1XCARE
Safer gambling’s harder test starts in Lisbon
Simon Westbury
hen the 1xCare Advisory Committee was announced, I said an initiative of this kind is judged by the people willing to stand behind it. That remains true, and it was the easier test to pass. Naming a committee costs a press release. The second test is colder, and the sector should apply it to us before anyone takes a seat on Stage 5: what does the organisation fund, what does it build, and what will it publish when the findings are unwelcome?
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Governance without a working programme is theatre. What follows is how 1xCare’s support for responsible gambling initiatives is structured, what is committed for the current planning period, and the date against which we can be held to it.
START WITH THE STRUCTURE, BECAUSE IT DETERMINES THE MONEY
1xCare is the operating brand of RG Practices Ltd, a Cyprus-registered company limited by guarantee without share capital, number HE 492471. It was established by the owner of the global 1xBet brand, and it is funded by that owner. We state this at the top rather than in a footnote, because a reader who discovers the funding source for themselves will discount everything that follows it.
The legal form is not decoration. A company limited by guarantee has no shareholders and no distributable profit. Funds are applied to the statutory objects set out in the Memorandum of Association, or they are not applied at all. It operates under Cyprus company law, EU data protection and AML obligations, and publishes audited annual accounts alongside disclosure of its funding sources.
On 30 September in Lisbon, a session 1xCare sponsors will ask whether safer gambling programmes can withstand independent examination. This is the answer we intend to give, published before the question is even asked. By Simon Westbury, Chairperson, 1xCare Advisory Committee.
Governance was the first test, and the easier one. 1xCare will be judged on what it funds, publishes and deploys: independent research, earlier intervention, education inside sport, and grants that reach players in their own language. The first Annual Impact Report is due by June 2027
- Simon Westbury, Chairperson, 1xCare Advisory Committee
Within that structure, the Advisory Committee leads policy oversight and funding allocation across the four pillars, and reports to the Board. Programme launches that carry legal exposure, self-exclusion tooling being the clearest case, require formal legal approval from Quirino Mancini, who leads the regulation and law stream. Sissel Weitzhändler’s public policy stream sets the accountability standards attached to every grant. Chris Bird leads sport and sponsorships. Two further seats, one academic and one in
14 SEPTEMBER 2026 GIO
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