BCLC
New Approaches to Mitigating High-Risk Play: Responsible Marketing
Guardrails are often put in place to keep people within safe boundaries and to prevent harm. Can the notion of player-health ‘guardrails’ help evolve how gambling products are marketed to mitigate high-risk play and improve player-health outcomes?
Three panellists recently joined Dr. Jamie Wiebe, BCLC’s Director of Player Health, to examine this question during BCLC’s New Horizons in Responsible Gambling pre-conference session, Responsible Marketing: Establishing “Guardrails” for Safer Play.
Panellist Floris van Driel, Nederlandse Loterij Responsible Gaming Specialist for Sports Betting and Casino, shared Nederlandse Loterij’s approach to integrating responsible marketing into online gambling, which became legal in the Netherlands on October 1, 2021.
The Nederlandse Loterij team scores and advertises each game by risk level. Games rated with a very high-risk score are not promoted at all in television or social media advertising and similarly, high-risk players are excluded from receiving any marketing materials. Additionally, van Driel’s team looks at player behaviour and classifies players into different risk categories to better understand how to market games to each segmented group.
“We are looking at high-risk players, and the types of games they prefer, to understand if we should be more restrained when promoting these types of games,” van Driel explained during the New Horizons session. “It’s really about using specific customer data to customize the campaigns to mitigate risk along with utilizing marketing tools to stimulate people to moderate their gameplay.”
Part of Nederlandse Loterij’s new marketing strategy entails reframing the tone of their player health advertising, reflecting a more fun, light-hearted approach. Its recent TOTO campaign promoting responsible participation in online sports betting was recognized as the Safer Gambling Campaign of the Year at the 2021 Global Regulatory Awards.
“We are finding that keeping it lighter and more fun ties in better with the tone of the other communication that we give to the player. The intention is to make it easier for players to accept the message and to get player health behaviour normalized.” The campaign resulted in a very positive behavioural change: 82 per cent of players thought that the tips were very useful, and 44 per cent considered changing their behaviour.
Ryan Persaud, Director of Insights and Player Experience at BCLC outlined the organization’s integration of marketing guardrails operationally. In 2021, BCLC completed a study whereby it included Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) scores with online customers, connecting survey results with actual behaviour.
“It allowed us to understand: How do [players’] personal stated risks relate to their behaviour? We used that information to help us craft what we are calling…high-risk indicators,” said Persaud.
BCLC is building on these findings to develop high-risk indicators centred around variables such as deviation, deposits, wagering, time and player-health risk alerts.
“At BCLC we are focusing on the player side of assessing risk and using high-risk indicators to dig into the behavioural components as opposed to just the product risks,” Persaud explained. “This player-health data is being used to better inform the conversations we’re having around marketing.”
Finally, Richard Wood, President, GamRes Limited, outlined during the discussion that in order to responsibly market a product, it’s important to identify and understand the impacts and unintended potential risks for each player. Wood and the GamRes team created Gamgard, a game risk-assessment product used to help prevent high-risk play, while also supporting operators in their end game: to deliver a fun, interesting product.
“With Gamgard, jurisdictions are able to identify high-risk elements and then choose to either not advertise the game at all to high-risk players or to use the data to integrate player health guardrails into their marketing approaches,” Wood explained.
Wiebe concluded the session by asking each panellist to look forward 10 years and share their perspective on gambling marketing:
“Focusing on integrating more fun and entertaining player-health messaging into the marketing experience will help to mitigate risk,” Wood said. “We’ve found that the most responsible players are the most satisfied players… so player health and marketing aren’t polar opposites; at the end of the day, they have a similar goal of ensuring that players have a good healthy experience.”
Hosted by BCLC, the full New Horizons in Responsible Gambling Conference is celebrating 10 years of industry leadership and bringing together hundreds of industry-leading researchers, policymakers and representatives from around the world to tackle some of the most challenging topics related to gambling and player health. The conference will occur virtually in early March 2022.
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The Canadian Football League (CFL) and British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) have partnered to make BCLC’s online sportsbook – PlayNow Sports – the official sports betting partner of the 111th Grey Cup. BCLC, the only legal gaming operator in the province, is the newest Authorized Gaming Operator to partner with the league. The partnership builds upon BCLC’s commitment to football in the province – as both a longstanding supporter of the BC Lions and as an enthusiastic proponent of bringing the Grey Cup to Vancouver.
