Supporting communities - the Entain Foundation

“Investing in our people and local communities” is an important cornerstone of Entain’s new Sustainability Charter, unveiled in November 2020. We have a long history of recruiting, retaining and nurturing the best people in the industry, as well as a commitment to diversity, looking after our people, and creating the best place to work. We are also proud to be able to contribute to the wider communities in which we operate, and have recently strengthened the Entain Foundation, which was launched in September 2019 to coordinate and support our CSR initiatives, objectives and donations around the world.

As a clear statement of our commitment to the new Sustainability Charter, we announced plans to provide the foundation with £100 million of funding over five years. This will provide support for people and communities around the world where we operate, as well as investment in responsible gaming initiatives. The foundation’s work will initially be focused on four key workstreams:

• Responsible betting and gaming, sports integrity and betting and gaming regulation research, education and treatment;
• Grassroots, women’s and disability sport;
• Men’s health, with a particular focus on mental health; and
• Projects with a clear link to the local community in Entain’s major office locations

The Foundation has responsibility for Entain’s £2 million community fund as well as co-ordinating collaborations with SportsAid, EPIC Risk Management, Gordon Moody, the US National Council on Problem Gambling and the Division on Addiction of Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital.

Recently, the Entain Foundation announced a series of international commitments:

UK - Having launched Pitching In, our grassroots sport investment fund and partnered with the three Trident Leagues (The Isthmian, Northern Premier and Southern Leagues) which make up levels seven and eight of the English football league pyramid, we have extended the partnership, becoming the founding partner in the newly created Trident Community Foundation (TCF). The Fund is open to applications from all 228 clubs to enable them to run community-based projects. Both the overall partnership and TCF are providing vitally needed financial support at a time when football clubs and sporting organisations are facing the unprecedented challenge to their finances as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stuart Pearce video

US - The Entain Foundation is rolling out an extensive state-by-state programme with EPIC, a charitable organisation which works with former athletes and people who have overcome betting and gaming addiction to help educate people on how to play safely The programme with EPIC currently extends to 15 Pro Sports teams and over 20 colleges across the country, including Harvard University, University of Oregon, and the Mid-American Conference. We plan to work with EPIC to add additional professional sports leagues and colleges across the US during 2021.

Germany - The Entain Foundation will continue existing sports integrity projects in Germany, where we are seeking to raise awareness of sports integrity programmes in Germany and other German speaking countriesand receive early funds to initiate further activities around responsible betting and gaming.

Australia - The Foundation has announced initial new projects to advance responsible gaming with Relationships Australia, a community-based not for profit organisation which provides a range of counselling and support services to problem gamblers and their families. The new funding will be used to support a social media campaign to reach vulnerable audiences and to raise awareness of the signs of betting and gaming addiction