SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Tabcorp Holdings has published its FY22 sustainability report, covering its ESG activities during 2022, including a period before its demerger with The Lottery Corporation.
Back in May, Tabcorp completed a demerger of its lottery and keno business, which saw the development of The Lottery Corporation, as the group places a continued focus on gaming and sports betting products.
However, the measurements of the sustainability report include the whole year, including pre-demerger, with the company’s sustainability targets before and after the restructuring remaining a core focus throughout.
The firm noted that it had focused on responsible gambling to help its customers, introducing several measures including deposit and spending limits, card limits, self-exclusion and activity statement options for any players to manage their gambling activities.
Further, it has invested in technology, utilising player tracking software that can detect signs of gambling problems from over 1200 data points from customer activity.
“Where we identify customers that are “at risk”, we conduct a review of their activity,” the report noted.
“Depending on the result of the review, customers may be contacted to complete a Responsible Gambling (RG) check and learn more about our RG tools.
“Where a customer acknowledges having a gambling problem or we believe the customer is no longer able to hold an account responsibly, we may close the account temporarily or permanently.”
FY22 saw the group introduce a system to proactively detect potential self-excluded customers who are opening new accounts to stop harmful activity from occurring.
Moreover, it improved its early intervention model to better identify the early signs of problem gambling and offer support where required and as introduced RG training for all staff.
Aiming to be ‘a leader in gambling harm prevention and minimisation’, Tabcorp is targeting the implementation of data-driven tools to monitor and intervene at the first signs of harmful gambling across FY23 and FY24.
Tabcorp also aims to advocate for further regulations restricting betting adverts during prime-time viewing to protect young people from gambling marketing material, whilst it seeks to introduce a marketing strategy for responsible gambling awareness through all available channels.
From a financial perspective, Tabcorp seeks a year-over-year reduction in the % of the revenue earned from problem gambling.
Bruce Akhurst, Chairman of Tabcorp and Adam Rytenskild, MD and CEO of the group, noted: “Sustainability is at the heart of our business operations. We are Australia’s most trusted wagering company, and with this trust comes a responsibility to our customers, stakeholders and shareholders.
“Despite another challenging year with COVID-19 and navigating the complexities of the Demerger, we continued to make good progress towards our goal of being a leader in sustainability in our industry. We adopted a new Sustainability Framework that is now overseen by the Risk, Compliance and Sustainability Committee.
“We also became a participant of the UNGC Network Australia, expressing our public commitment to support the Ten Principles of the UNGC on human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption.”
