‘Operators have made tremendous progress when it comes to responsible gaming’, says Betsson

It is the viewpoint of Betsson's head of responsible gaming Eduards Jakubov that iGaming operators have made "tremendous progress when it comes to responsible gaming".

Speaking as part of GameOn's recently released 'ReportOn: Innovation in Responsible Gambling', alongside a number of other senior figures in the iGaming industry, Mr Jakubov expressed satisfaction about the overall trend in the industry towards a focus on responsible gaming.

"I am pleased to see how similar operators care about customers and have invested heavily in responsible gaming," he said.

Asked what the company specifically is doing to fulfill and exceed its responsible gambling commitments, Mr Jakubov explained it is "putting a lot of focus" into its Responsible Gambling Prediction Tool which is currently being updated to version 2.0.

"We believe that the combination and synergies between using new technology/machine learning and human monitoring is the way forward and we have invested in both", he explained.

The strength of Betsson's commitment to responsible gambling is emphasised by an internal survey, which indicated that 93 per cent of employees believe Betsson Group is a "responsible operator", Mr Jakubov added.

SkillOnNet's Michael Golembo also drew attention to the company's measures to protect players.

"If a player is potentially at risk, they are given personal feedback and tailored communications to help prevent problem gambling from occurring.

"This is just one of many measures we have in place, including trained safer gambling agents on hand 24/7, account self-assessments, affordability checks and time limits," he said.

The consensus amongst the other participants was that "tremendous" progress has been made in the past decade, and especially the past two years in terms of responsible gambling.

Particularly adamant on this point was Achilleas Chrysafis, head of platform at FSB, who stated that while "the starting point was low", some "great progress" has been made in the last few years industry-wide.

On the part of FSB specifically, he added: "Today, [responsible gambling] is very much a key part of our operations."

Asked what might be holding operators back from introducing innovations around responsible gambling and safe gaming, Mr Jakubov explained that for companies active in multiple jurisdictions there is the added challenge of considering "certain elements of regulation that are different in each market."

However, he insisted that while there are differences in the specific regulatory processes in individual jurisdictions, the specific process introduced by a regulator "ultimately has the same result as in other jurisdictions."

Similarly, Future Anthem's CEO and founder Leigh Nissim suggested that the patchwork approach to regulation and licensing is a factor in holding back responsible gambling-related innovation.

"While there is an almost universal commitment to offering a safe gambling experience for players, the levels of operational and financial commitment differ significantly between geographies and largely as a result of the regulations", he explained.

The leaders were speaking to GameOn as part of its brand-new 'ReportOn' product, a free, quarterly report aiming to break down a topic or trend into key talking points with contributions from a variety of experts.

The full report is available for readers to download on GameOn’s website.