Sports technology and entertainment firm DraftKings has announced the appointment of Christine Thurmond as director of responsible gaming.
Reporting to chief compliance officer, Tim Dent, in her new role Thurmond will lead the expansion of DraftKings’ responsible gaming framework for its iGaming, Sportsbook, and Fantasy Sports products.
Having previously spent nearly 20 years working at Harvard Medical School, where she served in various leadership positions including on the original team that created the Division on Addiction, Thurmond now joins DraftKings from her most recent role as a senior business contributor at the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling.
Discussing Thurmond’s appointment, Dent stated: “Our goal in hiring a Director of Responsible Gaming was to find an established expert with a deep knowledge of the issues and a track record of pushing our industry forward and that’s Chrissy.
“We are committed to being a leader in responsible gaming and, given our foundation as a tech company, we think Chrissy can help DraftKings take an innovative approach to this critical issue.”
As part of its Responsible Gaming commitment, DraftKings is set to provide customers with responsible gaming tools, resources and services they need to play responsibly.
These practices include deposit limits, voluntary restrictions on access and use of certain offerings, temporary self-exclusion and cooling-off periods, voluntary permanent exclusion from offerings and applications and data science technology, which is able to flag any suspicious or abnormal betting activity.
As well as this DraftKings also participates in national self-exclusion and prominently promotes responsible gaming tools, resources and initiatives on its website and mobile applications.
Thurmond’s appointment follows on from the recent announcement that saw DraftKings announce a platinum partnership with the National Council on Problem Gambling that aims to further the development and implementation of responsible gambling practices in legalised sports gambling as it expands across the country.
At the time, Dent concluded: “We are proud to partner with a leading responsible gaming organisation like the NCPG to ensure our internal efforts are informed by independent experts. DraftKings is committed to being a leader in responsible gaming efforts as we continue to expand our product into new states and more Americans have access to legal, mobile sports betting and igaming.”
