Epic Risk Management to continue working with the University of Michigan
The gambling harm minimisation group will push ahead with its awareness program at the University of Michigan.
US.- The British gambling harm prevention consultancy, EPIC Risk Management, has announced the continuation of its gambling harm awareness program for colleges at the prestigious University of Michigan.
EPIC has worked with the NCAA to visit around 75 college campuses per year and educate thousands of student-athletes on the risks that can stem from newly legalised sports wagering and other forms of gambling across the US.
Speaking to around 170 student-athletes and staff members across five sessions in a two-day visit to the University of Michigan, EPIC’s head of delivery, Mark Potter, shared his lived experience of gambling harm during his time in professional sport.
The sessions are designed to help students – who are prohibited from participating in most sports wagering activities and from providing information to other individuals who wish to bet – become aware of the potential pitfalls of overlooking the regulations or choosing to gamble beyond their means post-college.
“I think it’s becoming more and more important and something that’s going to continue to be at the forefront of every administrator’s mind,” said Danielle Davison, assistant athletic director, NCAA rules and NIL education, at the University of Michigan.
“With the growing popularity of sports betting and the legalization across different states and the access to student-athletes these days, it’s definitely been a key component of our educational efforts.
“Ultimately, we want to protect the integrity of the sport. We can educate student-athletes on the reasons why we want to protect their integrity and also protect them as people, as we don’t want them to get into a problem gambling relationship.”
Potter added: “We’re delighted to come to Michigan to provide education for the student-athletes and make sure they’re equipped to deal with all of the risks that can come their way in the coming years.
“We cover how and why athletes are more likely statistically to suffer from gambling-related harm than the general population and the reasons behind that – competitive nature, sporting knowledge, injury, escapism, buzz replication… all of the reasons why athletes are statistically and evidentially more likely to suffer from harm.
“We also cover the impacts of sports betting integrity and the obvious links between the two, and the other knock-on impacts such as social media abuse and where to identify harm in colleagues and teammates, but also where to access support should they need that.”
Paul Buck, CEO of EPIC Risk Management, added his thanks to Entain Foundation US which had helped to fund visits to the University of Michigan and others: “We partner with Entain Foundation U.S., who have proactively provided funding to ensure that we can come face-to-face to colleges such as the University of Michigan as part of the 75 colleges that we visit throughout the country each year.
“Fundamentally, that funding is important. This kind of education is better face-to-face than it is digitally. For them to be able to provide that funding for our team creates a really ground-breaking program.”
