PPF Partnered with Gamstop

Raising public awareness of problem gambling as well as promoting responsible gambling are the main purposes of Gamstop. And aside from applying various policies, this self-exclusion scheme has also extended its partnership with many entities. 

At the beginning of October, Professional Players Federation (PPF) has inked cooperation with Gamstop in which this body will outreach the audience across its website and social channels. This collaboration will ensure that the consumers and athletes are aware of the gambling risks and understand how to access Gamstop services.

Details of the Partnership

The Professional Players Federation is founded to protect, develop, and promote the collective interests of professional players in the United Kingdom. This national organisation for the professional players represents thousands of elite athletes in this sovereign country and comes with the same policy to minimize the gambling-related problems there. 

Both hope their cooperation will raise awareness of the problem of gambling leading to a fairer and safer gambling environment. In this partnership, PPF will work with Gamstop by adding this scheme among its educational hubs. This aims to inform professional athletes to help and sensitize players who are still betting at football sites not on GamStop or at risk or have experienced gambling-related problems. With the popularity of Gamstop, more than 150,000 people are registered on this self-exclusion program meaning that the policy to reduce the gambling issues is effective. Therefore, thanks to the collaboration with PPF, the gambling harms will have reduced. 

As stated by PPF CEO Simon Taylor, compared to their peers outside of sport, professional athletes are more likely to develop gambling problems. He added that this collaboration will allow them to help this self-prohibition programme to be easily integrated by the players who want to self-exclude. Gamstop CEO Fiona Palmer affirmed that the free organism welcomes the involvement of PPF to protect and educate the players who might be impacted by gambling problems.

About PPF

Recognized as a renowned national association for elite athletes, PPF was established in 1991. The organisation focuses on cross-sport problems that impact the members including career transition, match-fixing, anti-doping, and mental health. Currently, the Professional Players Federation has thirteen Player Associations in membership. The association has undertaken information, a range of resources, and education projects to help the members. 

With more than 17,500 professional sportswomen and sportsmen, promoting and protecting the common interest of these members is the responsibility of PPF. In fact, PPF comes with three main duties such as providing a forum for the players, representing the common views of these members to the media and government, and engaging in initiatives to promote the players.

Gamstop and its Duties towards Players and Operators

Since Gamstop was founded to help the gamblers prevent problem gambling, this programme is responsible for reducing gambling harms in the UK. Launched in 2016 and operated by a standalone owner – National Online Self-Exclusion Scheme (NOSES), this free service helps gamblers who want to limit their gambling activities. Actually, on this scheme, punters who want to ban themselves from gambling websites are just required to register and after the confirmation, they are able to exclude themselves. 

This self-prohibition period depends on the customers’ choice which can be 6 months, 1 year, or 5 years. They cannot, obviously, access to the platforms they have chosen until the period has expired. Moreover, with the initiative to encourage responsible gambling, this independent organism comes with an additional option to register for multi-operator self-prohibition. Apart from the self-exclusion solution, Gamstop has also the duty to sensitize all the operators who offer services in the UK to register at this scheme. 

From January 2020, all the licensed gambling companies are required by the UK Gambling Commission to participate in Gamstop’s programmes. Added to this new regulation, the operators have to encourage their customers to sign-up for this service. What’s more, other services are also provided by this organism including options to support gamblers affected by gambling as well as approaches to help consumers to control their gambling activities.