Kahlil Philander welcomed data and research specialists to the podcast to discuss how data is playing its part in industry-led research and how it can shape the betting sector.

Who is it?

Chris Percy, Data Science Contractor and Independent Researcher

Matthew Tom, Associate in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS)

What is being said?

Percy, who has collaborated on the responsible gambling analytics platform BetBuddy, said: “We found it quite easy to motivate engagement in an academic process, at least in terms of committing to and publishing results no matter what they are and attempting to publish them in a peer review process. Failing that, at least get a whitepaper out on the website. We’ve been able to do that with quite a high level of success for topics that are not well understood because they are, in some sense of the word, cutting-edge. Nobody quite knows the right answer for the analytics.”

He continued: “I’d like to express a lot of gratitude for what the academic side of this sort of joint journey is doing. Without people like Matt pushing for pre-registration and really explaining the importance of ‘we’re going to use the data no matter what it tells us’. Harvard is in a position where people are coming to you to ask to work with you but we need people to use that negotiating leverage to shift those industry norms.

“The bwin data set was seminally transformative to people trying to work with industry data and really opened up the field beyond a small group of people with relationships. It’s so important and we need a volume of this, particularly when we’re engaging with regulators to talk about the different types of insights you can draw from different sources. They’ve got surveys of consumers, insight from treatment providers and gambling behavioural data but they need a volume of this to get more familiar with its pros and cons, and what you can do with it.”

Why should I watch it?

To learn about the role that secondary data and academic research plays in the gambling industry and how it can benefit operators.

Where can I see more?

Source: Kahlil Philander YouTube Channel