Relief efforts: how the egaming industry has stepped up in the fight against Covid-19

As coronavirus lockdown restrictions gradually ease across Europe, many people are hopeful of a time when life can return to as near as normal as possible. But with the World Health Organization’s Dr Mike Ryan warning that Covid-19 could potentially “become just another endemic virus in our communities” it might be something we have to learn to live with.

With that in mind, it’s more important than ever that medical professionals and vulnerable citizens around the world continue to be protected and supported. Considering that, the gambling sector has not failed to answer the global call in the fight against Covid-19 and continues to offer its support in this unprecedented time of crisis.

Playtech has not only been assisting local communities and medical staff in the countries where it operates but it has also been making its technology and software available to those who need it. The London-listed supplier is offering its skills, charitable budgets, assets and technology to support local communities, charity and not-for-profit organisations and licensees to help minimise the impact of Covid-19.

Mor Weizer, CEO, explains why Playtech decided to join the global relief efforts: “As much as this crisis demands strong business leadership, it is a human crisis that is touching every community across the globe. It therefore requires a human first approach.

“We developed an internal campaign called ‘Stronger Together’, which focused on protecting our people’s wellbeing and mental health as well as their physical health. Our people took the Stronger Together mantra and brought it to their local communities, utilising the company’s resources, experience and technology in order to help the local groups that need it most.”

At a global level, Playtech is providing the technology, online training and software from its in-house learning platform, Playtech Academy, to charity and non-profit organisations. These include those working on safer gambling research, education and mental health issues to allow them to deliver their content and services remotely during and beyond the crisis.

This came about through conversations with Playtech’s charity partners about what they needed during the crisis. “It allows some of the charity partners who had been providing training in a very traditional, analogue way to be able to record themselves, upload the presentations and then distribute that,” says James Newman, Playtech’s director of corporate affairs.

“For a charity, it can cost a lot of money to pay for that kind of professional software. We do quite a lot of stuff with mental health charities and they’ve been having to give lots of the support they normally give face-to-face, remotely and digitally now. As a lot of it is our own proprietary software as well, it’s easier for us to give it to those that need it,” he adds.

Elsewhere, in terms of tech support, Playtech developers are volunteering to build an eHealth Monitoring system for the Cyprus Health Department, creating a dedicated Covid-19 database for local health workers.

Providing access to educational software and services on a global basis, Playtech is donating licences for educational software it holds to teachers, education institutions and other not-for-profit organisations to enable remote learning for students. “The guys at our casino studios that are making games have lots of software that they license directly, and these have a lot of educational applications,” Newman explains.

One example is the GameMaker Studio 2 educational licence where Playtech has extended the licence for local schools, particularly in Scotland. The licence gives teachers access to functionality such as eight-hour lessons with presentation software, workbooks, tutorials, videos, help sheets and demos.

In Italy, its B2C brand, Snaitech, has developed a programme for employees to provide e-learning sessions to its charity partners including the Special Olympics, Fondazione Piatti and Fondazione Rava. Elsewhere in Estonia, Playtech has donated funds and hardware to provide computers to low-income families so that they can continue to ‘attend’ school remotely.

Support on the ground

Playtech is also helping to support frontline workers, healthcare institutions and vulnerable people in many different ways. Across a number of its markets, the supplier’s teams are making donations to help healthcare institutions secure much-needed medical equipment such as ventilators.

Weizer praises his staff for taking the initiative to help organisations that are close to their hearts. “As a leading company in the industry, we have a duty to provide the structure and opportunity to help our people to support their local communities – but I am very proud to say all the initiatives have come from the bottom up. The management team and I have been inspired by and remain very proud of our employees’ capacity to help each other and their local communities.”

Playtech’s global charity committee disperses funds in each location but it wanted to make sure the network was there to get help directly to local frontlines where it has offices and is part of the community, says Newman.

For example, in Italy, Snaitech, through its iziLove Foundation, has donated 2,500 medical masks to Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo. In Estonia, Playtech has donated computers and hardware to The Estonian Society of Family Doctors to allow them to continue to provide medical services remotely during the crisis.

