FanDuel has marked Responsible Gaming Education Month (RGEM) with a major personnel hire, recruiting former National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) chief Keith Whyte as a responsible gambling strategist.
FanDuel announced on Wednesday that former NCPG Executive Director has joined the operator as its new responsible gaming strategic advisor. Whyte left the NCPG abruptly and unexpectedly in January after 26 years with the organization.
Now, he will advise the U.S. market-leading sportsbook on shaping its RG strategy and programs moving forward, including identifying new opportunities for advocacy, advancing and extending partnerships and leading and developing various RG-focused events. He will also contribute to FanDuel’s ongoing responsible gaming initiatives, including consulting on and creating new content for the Trusted Voices: Conversations About Betting program, which FanDuel launched last year in partnership with EPIC Global Solutions.
“We are honored to have Keith Whyte join our team as a strategic advisor for our responsible gaming programming,” said FanDuel SVP of Public Policy and Sustainability Cory Fox. “At FanDuel, we are committed to elevating the industry standard for responsible gaming. We’re excited to welcome Keith to our responsible gaming team and are confident his experience and subject matter knowledge will further strengthen our leadership in this space.”
FanDuel’s RG efforts in black and Whyte
During his time with the NCPG, White led efforts to offer and promote awareness of treatment and support for individuals experiencing gambling harm and served as the leading face and voice of the council. Before that, he was the director of research at the American Gaming Association.
These days, he is the founder and president of Safer Gambling Strategies LLC, founded in January, and he joined the board of the Virginia Council on Problem Gambling in March.
A recurring speaker at both industry events and in state and federal legislative discussions of gambling, FanDuel now gets to tap his depth of knowledge and relationships. Whyte said in a statement that FanDuel has consistently demonstrated industry-leading commitment to responsible gaming. “I’ve long admired their proactive approach,” he added.
Whyte’s new colleague Fox introduced the new Real-Time Check-In at SBC Summit Americas in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. in May, a tool that combines data with machine learning to analyze and model personalized deposit behaviors, effectively modeling how much a user should be depositing and compares that projection with reality. That launch followed FanDuel introducing its My Spend responsible gambling dashboard for users at the end of last year.
SBC Americas spoke to Fox in June about FanDuel’s player protection efforts.
FanDuel’s new era?
Whyte’s appointment comes at a time of evolution for FanDuel not only on the RG front but also in terms of their wider operations.
Its recently announced partnership with derivatives exchange CME Group puts it in the express lane to offering economic (and potentially sports) event contracts, and it is leaning more heavily into peer-to-peer prop-style fantasy games.
Whyte is FanDul’s third high-profile policy-related hire in the last two months. In early July, the gaming giant announced the appointments of Shailagh Murray, a former senior advisor in the Barack Obama administration, as SVP of public affairs and ex-NFL policy and legislative chief Jonathan Nabavi as VP of federal affairs.
