EPIC Global Solutions has partnered with athlete mental health platform Onrise in a bid to strengthen and improve gambling harm prevention and treatment services for pro and collegiate athletes and coaches across the U.S.
Onrise is a mental health platform designed specifically with athletes in mind. Through the new partnership, lived-experience harm prevention consultants EPIC will support Onrise’s 250+ peer support experts by providing face-to-face or digital education options for sports organizations to promote awareness of safer relationships with gambling.
The EPIC-Onrise collaboration will be a new service provided as an add-on to supplement the comprehensive Onrise network. Onrise already offers peer support from retired and certified athletes, licensed therapists, psychiatric care and sports performance, delivered through secure one-on-one sessions with flexible scheduling.
“Student-athletes live in a time where gambling and sport intertwine in so many ways, with significant wagering interest in collegiate sport,” said Onrise Founder and Chief Executive Officer Kim Quigley, MD, in a news release. “This partnership with EPIC Global Solutions is about getting in early, before a bet becomes a burden they carry in silence.
“By pairing world-class gambling education with Onrise’s always-on, athlete-specific mental health care, we can spot risk sooner, intervene faster, and protect their health, future, and the team communities depending on them.”
EPIC’s gambling education leadership
EPIC Global Solutions works with a range of major partners across sports and gaming, including the NCAA and MLB and operators such as BetMGM, Entain, Flutter, DraftKings, Underdog, PrizePicks and Bally’s. It has a number of former athletes serving as ambassadors for its work, including former college basketball star Stevin “Hedake” Smith.
The news release noted that Quigley sought EPIC as a partner for Onrise due to the evidence of EPIC’s success of delivering meaningful and impactful gambling harm education programs to NCAA student-athletes and staff and major league sports pros.
“This strategic partnership has arisen because we both felt there was a real alignment of shared values between the two organizations,” added EPIC Global Solutions CEO Paul Buck. “Gambling and sports wagering is growing fast in the U.S., not least in the sports and college sectors where we both operate. The two organizations are on a growth curve and will be stronger together for our clients and beneficiaries. We are both people-centred and athlete-focused, dedicated to doing good for mental health, wellbeing and performance.”
EPIC and Onrise announced the partnership at the start of Problem Gambling Awareness Month, which runs throughout March in the U.S. Meanwhile, the new issue of SBC Leaders magazine has an in-depth interview with EPIC CEO Buck about why lived experience is such a powerful tool in education.
