EPIC Pro Sport Advisory Board

A select panel of player protection and welfare experts from the sporting, esports, and gambling sectors have unveiled the collective steps that they believe need to be taken to reduce gambling-related harm and integrity issues in professional sports and esports, via the release of EPIC Risk Management’s new white paper at a high-profile Wembley Stadium summit.

The EPIC Risk Management Pro Sport Advisory Board (PSAB) is a collective drawn together from key sectors that can play a key role in taking action to prevent players, coaches, staff and match officials from gambling-related harm. Having first come together in October 2021, the results of their findings from 12 months of investigation and discussion into the subject were released on Wednesday 8th February at the Gambling Harm Prevention in Sport Summit, presented by EPIC Risk Management and UCFB’s Global Institute of Sport.

The various bodies put on the showcase event for around 100 top executives and welfare professionals from elite sport and esports, fusing a presentation on the findings from the ‘Gambling Harm Prevention in Sport Review’ white paper with lived experience stories and panel discussions from those who have previously been affected by gambling harm, either directly or as an ‘affected other’ – those who also suffer the consequences when gambling affects those close to them.

Drawn from institutions providing a global perspective, the members of the PSAB have used EPIC Risk Management’s inaugural white paper to put forward ten recommendations that all clubs, leagues, governing bodies and other membership-based groups from within the sports and esports sector can follow, ensuring that best practice is observed to advise players of the risks involved with various gambling activities and enshrined within the organisation’s ethos to ensure that betting integrity is observed by those who have the potential to influence outcomes.

The findings published via the white paper included a recommendation for safer gambling to be embedded into the culture of sports clubs, a call to ensure that safer gambling focus is at the heart of any new relationship between sporting institutions and gambling operators, and to urge gambling corporations and governing bodies to fund gaps in much-needed research into the effect of problem gambling on women’s elite level sport.

Please click here to read the full Gambling Harm Prevention in Sport Review white paper.

About The Pro Sport Advisory Board

EPIC Risk Management is proud to unveil its first-ever EPIC Pro Sport Advisory Board. The board includes a blend of people drawn from the sporting ecosystem that EPIC Risk Management believes can play a significant role in minimising gambling harm in elite sport.

The main purpose of the EPIC Pro Sport Advisory Board is to use the respective board member’s expertise across gambling, gaming, esports, integrity, athlete welfare and lived experience to guide the EPIC’s wider strategic goals and objectives in elite sport and esports.

In EPIC’s work in elite sports, we make athletes aware of the potentially destructive financial, health and performance implications that out-of-control gambling can cause. The work we do enables athletes to make better-informed decisions, reducing distraction and maximising performance whilst also evaluating their own, and their teammates relationship with gambling.

The board will aim to meet twice a year, and will not only provide a chance to formulate strategies to minimise gambling harm around the sporting sector, but also provide each board member with the chance to share best practise in this area and take it back to their respective organisations for the benefit of their members, who are predominantly elite professional athletes in various sports or esports.

“We are extremely proud to announce such a diverse and wide-ranging advisory board.

“All members are well-respected in their field of expertise, and we feel their knowledge and personal experiences will make a valuable contribution to this board.

“In turn, we’re delighted to provide members of the board the opportunity to guide our harm minimization programmes across elite sport which will ultimately protect athletes in their careers from gambling harm and promote and advocate the importance of gambling awareness and education across this area.”

Paul Buck, CEO, EPIC Risk Management