On September 30, renowned global sports betting and gaming operator GVC Holding launched the GVC Foundation in a bid to bolster its efforts towards fostering corporate social responsibility (CSR). The new initiative is expected to expand the company’s global social responsibilities and one of the ways through which it will achieve this is by collaborating with regulatory bodies. The collaboration is set to assist in the implementation of research on addiction as well as outreach programs regarding problem gambling that will be aimed primarily at the youth.

The GVC foundation will be dealing with several vital aspects of the gambling industry which will include:

  • Responsible gambling, sports integrity, and gambling regulation research, education and treatment;
  • Grassroots, women’s and disability sport;
  • Men’s health, with a particular focus on mental health; and
  • Projects with links to the local community in GVC’s office locations.

Commenting on the development, Virginia McDowell, who is the chair of GVC’s CSR Committee said that the company is determined to take the lead when it comes to corporate social responsibility initiatives in the gambling industry.

“The range of the new initiatives that we are announcing today, and the quality of the partnerships that we have entered, is a great endorsement of our overall CSR strategy, and there is plenty more to come,” Martin Lycka, Director of Regulatory Affairs and a Trustee of The GVC Foundation, said.

The launch of the foundation is also proof that the company is definitely committed to the cause. In fact, as it turns out, the GVC Foundation is a consolidation of the company’s “hard work in this area over the last few years.”

Lots of Projects Planned Out

The GVC Foundation will be administering the company’s existing CSR projects which include the company’s £2 million community fund. Moreover, it will also takeover over GVC’s existing collaborative efforts with Gordon Moody, the US National Council on Problem Gambling, SportsAid, EPIC Risk Management, and the Division on Addiction of Cambridge Health Alliance which is a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital.

In addition to taking over the administration of existing CSR projects, the foundation will also be involved in four new projects. One of these new projects is a partnership with Inter Milan whose main aim is to promote participation in Italy’s women’s football. This project hopes to achieve its goals by developing a football-related talent show for aspiring female footballers, an effort that is also backed by a national media campaign via Gazzetta Dello Sport.

In the United States, the GVC foundation has already become a Bronze Donor to the Fund to Support Research on Sports Wagering. The organization was just recently launched by the US National Center for Responsible Gaming in order to competitively award researchers at top tier institutions with resources. The researchers in question will be tasked with finding out the potential impacts of the introduction of legalized, regulated sports betting in the country.