Playtech has donated laptops in Estonia

In Cyprus, Playtech has been donating time and funds to Friendship Circle Charity Organisation for the support of families in need during the Covid-19 crisis by helping to prepare meals. The Cyprus office even received a personal letter from the Cypriot president thanking them for their efforts. Elsewhere, in the Isle of Man, the supplier has given food and Easter eggs to the island’s Noble’s Hospital to support frontline staff and brighten their holiday period.

In addition, its teams in Gibraltar have coordinated a volunteering group to provide support and food to residents who can’t get food or need additional care, while in the UK Playtech is working with the charity Hands on London to provide them with video conferencing technology to allow video calls with the isolated and elderly.

Over in Latvia, Playtech Live Latvia has teamed up with local charity organisation Ziedot.lv to provide local medical staff with nourishing free meals, delivered directly to the medical facilities. The warm meals are provided to physicians working in hospital admission departments, as well as in special testing tents in Riga, Ogre, Jelgava, Liepaja and Daugavpils. Currently, more than 17 restaurants are involved with this campaign, which not only helps hard-working medical staff, but also means local restaurants are getting crucial support during the difficult lockdown period.

In an update provided exclusively to EGR Intel, Playtech’s Latvia team said: “We continue to support the community during the pandemic with a €50,000 donation to two local hospitals – €25,000 to the Paula Stradiņa Klīniskā universitātes slimnīca and €25,000 to the Rīgas Austrumu klīniskā universitātes slimnīca.”

The donation is being used by the Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital to contribute towards the purchase of mobile ultrasonography equipment to help care for patients in intensive care. In addition to the monetary donations, 2,000 pairs of shoe covers have been donated to the Riga East University Hospital and one tonne of hand sanitiser to Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital.

Playtech Live Latvia has teamed up with local charity organisation Ziedot.lv to provide local medical staff with nourishing free meals

Printing press

Paf, based in the Åland Islands, has committed to providing a larger dividend of €40m from this year’s profit of €25.6m and earlier profits to the government of Åland for distribution for socially beneficial purposes and to alleviate the impact of coronavirus.

As many countries around the world battle against a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), Paf has been able to assist the Åland University of Applied Sciences by using 3D printers to produce protective visors. The operator has two 3D printers that it uses to manufacture spare parts for its physical slot machines on land and at sea. Both printers are now working at full capacity to produce visor parts every day.

“When we heard about this initiative at Paf, obviously we wanted to help out too,” explains Lasse Danielsson, head of operations at Paf Land and Ship. “We contacted the university’s coordinator for the project and since Easter our 3D printers have been manufacturing protective visor parts for the hospital’s health workers.”

Paf is cooperating with another local company, Optinova, which employs some former Paf staff, to produce the protective equipment. “Paf is one of the very few companies that has the suitable equipment to help with the process. In this case, the technically advanced 3D printers needed to make the basic part for the visors/face protection that the hospital requires,” explains Sverker Skogberg, senior vice-president of public affairs at Paf.

Over a one-month period, Paf has delivered more than 100 plastic shields. “We are actually doing this in our own workshop at the Paf head office and the plastic shields for the visor are then delivered to the hospital for final assembling,” adds Skogberg.

Another way in which Paf employees can help is by volunteering for local not-for-profit organisations. “Instead of having to lay off people or put them on temporary unpaid leave, we are trying to see if there are non-profit organisations that might need assistance and help in their work against coronavirus,” he says. This is a new initiative by Paf and those that volunteer will continue to be paid as normal.

Working together

As part of its CSR strategy and One Betsson company value, Betsson Group has committed to making a positive difference to society. The Malta-headquartered firm has been involved in many ways on its HQ home turf to help those affected by the global pandemic.

In Malta, through the iGaming European Network (iGEN), Betsson has donated 12,500 fully certified KN-95 medical face masks for healthcare workers on the island. As well as this donation, Betsson has also joined forces with 20 other igaming firms to drive the #WeAreiGaming crowdfunding initiative. In aid of the Malta Foodbank and Richmond Foundation, which supports people with mental health issues, the project supports those that have been most affected by the lockdown and isolation measures.

Some of the participating companies have donated money collectively while others have donated as individual employees. “It’s one of the ways where the gaming industry comes together. And it’s nice to see that, in the circumstances, we’re not just competitors but we’re working together to make a difference because we understand that together we are stronger,” says Roderick Spiteri Schillig, head of employer branding and external relations for Betsson Group.

