UK’s Safer Gambling Week: New Records and Overall Success in 2023

Great Britain’s BGC unveiled that Safer Gambling Week (SGW) 2023 has evoked 50+ million impressions on popular platforms, such as Instagram, X (Twitter), and Facebook. This figure signifies a 70% uplift from about 30 million that was reached during last year’s event.

Let us dive deeper into the topic and explore other significant information about the social campaign.

Importance and Progression of the Initiative

SGW is dedicated to encouraging all the gambling sphere’s participants to pay more attention to responsible gaming and its core practices. An essential shout-out of the week addressed stakeholders and staff, players and their families, etc.

Other key tasks of the event are preventing harm that can be caused by gambling activities while popularising safe and sensible play. This concerns both amusement verticals — digital and physical. Every year, the campaign evokes a vital national discussion to inform everyone involved in the industry about the consequences of irresponsible gaming.

At the same time, SGW is not just a theoretical initiative. It also provides its participants with practical instruments that can help players, regulators and operators be in control of the corresponding betting activities.

The event has 3 main organisers:

• BGC;
• Bacta;
• Bingo Association.

One of the biggest achievements of this year’s campaign is about 500,000 visits to its official portal. The site offers help for people who may struggle with nascent addiction and advice on applying safer gaming instruments, for instance, deposit limitations and timeouts.

SGW’s X (Twitter) account also became part of the initiative's active promotion. There were a lot of posts reminding subscribers about responsible practices, tools, principles, etc. The page visitors could also see the National Gambling Helpline’s official number more often.

BGC’s Chief Executive considers the event to be a firmly established yearly occasion. In Michael Dugher’s opinion, non-commercial organisations, such as Gordon Moody or GamCare, play a vital role in supporting the initiative and ensuring healthy play.

The representative is confident that recently achieved records in social network impressions and portal visits testify to the industry’s development in the right direction. He is proud to see how efficient and helpful the initiative is to millions of people out there. Yet, Mr Dugher highlights the importance of resorting to responsible principles all year round and not only for 1 week out of 365 days.

Widespread Support of the Campaign

The 2023 edition had more backing up than ever from industry representatives and beyond. For instance, 30+ UK cross-faction MPs expressed their approval and acknowledgement of the event.

The following parties demonstrated the biggest support:

• politicians;
• regulatory bodies;
• sports corporations.

Many national ministers, betting companies’ CEOs, as well as PL and EFL clubs’ representatives spoke publicly about SGW and the significance of its ideas.

These are a few examples of organisations that expressed strong support:

1. Blackpool FC. The team had the social campaign’s logotype on their shirts during a League One match, played against Shrewsbury Town.
2. Betfred. The bookmaker rolled out its fresh program, titled How Do You Keep It Fun? The initiative included 4 ads, showing the company’s clients and their methods of ensuring responsible gaming experiences.
3. Southampton FC. The club declared the start of the 2nd-year cooperation with Better Change, a safer entertainment organisation. The sports institution’s CCO considers the promotion of sensible gambling a vital task of the FC. Charlie Boss thinks this is a reliable way to protect followers and is grateful to his associates for help in building a better future for the fans and the sphere overall.
4. Better Change. The company’s founder noted that their main advantage is the knowledge of when and how to interact with clients who need aid. In Victoria Reed’s opinion, it is vital to direct people towards responsible wagering pages. The operators of such portals have the right instruments and their client support teams know how to respectfully communicate with the visitors.
5. The Health Lottery. The corporation has been providing campaign-dedicated messaging directly to punters and via media channels throughout the whole event. Lebby Eyres, the organisation’s CEO, mentioned that their constant goal is to align with the standards of responsible gaming. Her team was glad to join the important initiative. She also called the social campaign a great opportunity to remind players about the need to regularly check out the time and money spent on entertainment portals.

Great Britain’s Results of Preventing Gambling Harm

Carrying out events such as SGW, as well as accompanying measures, have a positive impact not only during their implementation but also in the long term.

For instance, the BGC claims that about 22.5 million British adults place bets monthly, yet the problem gaming levels remain low and steady at just 0.4%. Also, the UKGC reported a decline in the amount of local youth exposed to wagering advertisements. Fewer teenagers in the age gap of 11–17 have encountered promo materials dedicated to gambling in the last year.

Here are some figures:

• 53% of the audience have seen internet ads (63% in 2022);
• 55% of them have run against offline marketing content (66%).

Meanwhile, BetMGM UK reported that 51% of local players view funds in their gaming and bank accounts separately. The survey involved 1,000 Britons who had been enjoying gambling throughout the previous year. Additionally, the analysts found that a whopping 92% of residents aged 18–24 applied different limitations on their play.

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