The PFA, in partnership with the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling, delivered an online player education session on the dangers of gambling harm in elite sport environments this week.
The online webinar was delivered by EPIC Global Solutions presenter and former Welsh professional footballer Marc Williams.
Participants were educated on topics such as gambling-related harm, why athletes are at a higher risk of gambling addiction than the general public, and their personal relationship with gambling, integrity breaches and their link to problem gambling and the connection between gaming and problem gambling, and more.
“The PFA are proud to be partnering with the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling to deliver this important player education session on the dangers of gambling harm for elite athletes,” PFA’s Head of Player Development Rita Mankowska said.
“We believe that as a key stakeholder of the game we have a duty of care to educate and protect our players, while also increasing awareness of prevention and support strategies for athletes.
“This initiative also ensures we are taking a proactive response approach to an issue that we know can have devastating impact on the health and wellbeing our members.”
Manager, Strategy and Development at the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling, Tamara Dytor added: “Hearing from people with lived experience of gambling harm reduces stigma and helps people start a conversation. That’s why we are so glad to have the opportunity to work with Professional Footballers Australia and EPIC to deliver this session.
“Gambling harm can affect anyone, and we want people to recognise the signs and seek help if it is affecting them or someone they care about.”
To provide more detail on the dangers athletes face and the importance of gambling education, Williams conducted the following Q&A with pfa.net.au:
Q: Tell us a bit about the importance of gambling education for athletes
Williams: “EPIC Global Solutions work with people from sectors that are regularly classed as being at particularly high risk from potential gambling-related harms, and the groups this most typically applies to are athletes, those in education, or the gambling industry itself.
“There’s a particular focus around athletes and gambling for many reasons. For a start, sport and gambling are so heavily interconnected, with the athletes being the subjects of such a large percentage of betting that goes on around the world, and then depending on the advertising rules in each country, they’re often surrounded by marketing for gambling products in the stadia, on their kits, or around the broadcasts of their games.
“We know that it’s also a culturally accepted practice in many dressing rooms to bond over the forms of gambling that players are allowed to do; so for example, among soccer players, this may be horse racing or casino games, even if they can’t bet on their own sport.
“However, for a small percentage – but significant number – gambling can prove to be highly addictive and can lead to poor decision making that affects lives and careers, so we’re engaging as widely as possible to make audiences aware of the potential consequences if they find that gambling starts to cost them more time or money than they can afford.
Q: What does the program specifically entail and target?
Williams: “We’ll be delivering live online session to both male and female players from the A-League competitions. I present for around 45 minutes, explaining my back story to the audience, explaining our ‘gambling spectrum’ to help them understand the sliding scale from casual gambling through to disordered or addictive forms of gambling, and contextualise it with how it ties in with compliance and sports betting integrity. We also provide advice on how to recognise potential signs of gambling-related harm in others and where to turn if they realise that is potentially happening.
“At EPIC, our programmes are based around lived experience, with around half of our team being people who have previously suffered serious issues with problem gambling. We use the knowledge from these difficult times in our lives to create impactful ways of helping people to understand how and why addiction can take hold when you gamble.
“Context and relatability are hugely important in these sessions, so my background as a former professional footballer with Wrexham and Wales U21 and how different challenges in my life, especially injuries, helped to exacerbate my relationship with gambling is something that I hope will sound familiar to the players tuning in. Hopefully, it will help them to realise that the type of escapism I sought through betting isn’t likely to be the solution to their issue if they’re ever in the same position.”
Q: Who are some of the other organisations you have worked with in the past?
Williams: “We’ve worked with many leading football organisations around the world, including being seven years into an ongoing education programme with all 72 English Football League (EFL) clubs in England, alongside sessions that our team and I have delivered in the US to their players and clubs via an arrangement with the MLS Players Association. We’ve delivered talks from Champions League-standard teams right down to semi-professional or even amateur level.
“We’ve also got an extensive ongoing contract to educate student-athletes and staff across the whole of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) college sports network in the US, and have worked with the likes of the MLB, NFLPA PAF and also most of the leading names in British rugby union, cricket and horse racing. Previously in Australia, we’ve delivered digital awareness sessions for top cricketers in New South Wales too.”
Q: Why are athletes at such a high risk of the dangers of gambling?
Williams: “My story touches upon some of the reasons that are typically cited as part of the reason why elite athletes are statistically up to six times more likely to be at risk of gambling-related harm.
“I’ve already mentioned that I was affected by a serious injury early in my career, and this combination of isolation and free time created a vacuum that I increasingly filled with betting activity. There are many other factors we see, such as loss of form, escapism from the pressures of being in a high profile and high intensity environment, or a sense of having insider knowledge, rightly or wrongly, that can help them to succeed at sports wagering.
“There’s also a natural competitiveness that comes with being a sportsperson, and when you’re not playing, the euphoria of a big win when gambling is one of those few sources of endorphins that can match the euphoria of scoring or securing a big win on the field, so it’s a temptation to many athletes when they’re not competing, they’ve retired, or they’re sidelined through injury.
“Our mission is to try and take the harm out of gambling by explaining to players that taking that approach can often have consequences, as many of the other former professional athletes on our team can also testify. We don’t present an anti-gambling message, as we know that many athletes can gamble safely and legally without the risk of consequences, but we want to present the scenario in a way that is relatable, and will allow all the players to make their own informed decisions about their future relationship with gambling.”
