SGW: The importance of year-round safer gambling improvements for operators

Safer Gambling Week is here so it is an excellent opportunity for us within the igaming industry to raise awareness about this important issue. Anyone who’s interested can tune in to a number of exciting seminars and panel discussions and learn about new research, surveys and gaming legislation.

Betsson will take part in several of these discussions, and we will also contribute by putting the spotlight on responsible gaming in our communication channels, notably with a newly produced, exclusive podcast with our head of responsible gaming.

But safer gaming is an all-year responsibility, it’s certainly not something that’s done and dusted in a week. Therein lies challenge and the opportunity. Beyond the flashy awareness campaigns are the day-to-day decisions taken throughout the company, the long-term investments in people, tools and technology to support responsible gaming across disciplines, and our engagement in research and studies within the field.

Betsson recently launched a new global marketing concept called ‘A bet makes the difference’. Note that it says “a bet makes the difference, not “winning makes a difference”. The emphasis of this concept is on the thrill of betting and on the entertainment rather than any big wins. The potential of winning is of course there, but the message conveyed is that when you gamble responsibly, you will enjoy the excitement even if you don’t win. A good example of where commercial value goes hand-in-hand with business strategy, company values and subtle responsible gaming messaging.

Gaming has been around forever, the first evidence dating back to China 2000 BC, and is a very common form of entertainment across the world. The great advantage with online gambling is that operators can monitor their customers 24/7.

Betsson was the first gaming company to hire a full-time responsible gaming manager, and today we have a whole team specialised in this field. Safer gaming tools and the monitoring of customers are very important, but the most important thing is to act when needed. To be there for the customer and support them in playing in a healthy way. This is exactly what our responsible gaming team does.

The responsible gaming team works closely with our customer service department and other teams in caring for the customer. They have the competence and mandate to step in and act when they see a potentially risky behaviour, analysing the individual player and prompting them to use available tools for the player to control their gambling. And, not least, following up to make sure that the player gets back on track.

In severe cases, the player may be excluded from further gambling with us, but the goal is rather to help steer them in the right direction so they can enjoy gaming, in a responsible way. The risk is otherwise that they resort to gambling on the black market, with unlicensed operators without any responsible gaming practices in place an no support available for the customer.

Jonna Danlund has over 20 years of experience in working with communication and sustainability in large public institutions and private companies across the world.

As head of sustainability at Betsson, she’s responsible for driving the sustainability agenda forward, in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Global Compact and the company’s Sustainability framework, which specifies focus areas, goals and KPIs for Betsson’s ESG efforts.

Responsible gaming is the cornerstone of the group’s business, and crucial for building long-term and sustainable customer relationships. Responsible gaming is therefore the most important sustainability area for Betsson.