SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) has announced a deal with EPIC Global Solutions.
The organisation is looking to take a proactive approach to preventing gambling-related harm amongst the student athletes and staff within its member colleges and raise further awareness of the issue.
Mike Holinski, VP Partnerships at EPIC, commented: “There has been plenty of recent discussion around sports wagering involving student-athletes, so this is a timely collaboration.”
In detail, PAC has become the first NCAA Division III conference to agree a bespoke consultancy and education program with EPIC to inform and protect the competition’s key participants regarding sports wagering issues.
This will be through a programme focused on helping staff to identify the potential risks posed by the continued growth of all forms of gambling.
“We commend the PAC for taking additional steps to ensure that every individual within their competition is receiving additional information on the kind of threats they may face while competing in sports with significant public interest.”
Via an initial six-month consultancy period covering multiple subjects, EPIC will address all athletic directors and other key staff from all PAC member schools at its annual conference.
The London-based consultancy plans to use its consultants’ lived experience of problem gambling to advise how athletes are at a statistically increased risk of being exposed to various forms of gambling-related harm.
EPIC has emphasised that many of its presenters are former NCAA-standard athletes with experience of gambling addiction issues affecting their lives during or after their time as student-athletes, providing a ‘unique and relatable’ insight into how addiction can form.
Additionally, the pair will gather insights from PAC colleges to understand what additional support the institutions and their student-athletes need in order to address the issue, while EPIC will deliver a gambling readiness guide to provide context around legalised sports betting for all PAC members.
“Since sports betting became legal and so accessible online, the PAC and administrators in our conference have been searching for a way to educate our student-athletes and staff about the potential dangers of online gambling,” added PAC Commissioner, Joe Onderko.
“This partnership with EPIC Global Solutions will help provide our conference schools with the tools to help our athletes be better informed about possible issues that can be brought on by online gambling.”
