ALWAYS TESTING, ALWAYS LEARNING

We’re always working hard to make gambling safer. That means we’re involved in a range of projects to monitor trends, understand new behaviours, test new technology and improve our processes — because we believe everyone should get the support and protection they need, when they need it.

Here are just a few projects we’ve been involved in:

Fixed Deposit Limits

Deposit Limits help to stop customers from depositing more than they can afford. At the request of the customer, they can be increased with 24 hours’ notice.

A Fixed Deposit Limit is the absolute maximum customers can deposit. The amount can be set by us or the customer — and once it’s set, it’s not so easy to change. Customers can move their limits up and down within that total, but they can never go beyond their Fixed Deposit Limit.

If customers want to increase their Fixed Deposit Limit they need to get in touch with our Customer Service Team.

Gambling literacy

Do customers really understand betting terms? Do they understand the nuts and bolts of our offers, or how slots work?

Our research told us that not everyone does — particularly those who are young, new to gambling and who prefer gaming. So we decided to make gambling literacy a priority.

Gaming terms like RNG (Random Number Generator), RTP (Return To Player), volatility and house edge are not well understood, which is a problem because we want everyone to be informed before they make decisions with their money.

So, right now we’re developing initiatives and finding new ways to educate customers on the things that will help them make the right choices.

Definitions to increase understanding 22.03.21

‘RNG’

RNG stands for Random Number Generator, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. It chooses random numbers on request — i.e. when you spin the reels. It is completely independent — we have no clue what the RNG is going to choose, and we don’t give it any information on your last spin. The RNG machine throws out numbers and these are linked to results — in other words, what shows up on the reels you see on your slot game. 

‘RTP’ 

RTP stands for Return to Player — in short, it’s the amount, on average, that the slot will tend to pay out. So, on average, if a slots product has an RTP of 96%, it will pay out 96p for every £1 spent. BUT this is calculated over a long period of time with a lot of players, so over a short period of time you may not receive the RTP back yourself — you may receive more, you may receive less.

‘House Edge’

The odds are always in favour of the gaming company (something called the House Edge). Our Myth Busters campaign covered this, by debunking the common gambling myth “If I gamble longer, it’ll help me win more than I lose.” The outcome of each ‘event’ is completely independent of the one that came before it. So, over time – and the more cash you stake – the more you’re likely to lose.

Customer identification strategy

We have a number of processes in place that tell us when a customer’s behaviour suggests they could be at risk of suffering from gambling-related harm. We use these to get in touch with them, help them reflect on their gambling behaviour and think about applying our tools.

Our Data Science Team has built machine learning models that combine historical data and complex algorithms to constantly monitor and measure account activity.

This allows us to see when customers are behaving in ways that are similar to those who have self-excluded in the past, or who are potentially gambling beyond their means.

We also have Business Intelligence Analysts who can identify customers showing potentially harmful or extreme behaviours, such as playing for long periods of time, or spending more than they typically would.

Meanwhile, our Risk & Responsibility Team is able to review extreme behaviours in real-time and is in contact with customers who are potentially at risk every day.

Affordability

We don’t want our customers gambling more than they can afford — but because we’re not lenders or credit providers, we’re limited to what detail we can access.

So, as part of our Affordability Modelling programme, we’re searching for (and using) as much publicly-available information as we can to understand what our customers can — and can’t — reasonably afford, based on their disposable income.

This publicly-available information includes data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), figures from national surveys related to disposable income, and limited credit bureau information.

And when we bring this together alongside our existing monitoring activity, it helps us even more in identifying and reducing the risk of financial harm.

We’re currently using this data to trial email and onsite interactions, which are designed to encourage customers to set limits. We’re also using it to plan for future developments.

Measuring rates of Safer Gambling among our customers

In 2019 we began using the Positive Play Scale — a measurement scale developed by a team of Canadian researchers — to measure the extent to which our customers gamble in a positive way.

We assessed the survey responses across four key areas including personal responsibility, honesty and control, gambling literacy and pre-commitment.

Our findings suggest that our customers score highest in personal responsibility (taking ownership of their gambling behaviour) and lowest in gambling literacy (whether they understand the nature of gambling and likelihood of winning). So we’ve made literacy and education a central part of our safer gambling strategy — particularly for new-to-gambling customers.

New Customer Welcome Pack

During Safer Gambling Week in 2019, we held ‘power hour’ sessions across the business to get new thoughts and ideas on how we can make gambling safer.

Our Safer Gambling Governance Board picked a winning idea — a Safer Gambling-led Welcome Pack for all new sportsbook customers — which was then turned into reality.

The idea came from our Sky Bet Commercial Team, who led on the project. The pack includes information on all our Safer Gambling tools, a Fact v Fiction article that busts common gambling myths and simple explanations of the most misunderstood betting terminology.

Welcome emails are much more likely to be read than others, which made it the perfect place to inform new customers of their Safer Gambling options.

We’re now exploring how we can improve and replicate this work across our other products.

Take a look at our Welcome Pack

Responsible Gambling flags data model

Our Responsible Gambling flags data model monitors the daily activity of our customers and highlights accounts that display higher-risk behaviour.

Any higher-risk accounts are then reviewed manually by our real-time Risk & Responsibility Team, who decide if we should get in touch to check that everything’s okay.

Behavioural Insight Team trial

In July 2018 we worked with the Behavioural Insight Team, as part of a project commissioned by GambleAware to see how we can apply insights from behavioural science to Safer Gambling.

We ran a randomised controlled trial to test the impact that different emails may have on gambling behaviour and how our customers use our Safer Gambling tools.

Read more about the Behavioural Insight Team’s work

Onsite notifications

Onsite notifications allow us to send Safer Gambling messages directly to our customers when they spend time on our sites.

They went live for the first time on 6 March 2019. At first, we used them to support our higher-risk customers by encouraging them to use our Safer Gambling tools, but now we also use them to target different customer behaviours, or as part of bespoke Safer Gambling campaigns.

CRM Nurture Journeys

In October 2018 we redesigned our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) programme, targeting new players so that a Safer Gambling email became the first communication they received from us following their first deposit.

It’s an automated email that directs them to our Safer Gambling tools page. It also provides them with an overview of what else they can do, and use, in order to gamble safely with us.

Sky Vegas Reality Check trial

We wanted to understand what kind of impact pop-up messages would have on our customers – in particular their time on site.

During the experiment, selected customers received a pop-up message informing them how long they had been on site and prompted them to set a Reality Check.

To measure the impact, we set up a 50% control group to compare behavioural changes against.

Initial results were positive. However, only a small number of customers took part in the experiment so we’re lowering the time-on-site threshold to include more customers in the next trial. This will help us understand what length of time is appropriate before players receive their pop-up message.