DraftKings Wednesday announced a partnership with responsible gaming consulting and research practice Gamres. Through the Ontario, Canada-based company, DraftKings will introduce the Positive Play Scale, a tool designed to encourage safe play, to select U.S. DraftKings customers.
The Positive Play Scale will be incorporated into DraftKings’ responsible gaming program.
“We’re grateful for this opportunity to team up with Gamres, which is renowned for its strategic consulting and research around the world, to bring the Positive Play Scale tool to DraftKings,” said DraftKings Senior Director of Responsible Gaming Chrissy Thurmond in a statement. “We believe that DraftKings’ responsible gaming program, which strives to be the industry gold standard, will be significantly enhanced with the addition of this scientific tool and will yield rich and actionable insights helping us to us better understand and engage our players.”
The Positive Play Scale, developed by Gamres’ researchers including Dr. Richard Wood, Dr. Michael Wohl, and Dr. Nassim Tabri, asks players about four key beliefs – personal responsibility, gaming literacy, honesty and control, and pre-commitment – to measure their responsible gaming knowledge and behaviors.
To implement the program for DraftKings, Gamres will prepare and administer an online survey to a U.S.-based sample of DraftKings players using Positive Play Scale’s framework. Gamres will analyze the survey results to provide a baseline measure of Positive Play and identify possible differences in certain player groups and how DraftKings may refine RG practices to advance positive play.
“Most players just play for fun and to be entertained, but we have found that some players (generally) have misperceptions about gaming that can either diminish their enjoyment or in some cases lead to them spending more than they intended,” said Dr. Wood for Gamres. “We believe that the Positive Play Scale will help to optimize DraftKings’ RG strategy to identify those areas that would benefit from the most support. As such, we expect that the findings from this project will help DraftKings develop a proactive approach to responsible gaming that encourages all players to have healthy, positive playing experiences.”
