Entain completes initial stage of preventative approach to player protection

Entain, global sports betting and gaming entertainment operator with brands including Ladbrokes and bwin, has completed the initial stage of its pioneering preventative approach to customer protection, known as ARC (Advanced Protection and Care).

As a first outcome, the company has significantly extended behavioral indicators used to identify players potentially at risk and is now developing models using more than three times the previous number.

Entain believes ARC will provide unprecedented safeguards for customers of its online sports betting and gaming brands by minimizing problems before they arise. This promises to revolutionize conventional thinking around responsible gaming and usher in a new era of more personalized and proactive, technology-driven player protection, widely applicable across many forms of online sports betting and gaming entertainment.

"ARC is fundamental to our future strategy for sustainability and growth," said Jette Nygaard-Andersen, Chief Executive of Entain. "We are putting customers first, both by prioritizing their safety through our use of technology to limit individual exposure to risk, whilst also enhancing their experience across all our brands. We will do this not only in our traditional markets of sports betting and gaming, but also as we grow into new areas, like videogaming and esports as a global entertainment company."  

Since 2018 Entain has monitored customers using markers of protection based on things such as frequency of play, changes in spend patterns and length of time of online play. The new markers being trialed include additional checks on, for example, fluctuations in stake levels, erratic play during a single session and signs that a player might be chasing losses. These were identified as potential danger signs by world-leading academics and gambling support groups taking part in scientific workshops held by Entain earlier this year.

Data scientists at the company are now building models to test the extended range of new behavioral indicators in real situations, seeking to identify customers who, according to the research, may show signs of potential problems as well as people exhibiting intermittent signs of being at potential risk. Eventually, Entain hopes to offer every customer both a personalized playing experience and protection tailored to their individual risk profile.

"We're using our technology, leveraging our data and behavioral science, to deliver a fundamental shift in customer care," said Peter Marcus, Entain Group Operations Director, who is overseeing the development of ARC. "The real innovation is to apply hyper-personalization, to customer protection – using insight into the individual behaviors of customers to manage their exposure to risk in real-time."

Data from the new models is to be assessed prior to further development of ARC in the coming months. Entain will also seek further input from Harvard Medical School Faculty, Division on Addiction collaborating with Entain on a multi-year research project, Dr Michael Aeur, from the scientific management of the Gambling Research Centre at the University of Hohenheim in Germany and Dr Mark Griffiths, a Distinguished Professor of Behavioral Addiction and Psychology, who all participated in the workshops and contributed expertise to feed into the design of the new system.  

Entain will launch ARC first in the UK in the summer, offering real time online player protection for customers across all its brands and products, and plans to roll it out internationally from later in the year.