SB&G and Hills partner for “ground-breaking” responsible gambling initiative
Leeds-based operator says new predictive algorithm has already improved accuracy in predicting problem betting behaviour by 11%
Sky Betting & Gaming (SB&G) has kicked off a responsible gambling campaign that will see the operator use machine learning and predictive modelling to identify problem gamblers.
The Leeds-based firm has teamed up with William Hill and local psychology academics to develop and share predictive algorithms to spot problem behaviours.
On a daily basis, the model considers all customers active the previous day, meaning hundreds of thousands of people are assessed for behaviours, with around 5% of people receiving daily interventions.
SB&G said the new models, implemented this month, have already improved accuracy in predicting problem behaviours by 11%.
Once identified, SB&G offers affected customers a range of responsible gaming tools, including reduced marketing communications, deposit limits, self-exclusion, one-to-one calls and bespoke web pages that automatically make gambling support messaging more prominent.
“We take our responsibility to protect any vulnerable customers very seriously, and so we’ve focussed significant data science time and resource into this area,” said James Waterhouse, SB&G head of data science.
“Academic input has proved invaluable, and we’ll continue to collaborate to improve our model accuracy to better steer our operations, CRM and marketing teams in their proactive messaging and processes.”
The operator has already partnered with William Hill to share best practice and techniques and said it is actively seeking other industry operators to extend this collaboration.
Several industry groups have called on operators to improve their self-regulation in this area, as the sector comes under increasing scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers.
Kindred Group also launched a similar type of project, utilising customer data to improve its problem gambling identification processes.