Corporate Social Responsibility

Overview
Since its formation in 1998 Sportingbet has always sought to exhibit the responsible and ethical practices of a market leader. In its start up period, the Company was conscious of consumer scepticism over the trustworthiness of internet bookmaking, with many operators being not only unknown and unseen but often domiciled abroad. As the Company grew its business, it increasingly confirmed its position as a straight-dealing and dependable leader in this new marketplace.

The Company’s culture was formalised in 2000 in a series of written statements entitled Customer Charter and Code of Conduct. Since then these statements have been available for viewing on the Sportingbet website and continue to illustrate the Company’s social responsibility to its customers, to its shareholders and to the governments of markets in which it operates.

Sportingbet’s market position is in the mass appeal, recreational and low staking sector. The Company’s objective is to provide a ‘protected entertainment environment’ in which its customer care programmes give responsible adults the confidence of knowing that their money is safe, whilst providing the Company with the confidence that all reasonable steps are being taken to protect the vulnerable.

Social Responsibility Committee
The Committee is chaired by Non-Executive Director, Brian Harris, and its other members are Sean O’Connor, Senior Independent Director; Dave Hobday, Group Chief Operating Officer; and the Company’s General Counsel, Daniel Talisman, who also acts as the Committee’s Secretary. The Committee intends to meet at least four times a year and in fact met nine times during the last financial year. The Director of Audit, Internal Control & Compliance, and the Group Head of Human Resources attend its meetings and the Group Chief Executive is appraised of the Committee’s work at least twice in the course of the year. The Committee attends at least two Audit Committee meetings in each financial year.

The Committee is responsible for reviewing the Company’s policies on corporate social responsibility and stimulating Group-wide best practice on matters including age verification, fraud, money laundering, responsible gaming and privacy.

Appropriate recommendations are made to the Company’s Board. Terms of Reference can be viewed on www.sportingbetplc.com and are available in writing on request.

Customers
As a service business, the core of Sportingbet’s policies on social responsibility lie in its approach to its customers. All operational directors and their brand managers are committed to winning and retaining the trust and loyalty of their users.

The guiding principle behind Sportingbet’s policies can be summarised as ‘Know Your Customer’. Procedures to achieve this mean far more than merely collecting documentary evidence of people’s identities. It is about understanding their individual requirements, appreciating concerns and closely researching their patterns of behaviour.

Knowing one’s customers and creating profiles of their activities and preferences leads to targeted and appropriate marketing strategies. This lies at the heart of the Company’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) policies.

The way different customers spend money and what they spend it on provides an overall understanding of their motivation. Happily, for almost all of the Company’s customers, online gambling is a valued entertainment, and Sportingbet’s products, promotions and culture make their relationship with the Company an enjoyable experience.

It is the remaining tiny minority, however, who may be potential fraudsters, underage gamblers or problem players that result in the need for comprehensive systems and procedures to protect the Company and, often, the customer. Of course, nothing can ever be entirely secure against determined offenders, but the Company commits much time and investment to finding organisational and software driven approaches to excluding the vulnerable and identifying fraud.

With the advent of multi-player environments such as poker, the Company is particularly vigilant about the risk of collusion or irregular fund movements between participants. Systems have been designed to highlight unusual or concerning patterns of play.

Employees
The Board of Sportingbet is of the firm belief that the Company’s continuing success is due to the quality and commitment of its global workforce. The Company’s employee management priorities, including its remuneration strategies, are based on recruiting and retaining the best people in the industry and on encouraging working practices that improve productivity, reduce costs, develop talent and give job satisfaction.

Further, the Board recognises the need for communication with employees at every level. Copies of the Annual Report and Accounts are available to all employees. The Company is committed to developing ongoing communication with all of its employees. This is achieved through a variety of channels to ensure that everyone is informed of the Group’s progress and recognises the key roles that they, as employees, play in Sportingbet’s success. Further, the Group is committed to a policy of equal opportunity in matters relating to employment, training and career development of employees and is opposed to any form of less favourable treatment afforded on the grounds of disability, sex, marital status, nationality, race or religion.

Trade and charitable organisations
The Company recognises the obligation upon the gaming industry to demonstrate its commitment to self-regulation. The Company is supportive of the role that the industry’s trade associations can play in this regard. Sportingbet is an active member of the Remote Gambling Association (RGA).

The Company has signed up to the RGA’s Codes on Social Responsibility and Age Verification, the provisions of which the Committee endorses.

Sportingbet invests considerable time and resources in meeting and influencing the officers and politicians of governments. These governments include those that have not yet regulated their online gambling industries. The Company’s management remains committed to playing its part in promoting the value of legislation that will lead to a regulated approach to the industry, not least as a mechanism for protecting the vulnerable elements of their societies from unscrupulous operators.

The Company also supports organisations that encourage greater education of the social impact of gambling and offers help to users who may be affected by gambling dependency. In the UK it works closely with GamCare and GamAid and supports its activities both financially and with advice.