GamStop & The Data Shed Partnership

People may like to gamble, but a few others would like to exclude themselves from online gambling websites. The Data services firm called The Data Shed has recently won a major contract with a platform called Gamstop that allows people to exclude themselves from specific online gambling sites. This partnership has now led to an additional ten jobs being created at their office in Leeds.

The online gambling space has been in existence for roughly two decades, and up until the early parts of 2018, anyone who wished to exclude themselves from online gambling had to contact individual operators to do so. The gambling regulator was able to recognize how inconveniencing, unhelpful, and undesirable this process can be for customers, and so the industry had to come together to reason out a way to effectively manage all exclusions from a single point. Hence, the birth of Gamstop.

How Gamstop Works?

Before you find out more about the partnership, here's a little about how Gamstop works. Gamstop allows you to put control measures in place for restricting your online gambling activities. Once you Sign up for the service, you will not be allowed to use gambling websites and applications run by companies that are licensed in Great Britain, for as long as you choose. But some gamblers were able to find new casinos not using Gamstop and continue playing at gambling sites. The Gamstop platform is a completely free service for users and is only available to consumers within the United Kingdom. After you sign up, you will be sent a single email that summarizes all of your gambling exclusion details. It may take as long as 24 hours for your self-exclusion to take effect.

After this waiting period, you will be automatically excluded from gambling with any online gambling companies that are licensed in the UK. You will be excluded from gambling for a period of 6 months, 1 year or even 5 years (depending on the selected option).

About GamStop & The Data Shed Partnership

The Data Shed was recently appointed as the key technology partner of Gamstop to offer support and also enhance the scheme subsequent to its April 2018 Beta launch. This scheme is designed to help consumers include themselves to a central exclusion list and also makes it impossible for them to gambling online.

What this means, in reality, is that each time a person randomly registers or logs in to a British licensed gambling operator, such an operator will have to check the exclusion list to make sure that the customer is not part of the self-exclusion list. This requires a real-time supply of matching consumer records to every licensed operator in the UK. The challenge here is to disallow registered Gamstop members from engaging in online gambling activities without impacting on the service to other people.

Soon, all British licensed online gambling operators will be required to follow new rules such as taking part in the Gamstop scheme, once it is made a condition for a license in early 2019. According to Ed Thewlis from The Data Shed, The key challenge they faced was to assemble a platform that is secure, flexible and scalable to allow operators to easily verify every login and registration against the exclusion register, without influencing the performance of operator services. This process is especially vital on peak days such as The Grand National and Boxing Day.

Ed added that Data Shed is really proud to be a part of a worthwhile scheme such as this and also proud of the platform that they have built to support The scheme. Data shed had recently carried out a load test, and it was able to manage 20,000 hits per second, leading to a conclusion that It's a cost-effective and ultra-secure environment.

However, Thewlis stated that the company's next challenge would be to use it's matching algorithm expertise to further improve the service to consumers.

Fiona Palmer, who is the CEO of Gamstop, also commented saying that the majority of online gamblers engage in gambling activities for fun and within their own limits. However, Gamstop recognizes that there is a boatload of people who need all the help they can get to gamble responsibly or stop their gambling activities; thus Gamstop was created to provide a way of helping such people via self-exclusion.

The CEO added that the company was looking to enhance the service offered to the consumer and having come in contact with the team at The Data Shed, Gamstop was impressed by both their experience and expert knowledge of data.

Fiona further stated that Gamstop's work with The Data Shed would provide all self-excluded gamblers with the confidence that their enhanced system will be secure and able to provide the service that they require.

Tom Riordan, the CEO at Leeds City Council, expressed his excitement to witness the growth of a new tech company in Leeds, thus creating more high-value jobs in the city. He pointed out that Leeds is home to several successful tech firms, and it is only right that they are using such expertise to work on this kind of social responsibility projects.