“BCLC is immensely proud to have PlayNow Sports as the official sports betting partner for the 111th Grey Cup. As a social-purpose company, BCLC works every day to generate win-wins for the greater good and serve in the best interests of the communities we call home. We’re thrilled to help bring together BC Lions and CFL fans from across the country in the spirit of celebration and community at this year’s Grey Cup Festival,” said Dan Beebe, BCLC’s Chief Operations Officer.
In celebration of Canada’s largest single-day sporting event returning to B.C. for the first time since 2014, the CFL and BCLC are holding a special contest for fans in B.C., Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The Grand Prize consists of two tickets to the championship game, two Grey Cup Festival passes, travel, accommodation, $500 in PlayNow Sports free bets and more.
“Responsible sports wagering, and the entertainment it provides, is an important part of the future of CFL fandom. Our work with BCLC allows fans to deepen their connection to the league, but more importantly, it strengthens our efforts to support British Columbians and the community through the valued programs and services they rely on every day,” said Tyler Keenan, the CFL’s Chief Revenue Officer.
The CFL’s province-specific Authorized Gaming Operator program works with partners to authenticate and regulate the league’s sports betting landscape. In 2023, the league complemented its existing wagering policies and by-laws with an enhanced Match Manipulation Policy. It is highlighted by an annual education component for all full- and part-time CFL personnel, including players, regarding their individual roles and responsibilities in supporting the league’s high standards for integrity and responsible gaming practices. All CFL personnel are strictly prohibited from wagering on league activities.
AI
British Columbia Lottery Corporation and Future Anthem partner to establish Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation Hub in Vancouver
Partnership will create dedicated specialist team to develop and deploy AI to improve player experiences across gaming products and channels.
BCLC has partnered with Future Anthem, a UK-based gambling data science specialist, on the creation of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Innovation Hub (the “Hub”), to be located at BCLC’s Vancouver office.
The Hub will focus on the development of AI, data capabilities and programs designed to improve the player experience across all BCLC gambling platforms, including lottery, gaming, and sports. It will employ a team of data and product professionals, with access to Future Anthem’s Data Science platform.
“BCLC is excited to be partnering with Future Anthem to create the first AI innovation hub in B.C. focused on the gambling industry,” says Mark Goldberg, BCLC’s Chief Information Officer. “We know that the key components of the Hub will be its data driven research and software product development to support player engagement and experience, safer play and improved game design – core BCLC business areas.”
Managed in partnership through a joint Steering Committee that includes senior representatives from both BCLC and Future Anthem, the Hub will create and cultivate highly specialized, Vancouver-based AI technology jobs utilising Future Anthem’s strong experience in building teams focused on AI research and development, complemented by a small team of BCLC employees with skills and experience in this area.
“This dynamic partnership combines our expertise, reach, and technologies and allows us to harness AI for good – to bring true and measurable benefits to players in a responsible, sustainable, and enjoyable manner,” says Leigh Nissim, CEO and Founder of Future Anthem. “With access to more data across all verticals and channels to build amazing machine learning models and AI applications, I am confident this collaboration will quickly deliver benefits to BCLC and its players to reinforce its lead position within lotteries globally.”
As well as recruiting the team in Vancouver, Future Anthem will deploy its market-leading real time AI platform locally to employ best practices for AI product development and governance within the Hub, which includes protocols to ensure transparency of AI use, data security, and management of AI models and their player impact. These models are designed to use anonymised data that is stored in Canada.
BCLC has launched PROLINE – a first-of-its-kind digital retail sportsbook – across all B.C. lottery terminals.
PROLINE offers the most popular sports-betting options previously available on BCLC’s Sports Action, as well as other new offerings. In addition to Toto, Oddset 2-outcome, Oddset 3-outcome, money line, point spread, totals and props, single-event betting and dynamic odds will be offered for the first time at retail locations.
“This is an exciting evolution for BCLC and for sports bettors across the province. PROLINE offers an updated and innovative sports betting experience and is the pivotal next step for BCLC in offering exciting new sports products to our valued players,” Dan Beebe, Chief Operating Officer at BCLC, said.
To play, players will have to download the new BCLC PROLINE app on their phone, create their digital bet slips in the app and receive an app-generated QR code, which they can bring to any lottery retail location to scan and receive a printed ticket. As added flexibility, players can also create their PROLINE bets on their laptops or tablets through the PROLINE website.
BCLC is also planning for other new sports-betting experiences in the months ahead, which will include enhanced betting experiences at B.C. bars and pubs and exciting new offerings at B.C. casinos around the province.
BCLC is the official sports betting partner of the Vancouver Canucks, Abbotsford Canucks, Vancouver Warriors, BC Lions and the 11th Grey Cup, which takes place at Vancouver’s BC Place on November 17.
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