More than 100 senior executives and shareholders attended a partnership event at Wembley between GIS and EPIC Risk Management, focusing on Player Care and preventing gambling harm.
The summit saw guests presented with EPIC’s new white paper, Gambling Harm Prevention in Sport Review.
Wembley is to welcome GIS’ new course, MSc Player Care in Football, this September, with many at the summit discussing the benefits the course can bring.
Guests included former Premier League manager Brian McDermott, and Mark Walter, player care manager at Arsenal.
Paul Buck, CEO and founder of EPIC Risk Management, said: “We want people to realise that the stigma around gambling has to be a thing of the past. We want it to be a thing people can talk about openly.
“When we say that, we mean players, but we also mean people around governing bodies and player care associations.
“We’re very proud of the partnership with GIS. They’ve been a fantastic partner in terms of research and now going forward, offering courses on player care and genuine qualifications about player care is so important as we revolutionise that understanding.”
Mark Walter added to this, saying: “There’s many aspects of player care. There are different processes we have to go through every day, no two days are the same.
“As much education as you can learn to support your job to make sure any eventuality which comes to you on a day-to-day basis is something you’ve got full experience of can support you.”
Dr Richard Elliot, head of professional education at GIS, said: “It’s been fantastic to see so many people here.
“Gambling is the focus, but there is the bigger issue of player care and understanding how important player welfare and wellbeing is.
“We’ve got our new Player Care MSc starting here in September, and it’s been great to have some conversations with people about those courses and the way they could support the way they work in their industry.”
To read more about GIS’ courses on offer, click here.
