BGC Appoints New Communications Chief
The UK’s Betting and Gaming Council has welcomed David Willetts onboard as its new Director of Communications and Digital. Willetts will be leaving his current role as Press Secretary to Conservative minister Ben Wallace to take on the role in the new year. He will be taking over from Kevin Schofield, who is leaving to take on a position at HuffPost UK.
David Willetts has had an expansive career in journalism and the government. ©Pavel Danilyuk/Pexels
Journalistic Experience
The Betting and Gaming Council has announced the latest appointment to its team. David Willetts is set to join the industry body as its new Director of Communications and Digital in the new year. Willetts will be leaving his current government roles to join the BGC.
At the moment, Willett is Press Secretary to Conservative cabinet minister Ben Wallace and head of ministerial communications at the Ministry of Defense. As Secretary of State, Ben Wallace is responsible for the overseeing the Ministry of Defense’s actions and policy making. In his position as Wallace’s Press Secretary, Willetts has acted as the MoD’s communications chief.
Before joining the MoD, Willetts also had a successful journalistic career. He worked as a journalist for The Sun for more than a decade before taking on his government positions. His interest in defense has been a lifelong passion, on which he has built his expertise. After joining The Sun as Defense Correspondent in 2008, he had been promoted to Deputy Defense Editor by 2012 and Defense Editor in 2016.
Willetts will bring his experience from working in communications and the government to his new role at the BGC, where he will be supported by Deputy Director of Communications and Digital, Michael Denoual. Willetts has already expressed his excitement at starting his new job next year, saying:
“I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the Betting and Gaming Council and can’t wait to get started. They’ve already made big strides increasing standards across the industry and I’m looking forward to working with the excellent team to drive that work on.”
When Willetts joins the BGC in January, he will become head of the industry’s body’s communications team. That will mean overseeing the body’s journalistic output and online content. He will be working closely with deputy Michael Denoual. Denoual joined the BGC in March 2020 after working as a senior communications and policy advisor for an author’s rights group. He also spent more than five years working for several Labor MPs.
Kevin Schofield Departing
BGC boss Michael Dugher has welcomed Willetts to the organization, praising his career credentials. He described the former journalist and defense minister as a “formidable asset”, adding that he would be joining an exceptionally strong team. Dugher went on to state:
“The BGC is the standards body committed to driving big changes across the regulated betting and gaming industry. David Willetts is a brilliantly experienced and respected former journalist and communications professional with an outstanding reputation in the media and in government.”
Willetts will be taking over the role from Kevin Schofield, who has been in charge of the BGC’s Communications and Digital since May 2020. Before joining the BGC, Schofield worked as a political journalist in Scotland and England for over twenty-five years. He started out at local newspapers, and went on to work for publications such as The Scotsman, The Herald, the Daily Record and the Press Association.
Schofield also served as editor for PoliticsHome for five years and chief political correspondent of The Sun for five and a half years. As a journalist, he covered some of the UK’s biggest political stories including general elections, the Brexit referendum and the Scottish independence referendum for various publications.
Schofield has been with the BGC for much of its existence, joining just six months after it was launched. Announcing his departure on social media, he said that while he had thoroughly enjoyed his time with the industry body, he had been offered an opportunity that was too good to turn down.
Schofield will join HuffPost UK as its new political editor in the new year. Commenting on his departure, the BGC’s Michael Dugher described Schofield as one of the finest journalists of his generation and a privilege to work with. BGC Chair, Brigid Simmonds congratulated Schofield on his new role and thanked him for all that he has done for the BGC, saying:
“Kevin Schofield is a wonderful writer and great journalist. He is a real communicator and like all the very best knows everyone there is to know. He has taught me a great deal and leaves for a very exciting next step in his career. We all wish him well.”
Safer Gambling Week a Success
The Betting and Gaming Council is the industry body representing more than 90% of the UK’s high-street betting shops, casinos and online operators. Since November 2019, it has strived to raise industry standards and to make gambling safer and fairer for consumers. It works with the industry and represents its interests to ensure that it exceeds regulatory requirements.
Its members have signed up to a code of conduct consisting of five key commitments to improve standards. To reinforce these efforts, the BGC has produced a number of prominent campaigns and initiatives to promote safer gambling. Earlier this month, it hailed its Safer Gambling Week initiative a huge success, beating all previous campaign records.
Safer Gambling Week is an annual campaign, which this year ran from the 1st to the 7th of November. Data collected over the course of the week shows that it generated more than 25 million social media impressions on platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. That figure marks a 19% increase on the reach of the 2020 campaign.
On top of that, the number of impressions on Safer Gambling Week’s own social media feeds also saw a huge increase. Impressions increased from 800,000 in 2020 to 1.4 million this year, a boost of around 75%. This growth was thanks to all who took part in promoting Safer Gambling Week and helped to spread its message.
A number of famous sporting figures did their bit in supporting the week by filming videos and posting on social media. These included former England striker Michael Owen, horseracing icon AP McCoy, jockey Rachael Blackmore and heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua. Government ministers, such as gambling minister Chris Philp, also backed the campaign.
Safer Gambling Week strives to spark conversations about how people gamble and how they can stay in control. The campaign raises awareness of safer gambling tools, which people can use to limit their deposits and block themselves from gambling platforms. Gambling Commission figures indicate that rates of problem gambling are gradually falling, thanks in part to these measures.
