Tech firm signs contract extension with gambling self-exclusion scheme

Leeds-based data services firm, The Data Shed, has announced an 18-month extension to its existing contract with GAMSTOP, the national scheme that allows people to exclude themselves from online gambling sites.

By registering free with GAMSTOP, consumers can choose to restrict themselves from all UK-licensed online gambling sites for a minimum period of either six months, a year or five years.

First appointed in June 2018 as GAMSTOP’s key technology partner to support and enhance the scheme, The Data Shed has enabled the service to cope with sporting peaks such as Boxing Day and the Grand National when the platform handled over 20,000 hits per second.

The scheme helps consumers add themselves to a central exclusion list and prevents them from gambling online. This means that every time a customer attempts to log in or register with a British licensed gambling operator, the operator must check the exclusion list to ensure the customer has not self-excluded. This involves supplying real-time matching of consumer records to every British licensed operator.

In March this year, it became a requirement for all British online operators to be integrated with GAMSTOP as a condition of their Gambling Commission licence. This means that for the first time, the entire British online-gambling market will be covered by GAMSTOP, with the result that any individual who registers with the scheme will be able to self-exclude themselves from all online gambling sites registered in Great Britain.

The enhanced system that The Data Shed built has enabled GAMSTOP to offer the same high levels of service across the whole online gambling sector.

Anna Sutton, CEO and co-founder of The Data Shed, said: “We’re really pleased about our contract extension with GAMSTOP. We’re extremely proud of the work we’ve done to date to help get the service accepted into licence conditions for the whole industry. We’ve proven that our service is secure and flexible enough to allow operators to verify every registration and login against the exclusion register, without impacting the performance of operator services.”