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Our UKGC consultation response: Failing to protect the vulnerable should not be the White Paper’s legacy
The dust has settled and the process is complete. The consultation on the proposed changes outlined in the UK Gambling White Paper is closed so now we just have to wait and see. Whilst we do so, we thought that in the spirit of transparency, we would share our own thoughts, more or less as they were communicated in our consultation response to the UK Gambling Commision.
Offering a real-time customer risk profiling tool, ClearStake’s focus was obviously on affordability checks. But then, much of the industry’s attention has been on this topic over the last few months. This is, to our mind, the single most important challenge facing the sector. Addressing it in the right way, a way that protects both punters and operators, will be the key to a sustainable, profitable future.
And with that goal uppermost in our mind, here is what we said:
1. Affordability checks must use real financial data
Certainly at the levels of spend proposed as meriting more thorough checks (£1,000 in a day or £2,000 over the space of three months), we don’t believe there is any real substitute for real financial data, by which we mean bank data. There is simply no other way of establishing whether a player can afford to lose this amount of money or not. Everything else – including data from credit reference agencies – is guesswork. We believe that the single greatest mistake that could be made during this process is not solving the problem of financial harm caused by gambling. That won’t be an issue if the government requires decisions to be made by operators in possession of a proper financial picture of their customers.
2. We can solve two problems at once
The consultation focused on affordability checks, but it would be almost perverse to ignore the wider reality at play here. Operators also have to perform anti money-laundering and source-of-funds (SOF) checks on their customers, and they do so by looking at bank statements. Given this is the case, it makes a lot of sense to us to effectively combine both these requirements within a single check.
3. At higher spend levels, it makes sense to keep customers connected
There has been a lot of talk about how frequently checks should take place, or to put that another way, whether it should be necessary to go back to a customer within six months or a year if they have already passed a check. To us, this rather misses the opportunity presented by Open Banking in particular. After the first check, assuming the player allows it, any checks in future can be entirely frictionless. The connection can remain in place and used when necessary (and only when necessary!) in order to make the ongoing compliance relationship as smooth as possible. We don’t expect ongoing connection to be mandated, but it should certainly be held up as best practice for all concerned.
4. Some of the proposed data points make little sense
When a solution that takes guesswork out of the equation is available, does it really make sense to suggest that postcodes and job titles are meaningful ways to determine an individual’s financial situation? We don’t think so. We believe that continuing to ‘lean in’ to data like this gives a misleading impression that it is good enough. It isn’t. Even as part of a broader decision-making process, it is very difficult to see where some of these data points fit in. You could say the same, of course, about missed loan repayments from three years ago.
5. The solution exists – why cobble together a new one?
Hovering behind the entire consultation process appears to be a not-quite-defined ‘solution’ to the affordability challenge. This is apparent in the various hints towards the use of CATO data (let’s just say it, even if the Commission aren’t willing to) and a hodge-podge of random data points in order to make affordability decisions, as part of a system that would have to be piloted in order to ensure a) it works and b) it doesn’t create data security issues.
Leaving aside the absurdity of asking us to judge the merits of an approach that hasn’t actually been defined, we would simply point out that in Open Banking, a solution to this challenge already exists. One that is already used by over 7 million people in the UK, by most UK operators to handle payments, and already used to handle affordability and SOF checks by forward-thinking operators. Why on earth are we re-inventing the wheel?
So there you have it. That’s what we told the consultation, albeit in language a little less colourful. I hope they listen.
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UNIVERSITY Esports UK and Ireland launches its Spring 2025 Season: learn more about the games, schedules and signups
UNIVERSITY Esports is back for its Spring 2025 Season, which is open to students from universities across the UK and Ireland and brings with it five tournaments and six weeks of action across Overwatch 2, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and VALORANT. The tournaments will give students the opportunity to showcase their competitive skills against their peers, while also helping to build the grassroots gaming community – as participants play with their friends and make new ones.
This season of UNIVERSITY Esports follows high participation in the previous Winter 2024 Season, where over 600 teams and 3,000 players took part every week. UNIVERSITY Esports currently counts more than 20,000 people across more than 110 universities registered in the community.
Broadcasts of the Winter 2024 Grand Finals were produced by students from the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies (at Nottingham Trent University), in partnership with UNIVERSITY Esports staff to support the next generation of broadcasters.
