024
The Gambling Commission has published further data on the gambling industry in Great Britain.
This data, sourced from operators, reflects the period between March 2020 and September 2024, inclusive, and covers online and in-person gambling covering Licensed Betting Operators (LBOs) found on Britain’s high streets.
Comparison should not be made with the industry statistics dataset, as this dataset may include free bets and bonuses and does not include data from all operators.
This release compares Quarter 2 (Q2) of financial year 2024 to 2025, with Q2 of 2023 to 2024, looking at how the market has changed in comparative periods over a year.
The latest operator data shows:
- online total Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) in Q2 (July to September) was £1.32 billion, an increase of 11 percent from Q2 the previous year. The overall number of total bets and/or spins increased 12 percent Year-on-Year (YoY), reaching a new peak for the third consecutive quarter of 25.2 billion, whilst the average monthly active accounts2 in the quarter increased 8 percent
- real event betting GGY increased by 6 percent YoY to £453 million. The number of bets decreased 10 percent, while the average monthly active accounts in Q2 increased 9 percent
- slots GGY increased 16 percent to £680 million YoY. The number of spins increased 13 percent to 23.3 billion while the average monthly active accounts in Q2 increased 16 percent to 4.4 million per month. Although this is a new peak for GGY in this dataset for the slots vertical, it should be noted that one operator has re-classified some of its products into the slot vertical this quarter, which has had an impact on the vertical data
- the number of online slots sessions lasting longer than an hour increased by 9 percent YoY to 10 million. The average session length remained at 17 minutes. Approximately 6.1 percent of all sessions lasted more than one hour compared to 6.6 percent in Q2 the previous year. The number of spins per session has fallen from 147 to 142 YOY, whilst the GGY per session has fallen from £4.20 to £4.13 in the equivalent timeframe
- LBO GGY decreased by 1 percent to £533 million in Q2 2024 to 2025, compared to the same quarter last year, while the number of total bets and spins decreased by 0.1 percent to 3.1 billion.
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