Pop-up messages and personalisation key to RG messaging, UKGC workshop finds
New cross-industry workshop, attended by Sky Bet, PPB and 888, asks at-risk gamblers how best to contact them
Operators should use pop-up messages and personalised language when contacting customers with responsible gambling warnings, a new UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) workshop has found.
Twelve operators, including Sky Betting and Gaming, Paddy Power Betfair and 888, took part in the “co-creation workshop”, alongside three UKGC advertising experts and 12 consumers who were considered low-to-moderate risk gamblers .
Of the 12 gamblers, most favoured tailored RG warnings over blanket messages which were often dismissed by consumers, while participants said being measured against an average made them feel like they were being “compared to unrelatable metrics, as opposed to things specifically personal to them”.
Consumers favoured pop-up style messaging rather than lengthy emails, which were often unread. The workshop identified authenticity as being a factor in the effectiveness of safer gambling messages, with consumers favouring a genuine, non-patronising conversation rather than being made to feel like “a number in an algorithm”.
The workshop identified the need for operators to put consumers in control of their decisions highlighting the recent Sky Betting and Gaming “Three Simple Tools” campaign as helping to normalise the use of player protection measures.
Despite the recent emphasis on operator involvement in responsible gambling, participants felt they did not “want a shadow peering behind them to challenge their decisions”. However, the group said operators should take action to ensure they are empowering consumers to make safe choices.
In its conclusions the workshop called on operators to apply lessons learned from the online environment to the offline environment including the greater provision of safer gambling tools to retail customers. Operator collaboration and consistent safer gambling iconography were also highlighted as being important to the effectiveness of safer gambling messages.
The UKGC confirmed it is currently readying a consultation paper on whether to introduce amendments to the current licensing codes of practice (LCCP) based on the findings of this report.