1xCare chair Simon Westbury sits down with SBC News to set out the organisation’s modus operandi, analyse the state of play in responsible gambling and explain how industry collaboration and discourse can contribute to an environment more focused on player protection. 

Industry conferences are often an opportune moment for companies to unveil new product launches, new executives or new long-term strategies. But at iGB Live, 1xCare managed to deliver all three. 

The responsible gambling and player protection organisation affiliated with global operator 1xBet announced itself to the world ahead of iGB Live, bringing forward its manifesto to contribute towards research, education, technology and well-being support for the global industry. 

As he sat down with SBC News, chair Simon Westbury acknowledged that 1xCare has been planned for a long time and that after more than a year of development and preparation, the time has come to deliver. 

“1xBet committed to an evolution when I joined them, around partnerships, around products, around empowering our people, and the regulatory environment with over 35 licenses,” he said. “1xCare came organically, so obviously we didn’t rush it.”

What is 1xCare and what will it do?

1xCare is a dedicated non-profit initiative established to advance player protection and responsible gambling through structured, evidence-based programmes and has four core pillars to help shape the discourse around player protection: research, education, technology and well-being. Each strand contributes uniquely to player protection and 1xCare states that they are all interconnected; they all help to reinforce the ecosystem. 

The ultimate goal is to ensure that the iGaming sector can continue to grow with pace and at scale, but do so while placing player protection at the heart of that growth. The idea is that if players are protected within the ecosystem, they are more profitable in the long run. In turn, the sector becomes far more sustainable.

“Long-term sustainability needs to be the focus of the industry,” Westbury asserted. “Because if, as an operator, 1xBet itself builds trust in the brand through player protection and safer gambling initiatives and we provide a safe, fun environment for players to enjoy, they’re gonna be with us for longer. That’s a beneficial relationship for both parties. I wonder how that transpires into the real everyday world.”

1xCare is coming to the market with a clear mission and Westbury is adamant that it doesn’t just want to make lots of noise. It wants to be known for delivering and making an impact on all four strands of its modus operandi. 

It will collaborate with external bodies and partners to help deliver research projects, education initiatives, technological solutions and wellbeing. Part of that will be handing out scholarships for independent research into gambling harm.

Westbury explained: “We’re looking to work with outside organisations that are involved in, for example, data integrity to make sure that things are done properly. I’m very interested in the research piece and giving scholarships to those researching this topic, but in a more balanced manner. 

“On the wellbeing aspect, there are people that are affected by gambling and we’ll be looking to involve ourselves there. We also want to look at how technology can be developed and applied within the operator side or the ecosystem to ensure that it’s done in a safe, unintrusive manner.”

Crucial to all those partnerships and delivery channels is that the approach is balanced. 

“We just don’t want to start off with ‘gambling is bad’, but also we’re not going to start off with ‘gambling is brilliant’. We’re trying to keep the research within the confines of not being overly positive or overly negative.”

What expertise does 1xCare have?

Westbury sits as the Chair of 1xCare but he is far from the only driving force behind the project. 

Quirino Mancini has joined 1xCare as an Advisory Committee member and brings regulatory and legal expertise to the organisation, having had more than 20 years of experience advising operators in both the Italian market and the wider sector. 

Mancini sits on the ExCo of the International Master of Gaming Law and is formerly the body’s president and is a co-founder of SBC Advisory Partners. 

Meanwhile, Chris Bird has also joined 1xCare ‘s Advisory Committee. Bird formerly served as Chief Operating Officer of Manchester City FC and has held CEO positions at Sports Tours International and The Raheem Sterling Foundation. Sissel Weitzhändler is the fourth member of the Advisory Committee leading gambling regulation and public policy across all four pillars.

“That really shows how we want to start engaging with regulators and actually moving this conversation around player protection and safer gambling forward,” Westbury noted. 

Additionally, 1xBet has partnered with SBC Insights over the last 12 months to produce the International Player Safety Index series of research reports. Four editions of the series have been released, covering player protection strategies in Western Europe, Africa and Latin America as well as global player education efforts. 

Westbury outlined that the IPSI series has taught the industry plenty about where the gaps are across the player protection strand of the industry, from its relationship with regulators to its dialogue with players.

“The key learning from the last report was about creating a sustainable, long-term environment for players, and that’s focused around player protection. You don’t want to make player protection clinical. You want it to be unintrusive, soft, but effective. 

“When we looked at Western Europe, it was clear that operators were wanting more clarity, consistency, and communication because there seemed to be a lot of confusion. In Africa, the main takeaway was we really need to educate the player that gambling is not for income generation, it’s a leisure activity. In Latin America, we saw quite effective regulation in some of the newer markets, but there was a possibility of regression.”

It is no secret that gambling is an easy target for governments looking to raise taxes or to hit with increased regulation for a quick political win, but Westbury asserted that the industry has to take some blame and needs to better engage with stakeholders.

“Ultimately, as an industry, we’ve lost the discussion with society right now, where gambling is intrinsically viewed as bad. (That won’t change) until we engage with society as a whole in a more effective manner.”

What will 1xCare aim to achieve?

The project has been a long time in the making, Westbury explained, with months and months of preparation leading up to the moment when the body went live with its presence. 

But Westbury said that “the hard work starts now”, adding that his personal mission is to put his head above the parapet and focus on delivery. 

“I’ve put my name to it as a director, and there’s no hiding from it now. We’ve announced it and we’re going to do it. 

“The player protection area is always in the corner (at conferences) and no one’s really focused on it. As an industry, we really need to adopt player protection and safer gambling tools from conception to delivery.”

Asked about the organisation’s goals over the first 18 months of its existence, Westbury said he hopes to contribute to industry discourse without overtly preaching and virtue signalling. Yet he hopes to see tangible results towards reaching its ultimate goal. 

“We’d want the first findings of research. Of course, any university scholarship will take time, but at the end of the day, I put my personal name above the parapet here. It’s now time to deliver.

One of our ambitions is to work with partners on sports integrity and education initiatives, while also identifying opportunities for broader projects that align with the 1xCare mission. We’ve got a blank piece of paper right now, but we have an ability, because of who 1xBet is and how we’ve been set up, to leverage some of those relationships hopefully to the benefit of player protection and safer gambling.”