Last month, Betsson sponsored the Malta Together festival, which featured local musicians, international personalities and local frontline heroes. The festival, aired on the national TV station in Malta and on Facebook, raised around €300,000 in donations, which was given to NGOs in Malta involved with Covid-19 initiatives.

“Betsson also made a separate donation to the Inspire Foundation, which echoes Betsson’s belief that everyone has a right to equality and inclusion. The mission of the Inspire Foundation is to help people with a disability achieve that. They do this by providing individuals and their families with educational, therapeutic and leisure services,” Betsson Group’s CEO project coordinator Maria Perentidou tells EGR Intel.

In addition to sponsoring the festival, Betsson provided its network infrastructure for the event to be streamed on Facebook. “They went there on the day to stream it live from our offices with our IT gurus to support them with anything they needed,” says Spiteri Schillig.

Using its own company apartment block in Malta, the operator has also been able to help local medical staff by offering accommodation free of charge to those that need to self-isolate from their families. The seven apartments are normally used by Betssonites visiting from other offices or for those repatriating to Malta, but are now instead being used by frontline healthcare professionals. “We got in touch with the health department and offered them the whole place. Beforehand, our maintenance team went there and checked every appliance, every light bulb and made sure it was cleaned properly,” explains Spiteri Schillig.

“We’re covering everything so that they have internet and the utilities covered as well as topping up the water dispensers,” he adds.

Betsson has also donated around 2,000 face shields for frontline workers in hospitals across Malta and Gozo. These face shields were produced locally and approved by the Infectious Disease Unit. “We’re happy to be able to contribute such personal protective equipment for our frontline workers during this time. A small thank you to all professionals working to keep us safe,” adds Spiteri Schillig.

Betsson has donated 2,000 face shields for frontline workers in hospitals across Malta and Gozo

Elsewhere, in its other locations, Betsson Group is funding five patient monitors for the Foundation for the Development of the Heim Pál Children’s Hospital in Budapest, Hungary.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, Betsson has teamed up with Panini Internazionale to donate lunches to healthcare workers at the Danderyds, Capio Saint Görans and New Karolinska Solna University hospitals.

Over in Estonia, Betssonites have donated groceries to the Estonia Food Bank to support families and individuals in need. “Our staff in Tallinn ran a campaign to raise money and awareness about a hospital in Saaremaa, which has a high number of coronavirus cases,” explains Perentidou. As it happens, one of Betsson’s own brand ambassadors, World Rally Champion Ott Tänak, is also from Saaremaa and has been helping spread the message of the campaign.

Betssonites have donated groceries to the Estonia Food Bank

Meanwhile, in Georgia, Betsson’s Europebet brand, together with the gaming association there, has raised GEL1m (around £250,000) for coronavirus efforts.

Providing a lifeline

Parimatch Foundation, created as a non-profit organisation by international operator Parimatch, has implemented at speed a support programme for local hospitals in Ukraine to help tackle the Covid-19 health crisis. At the beginning of the outbreak, Parimatch Foundation was assessing the best way it could support hospitals and frontline workers in the local community. This process was expedited when the team saw an announcement on a Facebook group which listed the equipment needs of hospitals in Ukraine. The team immediately contacted these hospitals to confirm with doctors what they needed and how much of it was required.

Beyond an urgent need for ventilators and PPE, including respirators, safety glasses, protective overalls, nitrile gloves and non-contact thermometers, there were also more specialist items of equipment required. For example, a children’s hospital needed a thermocycler – a piece of apparatus for testing for infectious diseases, including Covid-19. Their own device had broken down and the rented one had been taken for use elsewhere, leaving the hospital without the capability for conducting laboratory tests for viruses. Parimatch Foundation managed to source this piece of equipment and deliver it to the hospital.

The difficulties went beyond funding for medical equipment and supplies, there was support required in the search for equipment, the procurement process and the logistics of collecting and distributing equipment. Parimatch Foundation responded by offering its services to facilitate the end-to-end process of obtaining and delivering the equipment where it was most needed.

