Bwin establishes The Transparency Project

Vienna-based Bwin stated that The Transparency Project would be the world’s first public data repository for privately funded datasets relating to addictive behaviors. It will share anonymous activity data from its over 40,000 users with scientists so that they can advance the available empirical evidence and knowledge base around addiction.

An initiative of the Division On Addictions of the Cambridge Health Alliance, which is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, The Transparency Project was introduced at an event in Brussels on Monday hosted by the European Gaming and Betting Association.

“We seek to improve this complex situation by increasing accessibility to privately funded data,” said Professor Howard Shaffer, Director for the Division On Addictions. “It is our hope that this increased access will provide the impetus for the development of public/private research partnerships and simultaneously advance what we know about addictive behaviour.”

Bwin stated that The Transparency Project aims to collect and archive high quality addiction-related privately funded data from around the world and provide a valuable resource for academic research across a broad range of scientific areas including psychology, economics, health policy and public health.

“Greater access to scientific information, in this case actual Internet gaming activity records, should accelerate our ability to understand problem gaming and also to implement the mechanisms necessary to detect it early,” said Manfred Bodner, Co-CEO for Bwin. “Our ultimate goal, of course, is to prevent it from occurring in the first place.”