‘We, as an Organization Uniting Business, Also Plan to Conduct Market Research’ – Head of Gambling Association of Ukraine Viktoria Zakrevska

A new episode of UGW Insider podcast has been released. The invited guest was a Head of Gambling Association of Ukraine Viktoria Zakrevska. An interview with the expert was conducted by a permanent host and Brand Ambassador of Ukrainian Gaming Week 2021 Lavrentiy Gubin.

In a new podcast series, Viktoria spoke about the sociological surveys of the gambling market that are going to be conducted by the association she’s heading and explained what organizations will be involved in this work. The expert also highlighted why it is important to study the gambling industry today and what significant role it plays, including for the state.

Read more about the initiatives of the Gambling Association of Ukraine in the interview below.

The interviewer: Lavrentiy Gubin (L.G.)

The respondent: Viktoria Zakrevska (V.Z.)

L.G.: Could you please tell us what kind of surveys are expected to be conducted by the Association?

V.Z.: One of our goals is to promote the spreading of the maximum amount of balanced information about the market, including about the attitude of the population to such phenomenon as gambling, or as to say today, not a phenomenon, but the sphere of economic activity.

And thus, sociology is one of such tasks that we, as a GAU uniting experts and individuals in this area – we are planning to set a framework for this sociology that we would like to carry out on a regular basis.

Why do we need it? First of all, I must say that basically, it is the task of the state to track how the population reacts to a particular reform, especially if it may not have been the most popular, as in this case.

But we must proceed from the reality, which is that the state has already taken the initiative.

And probably, it has already paid for that with some, I’d say, electoral rating, because of the fact that it decided to give such an unpopular or demonized sphere an opportunity to develop in the legal field, at the legislative level.

Moreover, now we are in a state of pandemic and a very serious economic recession, so if we expect that the state will try and get into the sociology when it comes to gambling, then we will have to wait a very long time.

Therefore, as Ukrainian Gambling Council-Gambling Association of Ukraine, we would like to take the initiative in this matter, and with the help of legal operators, who we are still negotiating with today, but we already know that there are a large number of operators who have expressed a desire to join our initiative.

So, these surveys may be possible. Because, it is not such a cheap thing, especially if it is done on a regular basis.

In our understanding, together with the operators and members of UGC, we will discuss the technological framework, the nuances that we would like to highlight in these surveys, and we will order these surveys from well-known sociological services in Ukraine on a tender basis.

We think that ordering this surveys from sociological services is a correct, proper step, for many reasons. First, they are systematically engaged in this work and are recognized among the colleagues at the domestic level and abroad.

But there is one more reason that may not be entirely obvious. It lies in the fact that sociological services in Ukraine conduct surveys mainly for politicians and political forces.

And given that the gambling reform has divided the political landscape into groups in some way...

We believe it would be right if the services that conduct surveys for politicians also do it for the market so that later we can count on the maximum balance of this survey.

And those who promote the idea of ​​a legal, transparent, fair market have quite valid arguments based on these surveys.

In order to prove that with the right regulation, the right approach, gambling can be a sphere of the economy, and moreover, a socially responsible sphere of the economy.

Thus, we remove such an argument, from some political forces perhaps, that the survey was carried out inappropriately maybe, from their point of view.

L.G.: Indeed, you are right when you say that after ten years of illegal business, there is some attitude towards the industry and, perhaps, it will change after some time of normal legal operation. That’s why it probably makes sense to do some surveys now in order to see the situation in dynamics. Are you planning something in the near future? Are there any specific conversations and actions in this direction already?

V.Z.: In fact, today it all comes down to funding. For funding to appear, you need to complete some stage of establishment of the organization itself in order for the resources ...

Basically, the cooperative management, and not just a few organizations to pay for this entire rather expensive idea. But I think that by the fall already, we will see the results of the first survey.

Because this is one of our most burning tasks. In fact, not only ours, but in general. Ukraine as a state, as a society, of course, needs to have such scale in order to find out and analyze the state of things.

And of course, the state and the people's representatives need that, in order to understand in which direction this reform is moving, and what is the attitude of their voters to the decisions made by parliamentarians.

But I would also like to say that we will not only conduct such surveys. In addition to sociology, that is run by public organizations, universities and funded mainly by the state in other countries.

We, as an organization uniting business, also plan to conduct market research, which can be vaguely divided into three topics.

The first one is the contribution of legal operators and, in general, other companies that are not operators of the gambling business, but are on the market, being service companies and providing various services.

They create products for gambling operators. It is also very important for us that, with such trusting communication with these companies, we still find and show the society their contribution.

Creation of the number of jobs, the number of direct and indirect investments that they made in order to conduct their activities.

Taxes are also a very important figure that we want operators themselves to see, how they exercise this social responsibility. And including people, media...

The general public should also know because in all countries this is something that the industry can be proud of. And, unfortunately, today there is no information about how many jobs the gambling industry has...

Which has changed a lot since 2009, massively moved online, many companies have become IT companies, and positioned themselves that way, but they are still on the market.

We would also like to collect this actual picture of the market and provide it as free information for journalists and the general public. This is the job that we will be doing.

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