The U.K.’s gaming and betting industry body will introduce a new scheme to share data on those most at risk of gambling harm.
The Betting and Gaming Council will work with GAMSTOP to run the ‘Single Customer View’ trial, in the hope that it can identify those at risk of gambling harm. It will prevent people with a history of severe problem gaming or at high risk from moving to another bookmaker without interventions, according to City A.M.
The trial should have begun almost two years ago but has been delayed for almost two years due to data sharing concerns raised by the Information Commissioner’s Office, but now its back on track and the Council could be ready for a test by the end of March.
Council members have invested over £1 million (US$1.4 million) in the trial, which will include controls over how operators should engage with customers.
“I am delighted with the commitment from BGC members and the significant financial investment they are undertaking to get on with delivering this scheme quickly,” said Wes Himes, executive director for standards and innovation for the Betting and Gaming Council
Meanwhile, young bettors in the U.K. have increasingly wagered on esports, but also in-play betting.
The U.K. Gambling Commission has published “consumer experiences and attitudes to free bets and bonuses,” and identified a number of prominent trends in the British industry as to product popularity, methods of betting and usage, according to SBC News.
And one of those trends is the popularity of esports betting, with the annual growth rate of 8.5 percent between 2016 and 2019 mostly from males 18 to 24.
Males in the 18-24 age bracket have been the most receptive at 36 percent and declining to a third when expanded to 18–34-year-old, with a total of 9 percent of adults in general having bet on these markets in 2019.
Young bettors also fuel the popularity of in-play betting according to the UKGC data, although
The majority of online bettors in general have engaged with in-play betting with three in ten betting in the previous seven days and another 30 percent in the prior four weeks.
Online gambling has now become the most predominant of the betting industry’s sectors with a gross gaming yield of £5.7 billion and representing 40 percent of the market, with mobile phones the most common form of web-based betting.
Half of all online bets are placed via smartphone, with this method again most popular among 18-24s at three-quarters as opposed to 14 percent of over 65s, followed by laptops, desktop PCs and tablets.
“The data paints a picture of online gambling in which smartphones are the preferred devices, but laptops, PCs and tablets remain important routes of access. It shows that despite the opportunities to gamble online ‘on the go’, most online gambling continues to be done at home,” the U.K. GC said.
“The extent to which in-play betting has taken hold, and the growth of esports, is also clear to see.”
Younger gamblers were also identified as the most likely group to engage with self-exclusion and responsible gambling tools, with bettors in the 18-24 age group the most likely to have self-excluded at 14 percent followed by those aged 25-34 at 13 percent.
Overall, however, over half of gamblers informed the Commission that they were not aware of self-exclusion tools, while 6 percent in total have barred themselves from gambling and 34 percent are aware of such options but have not used them. Financial limits, meanwhile, were the most widely used tools across the board, with 8 percent of respondents stating that they have employed this method to keep in control of their gambling.
The U.K. GC detailed: “Operators are required to offer these tools, and they should provide them and promote them in a way that maximizes take up from those that would benefit from them, but there will always be customers that are experiencing harm that would not opt to take up any of these gambling management tools.
“We would like to see an increased awareness of the gambling management tools, and for operators to continue to improve promotion so that customers make the best use of the right tool, at the right time for them.”