The Parimatch Foundation team contacted potential contractors, identified suitable equipment and negotiated with suppliers – which was a key challenge given the high demand and equally high prices for medical equipment. In the first week alone, Parimatch Foundation managed to collect complete PPE kits for several hospitals.

Where supply was insufficient, for example, to produce protective overalls, the team agreed an arrangement with the contractor who sews corporate clothing for Parimatch. The contractor began to make medical-grade protective suits and shoe covers in line with a model that had been developed by the doctors who needed them.

Logistically, Parimatch Foundation had to co-ordinate a group of volunteers alongside staff to transport the packages to hospitals and distributed these to doctors’ cars to maintain social distancing. In total, Parimatch Foundation has provided essential medical equipment to 13 hospitals in Kiev and other regions in Ukraine.

“At Parimatch, we believe that any organisation with philanthropic experience has a duty to support Covid-19 relief efforts in the communities in which they operate. In the short term, this means reallocating funds and prioritising resources to tackle the immediate public health emergency, and to support frontline workers. That’s why Parimatch, together with international charitable foundation Parimatch Foundation, allocated UAH10m (£297k) to support medical institutions in Ukraine, providing PPE and essential, lifesaving medical equipment to 13 hospitals,” explains Katerina Belorusskaya, chairwoman of Parimatch Foundation.

Parimatch Foundation chairwoman Katerina Belorusskaya and Kateryna Sakevych, project manager at Parimatch Foundation, deliver PPE to hospitals in Kyiv

Over in Cyprus, Parimatch Foundation has donated two interactive boards which help with optimising the 1420 Covid-19 call centre coordination and contribute to ambulances’ quick response. The Parimatch Foundation provided the interactive boards for the important need to digitise information and new protocols received by the call correspondents.

In addition to these efforts, Parimatch Foundation had to consider how it honours its commitment to non-pandemic related initiatives and its mission of promoting the health and wellbeing of the community through education and engaging children in sport, while providing equal opportunities for everyone. Typically, Parimatch Foundation outreach and events are offline, and there was a plan to host sport activities for children and parents at festivals over the summer.

With these festivals postponed, Parimatch Foundation has shifted its focus to online initiatives. For example, Parimatch Foundation hosted free, weekly online exercise videos on its Instagram account. The videos were led by a Ukrainian athlete, who recorded his exercise routine with his children. Subscribers who posted their exercise videos with their children at least three times could win a prize from Parimatch Foundation.

Local support

Elsewhere in the industry, InTouch Games owner Simon Wilson has donated £500,000 to his local NHS Trust as well as offering technical services. The funds will be used to support frontline staff at Russell’s Hall Hospital to purchase necessary PPE to aid staff caring for Covid-19 patients.

Wilson, who built InTouch Games with his wife from their hometown of Stourbridge, was keen to help his local health trust: “This current crisis is unprecedented; but it’s during these times that we really need to step in and support our National Health Service. The staff of Russell’s Hall have been there for my family for generations. It’s our chance to be there for them in any way we can during this difficult time,” he remarks.

Another operator that has been assisting with the charitable efforts is Gala Bingo, which hosted a 52-game charity event on 30 April to raise money for kindness charity 52 Lives. All proceeds were given to the charity along with a further donation of £52,000 by the bingo operator. The charity will use the money to send ‘happy bags’ and wellbeing packs to vulnerable children and the elderly during lockdown. Gala Bingo has also gifted its sponsorship of ITV’s The Chase to 52 Lives.

Meanwhile, The National Lottery has committed up to £600m in funding to help projects in the UK most impacted by coronavirus. In addition to this funding, Camelot has also made some private donations, such as £100,000 to the Watford and Three River Trust’s Community Fund based in its head office town.

The money will go to local charities on the frontline of the Covid-19 response to provide emergency food and medical supplies to isolated people, accommodation and support for rough sleepers, a lifeline for domestic abuse victims, as well as care for households suffering bereavement.

As certain nations start to resume some form of normality as they emerge from lockdown, it’s clear to see that the effect on people’s lives will continue to be felt long after the pandemic has passed. The altruistic acts of the online gambling sector will therefore be essential in helping people rebuild their lives and recover from the financial, physical and mental hardship endured during what has been a highly challenging time for all of us.