Beyond competition
UNIVERSITY Esports, a grassroots esports organiser in the UK and Ireland operated by NUEL (a subsidiary of GGTech Entertainment), is about much more than just online competition, and also plays a big role in fostering communities and providing career opportunities and education.
Winter also saw the return of the UNIVERSITY Tour, an in-person series of events aimed at raising awareness of the esports community and building real-life connections between players. Nottingham Trent University and the University of Staffordshire hosted these face-to-face activities, with hundreds of students engaged about the benefits of participating in the esports community both professionally and to have fun.
Spring 2025 Tournament schedule
Signups are now open for the UNIVERSITY Esports Spring 2025 Season, and the tournaments will take place over February and March. Winning teams will be awarded with a shared £2,550 prize pool.
Key dates are as follows:
Overwatch 2
– Signups Close: Saturday 8th February
– Games Begin: Monday 10th February
Teamfight Tactics
– Signups Close: Sunday 9th February
– Games Begin: Tuesday 11th February
Women and Non-Binary VALORANT
– Signups Close: Tuesday 11th February
– Games Begin: Tuesday 18th February
League of Legends
– Signups Close: Monday 10th February
– Games Begin: Wednesday 12th February
Open VALORANT
– Signups Close: Tuesday 11th February
– Games Begin: Thursday 13th February
To take part, players need to verify their student status (if they haven’t already in Winter), and either create or join a team. Interested players can find out more information and register at universityesports.co.uk, and on the Discord.
The post UNIVERSITY Esports UK and Ireland launches its Spring 2025 Season: learn more about the games, schedules and signups appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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GGBET UA is the official sponsor of FC Dynamo Kyiv’s winter training camp
FC Dynamo Kyiv are continuing their winter training in Turkey, in preparation for the second half of the season in 2025. Their partner for the training period this year is GGBET UA.
The club’s CEO, Dmytro Brif, thanked GGBET UA for its support and underscored the importance of the training camp for the team’s future success:
“We are hugely grateful to GGBET UA for its partnership during this important period. Today, our efforts are focused on improving our game, working on our mistakes, and getting ready for upcoming matches. In the spring, we’re set on achieving the very best results we can in all tournaments.”
GGBET UA CEO Sergii Mishchenko stated that partnering up with Dynamo involves not just working together on the winter training camp, but also continuing with larger-scale joint projects geared towards the team’s fans:
“Within the partnership, we’re actively working with the club and are planning to create exciting content featuring the players and coaches. All of this helps to reduce the distance between the professional footballers and the regular fans, which is what we’re striving to do.”
Dynamo’s next winter training camp match will take place on 6 February at 17:00 in the Turkish city of Belek. The club will be facing off against KF Shkëndija, a team from North Macedonia. A live stream will be available on Dynamo’s YouTube channel.
The post GGBET UA is the official sponsor of FC Dynamo Kyiv’s winter training camp appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Blask integrates comprehensive licensing data
Blask, the AI-driven market analytics ecosystem, has added extensive regulated market data to its algorithm, which now analyses hundreds of reports from gambling commissions, tax authorities, industry experts and operators around the world.
The new input means Blask can deliver an accurate, multilingual, real-time picture of the regulatory situation in more than 40 iGaming markets, with many more to be added over the coming months.
By integrating verified data from regulatory bodies and gambling commissions, Blask can now provide:
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A market-by-market breakdown of local and offshore licence holders
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Tax rate insights to assess market profitability
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Advanced dashboards for strategic decision making
Max Tesla, CEO of Blask, said: “Regulated markets are evolving rapidly these days, and staying ahead requires accurate, real-time data. By integrating verified regulatory data directly into the Blask platform, we’re giving operators and other stakeholders the ability to make smarter decisions with absolute confidence. This is a huge leap forward in strategic market analysis.”
The new data has been seamlessly integrated into the Blask dashboard. Users can view details of the regulatory authority governing a market. For brands operating under local licences, Blask now features comprehensive licence information, including type and dates of issuance and expiration.
The Blask team has worked tirelessly to automate the analysis of hundreds of reports in multiple languages and from numerous different trusted sources. This includes brands that offer open data.
The post Blask integrates comprehensive licensing data appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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