Greater and better use of data is key in tackling gambling-related harm

Having spent all of my professional career in the gambling industry with Sky Betting and Gaming, a key brand in Flutter’s UK and Ireland division, I have grown accustomed to reading about my industry through the media on a near daily basis. This scrutiny is needed, and such stories act as a constant and continuous reminder of the expectations placed on us by our stakeholders – standards to be expected in a sector that is consumer-facing, globally ambitious and commercially successful. When we get it wrong, we need to be able to hold our hands up, admit mistakes, and make real and impactful changes to our business.

However, there were several stories around Sky Bet’s use of customer data that are inaccurate and that I wish to address. First of all, we take the protection of our customers’ personal information and privacy very seriously. What’s more, we manage customer data in a tightly controlled way to ensure we deliver our products in a safe and reliable fashion, to do all we can to proactively protect our customers from harm, and to ensure our business meets its legal and regulatory obligations and is protected against attack, crime or other potential risks.

This protection of vulnerable customers is not only a legal and regulatory requirement but is at the heart of everything we are trying to do as a business. That is why we were quick to act and apologise when, late last year, Sky Vegas promotional emails were sent in error to customers who shouldn’t have received them. The piece of research that generated headlines last week contained a number of inaccuracies that need to be corrected, as the author of the report failed to understand how we work with third parties to abide by regulation rather than evade it.

The article had misleading claims that Sky Bet uses personal information to actively target vulnerable customers when the reality is that we and the wider industry are trying to use more data, more effectively, to identify and protect them. This is a hugely complex and challenging area considering the clear sensitivities around data protection and management. However, it is much needed as our industry continues its rapid transition to online. And we are making steady progress.

Keeping customers safe

Earlier this week, members of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), including Flutter, announced a cross-industry trial that will see selected members share limited customer data among each other in a proactive but responsible and legal manner. Establishing a pilot of the so-called ‘Single Customer View’ has been a long-time ambition of the sector, is fully supported by the Gambling Commission and the Information Commissioner’s Office, and will be run by GAMSTOP alongside its existing self-exclusion scheme, all with the aim of sharing data to help the small minority of customers who experience harm from their gambling.

Alongside other Flutter-owned brands such as Paddy Power and Betfair, Sky Bet is also working closely with trusted digital advertising specialists to actively direct sponsored social media adverts away from vulnerable customers, not toward them as was wrongly claimed. In order to achieve this objective, we share our data with social media platforms to ensure that vulnerable customers are removed from the audience for sponsored social media campaigns.

This initiative has been a real success and, as part of the output of the Flutter-led AdTech industry working group, has been incorporated into the latest edition of the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling’s (IGRG) Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising, which aims to create a consistent standard across the industry. To build on this initiative, we are now working closely with social media platforms themselves in order to develop stronger controls that will further prevent gambling advertisements being seen by anyone underage or at risk of gambling-related harm.

Like every tech-enabled business, Sky Bet and other Flutter brands around the world are also enhancing how we manage and utilise the data we obtain, not just to improve operational performance but to understand our customers in greater detail and spot potential indicators of harm earlier. This underpins our Affordability Triple Step, which works in conjunction with our safer gambling controls where we already use cutting-edge technology and algorithms to stay close to our customers, monitor individual behaviours and make interventions before their gambling becomes a problem. We have shared this approach with the government as we roll it out for customers across the UK and Ireland.

All these initiatives combine to help us generate better outcomes when it comes to safer gambling. Every month across all of Flutter’s UK and Irish brands, our safer gambling teams are reviewing more than 25,000 accounts that are flagged by our technology; managing automated safer gambling interactions with around 130,000 customers; and are proactively applying restrictions, such as deposit limits, to more than 7,000 accounts using data-led insights.

At both Flutter and Sky Bet, we know that we always can do more in this area and we will. However, these initiatives and the resulting stats demonstrate that data and technology are not weapons that our industry are using to target vulnerable customers – they are in fact the tools we need to better protect them and build a more sustainable industry moving forward.

After university, Steve Birch joined Sky Betting & Gaming as a marketing analyst and has subsequently worked in insights, programme management, marketing and leadership roles before being appointed in the role as CEO in 2020. Since becoming CEO, Birch has been listed in the Glassdoor Top 50 CEOs and Sky Betting & Gaming has continued to be nominated in the Times 100 Best Places to Work.