GVC Holdings has donated 42 football sponsorships to GambleAware as part of its responsibility drive.

Earlier this summer, GVC urged the gambling sector to end all football sponsorships, although the operator’s merits were called into question by some industry analysts.

Flutter Entertainment-owned brand Paddy Power also recently embarked upon a "Save Our Shirt" campaign.

However, while Paddy Power will continue to gain exposure from its "unsponsorships," GVC has instead donated a large number of club agreements to charity.

Patrick Kerr, Director of Safer Gambling at GVC Holdings, said: "Handing over this valuable inventory to GambleAware is a demonstration we are committed to helping our customers bet in a safe and responsible way.

"We look forward to continuing to promote the Bet Regret campaign in future to help increase awareness about safer gambling."

The organisation was this week fined £5.9m ($7.2m) by the Gambling Commission for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.

But CEO Kenny Alexander has emphasised the historic nature of these failures, which were the fault of Ladbrokes Coral before GVC acquired the businesses.

Elsewhere, GVC and four other operators have asked Lord Chadlington to chair an independent committee examining how to spread out their voluntary contributions to safe gambling measures.