Mark Potter – Epic Risk Management: “Important to recognise responsible gambling from the outset”

As the United States sports betting industry continues to develop and grow, along with regulation, responsible gambling is paramount to ensure customers understand the pitfalls that can come with problem gambling. 

Mark Potter, Head of Delivery at EPIC Risk Management Group, is at the forefront of ensuring that training and education is implemented within the gambling industry, working with UK betting operators and major sports clubs. 

EPIC now are looking to expand on their work in the US and used last years SBC Summit North America as a platform to share their training and education model to potential US clients. 

“They’ve (EPIC) fed some of the conversations and highlighted the importance of player protection, customer protection and also corporate social responsibility. It’s nice to see some of those themes being discussed on a bigger and wider level,” stated Potter. 

With the US gambling market still in its relative infancy, there are higher risks for players in what is a new concept to many Americans. 

Potter added: “The legalisation of sports wagering across many states in the US has brought about obviously a lot of dollars, but also with those dollars comes a lot of risk.

“It’s important to recognise responsible gambling from the outset and hopefully build a sustainable market where people are not having to suffer from harm before catches up.”

Potter also gave some insight into what EPIC are planning on delivering in the US in 2022, with a concentrated approach to educating college students in multiple NCAA schools. 

“We’re going to build upon our NCAA and sport program, which has been a huge success over the past couple of years,” commented Potter. 

“That’s just been expanded for another three years so our hope is to deliver education awareness sessions to over 100 NCAA colleges. We’re going to build on our relationships with the sports leagues and also work with betting operators to proactively train the customer facing staff.”