Exclusive: Former Coral and Betfred exec launches Gibraltar-based RG start-up

Former Betfred product development lead Victoria Reed has quit the B2C sector to launch a safer gambling start-up consultancy called Better Change. Reed, who has also worked for Gala Coral as head of brand for bingo, formulated the idea for Better Change while studying at Harvard Business School in 2019. During the course, she discussed the devastating effects of gambling addiction with a group of social impact investors, one of which agreed to help finance a responsible gambling start-up. One year later, Reed resigned from her most recent role as head of marketing for GentingBet to focus 100% of her time and resources on Better Change. “I really want Better Change to be slightly different in the fact we’re absolutely not anti-gambling,” Reed told EGR. “We want to be more of a resource for the operators and want to help them to use things like technology, research and wellness schemes to provide a better safer gambling experience, rather than beating them around the head and saying they should definitely be doing more in this area.”

Reed has been interested in psychology and addiction since childhood. Her father carved out a career in mental health, and while her classmates spent holidays at summer camp, she would visit high security psychiatric hospitals like Broadmoor to help her father with his work. “I’ve always been on the operator side but I’ve been very close to compliance and it was always my passion,” said Reed. “I always had a really strong relationship with the compliance team because I wasn’t one of these heads of product that only cared about money, which is a rare thing because you are effectively tasked with bringing in as much money as possible.” Having worked in gambling since 2015, Reed became disillusioned with the lack of responsible gambling innovation in the industry and feels that many operators donate to RET-registered causes simply for keeping up appearances. Better Change is based in Gibraltar and is in the process of being added to the RET register. Reed said: “Most companies had to give money to RET-approved services but had no ownership or control over the process. “We want to add to this space. We don’t want to go into competition [with other RET businesses], even though naturally there will be some.” Reed will act as the face of the company and will look to organise business meetings with gambling operators on the Rock, while the start-up’s managed services will be handled by a Manchester-based company founded by one of the social impact investors she met at Harvard. Reed will be joined at Better Change by director of regulatory affairs Erica Young. Young spent more than 12 years at the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) before becoming head of compliance at Genting Casinos in 2019. Andrea Lewis-Coker, a chartered counselling psychologist with more than 18 years’ experience of working within counselling and psychology services, has also been onboarded as a clinical director.