Together, they will reach out to sports industry leaders worldwide as they seek to understand “current challenges, opportunities and threats.” From this, Epic and GIS will create research designed to help minimise gambling-related harm.

To formalise their relationship, Epic has been named an official industry partner of GIS, while GIS has been named Epic’s official education partner.

“Problem gambling can affect any individual from any walk of life, but several academic studies have reached the same finding that athletes are up to four times more likely to suffer its consequences,” explained John Millington, Senior Director at Epic Risk Management.

He added: “The Global Institute of Sport are the perfect partner to help undertake research and mine data on this topic and have joined forces with us to ensure that the right people can contribute to it, and act upon it.”

GIS was founded by University Campus of Football Business (UCFB), which in turn, is a college of the University of East London (UEL).

Sharona Friedman, GIS President, commented: “Gambling and addiction are unfortunately problems which can affect anyone, and we believe that by joining forces with Epic we can help educate and prevent those working and competing in sport from falling victims to these pitfalls.

“At UCFB and GIS, we aspire to both learn from and support the industry to make informed decisions on how to address any challenges that present themselves.”