GVC Launches the GVC Foundation

GVC, the global sports-betting and gaming group, today announces that it is launching The GVC Foundation (“the Foundation”), which will coordinate and support GVC’s CSR initiatives, objectives and donations around the world.

The Foundation will initially focus on the following areas:

• Responsible gambling, sports integrity and gambling regulation research, education and treatment;
• Grass roots, women’s and disability sport;
• Men’s health, with a particular focus on mental health; and
• Projects with a clear link to the local community in GVC’s major office locations.

The Foundation will also administer GVC’s existing CSR projects, including GVC’s £2 million community fund as well as GVC’s collaborations with SportsAid, EPIC Risk Management, Gordon Moody, the US National Council on Problem Gambling and the Division on Addiction of Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital.

More specifically, The Foundation is today announcing its involvement in the following CSR projects:

• Inter Milan Football Club – promoting participation in women’s football
  The GVC Foundation has launched a collaboration with Inter Milan Football Club to promote participation in women’s football in Italy. Backed by a national media campaign, partnered with  Gazzetta dello Sport, the project is developing a football-related talent show for aspiring female footballers.

• US Fund to Support Research on Sports Wagering
  The Foundation has become a Bronze Donor to the Fund to Support Research on Sports Wagering, which was recently launched by the US National Center for Responsible Gaming. The objective of this project, which is first of its kind in the US, is to competitively award researchers at top tier institutions with the resources needed to uncover novel insights into what the introduction of legalised, regulated sports betting means for public health.

• German Sports Integrity Forum
  Together with German Bundesliga clubs Borussia Dortmund and 1.FC Koeln, and the sports integrity platform, the Play Fair Code, the GVC Foundation recently launched the German Sports Integrity Forum. The aim of the Forum is to raise further awareness of sports integrity programmes in Germany and other German speaking countries.

• Professional Players Federation
  The Foundation has entered into a partnership with the Professional Players Federation (the “PPF”), the national organisation for the professional player associations in the UK, to fund its anti-match-fixing player education programmes. The partnership enables the PPF to support the development and delivery of online learning and face-to-face education to hundreds of sportspeople in sports such as football, cricket, rugby union, golf, darts and snooker

Further details of all of the above projects can be found on the Foundation’s website https://gvcglobalfoundation.com/ and other new initiatives, in particular in the US and Germany, will be announced in due course.

Commenting on the launch, Virginia McDowell, Chair of GVC’s CSR Committee said:

“GVC is determined to spearhead the gambling industry’s approach to CSR initiatives, particularly with regard to responsible gambling and sports integrity-related projects. The launch of The GVC Foundation is a clear sign of this commitment, consolidating GVC’s hard work in this area over the last few years.”

Martin Lycka, GVC’s Director of Regulatory Affairs and a Trustee of The GVC Foundation, added:

“We are delighted to have partnered with sports clubs, gambling researchers and athletes in a number of our key jurisdictions, including Germany, the UK, Italy and the US. The range of the new initiatives that we are announcing today, and the quality of the partnerships that we have entered, is a great endorsement of our overall CSR strategy, and there is plenty more to come.”