BoyleSports Prioritises Human Interaction in Safer Gambling Strategy

BoyleSports is placing a greater emphasis on the human element within its safer gambling framework, a strategy designed to complement its technological monitoring with direct customer interaction. Hayley Smith, the firm's Group Compliance and Risk Director, detailed the operator's focus on fostering genuine connections with customers as a key method for identifying and addressing potential problem gambling.

As part of this commitment, the company has invested in its team to provide support to customers via telephone, adding a direct vocal channel to its existing online support. This is a component of a comprehensive structure of safeguards, guidance, and support mechanisms available for customers to manage their gambling.

Omnichannel Monitoring

An omnichannel strategy is central to the company's approach. BoyleSports' technology is configured to identify and flag significant changes in customer behaviour across both its digital platforms and its extensive retail estate. This data is then combined with qualitative insights gathered by staff during regular face-to-face contact in its betting shops. The company, which recently opened its 400th retail location, uses a single customer view to provide its teams with a unified perspective on player activity, whether online or in-person.

Investment in People

The most important investment we have made has been the significant growth of our Responsible Gambling team.

To empower this human-led approach, BoyleSports has deployed a new platform that provides its safer gambling specialists with a single, centralised view of each customer. This technological upgrade, which supports the expanded team, follows a reported £100m investment into the business last year. The operator also provides customers with a suite of self-management tools, including options for spend limits, reality checks, temporary time-outs, and full self-exclusion.

Industry Context

The operator's focus on harm prevention comes amid a complex national picture. While the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) for 2025 recorded a year-on-year dip in the problem gambling rate to 2.4%, separate data from NHS England published earlier this year provided a different perspective. The NHS study estimated that 5% of adults in England exhibit behaviours classified as at-risk or problem gambling.

The same NHS England figures classify under 1% of adults as problem gamblers, a rate which still represents a significant cohort of more than 500,000 people. The entire industry is also preparing for the Gambling Commission's planned implementation of Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs). BoyleSports' strategy reflects a wider industry trend of forming specialist partnerships, with Flutter Entertainment working with EPIC Global Solutions and Entain collaborating with Better Change on responsible gambling initiatives.