BGC appoints journalist Schofield as communications director

The BGC (Betting and Gaming Council), the body introduced in 2019 t0 represent the United Kingdom’s gambling industry, has hired Journalist Kevin Schofield as the director of communications and digital.
Schofield will start working in his position at the BGC this summer – he has been serving as editor of PoliticsHome since 2015.

Schofield said, “I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the Betting and Gaming Council and can’t wait to get started. I know that they have big ambitions for the years ahead, and I’m looking forward to working with the team to help drive up standards in the industry.”

Schofield had been working as the chief political correspondent at The Sun before his time at PoliticsHome. Before that, he has also covered politics as a journalist for publications such as The Scotsman, The Herald and the Daily Record.

Michael Dugher, chief executive of the BGC, said, “The BGC is a new standards body committed to delivering big changes across the industry. To do that, we need top people. Kevin Schofield is one of the very best media professionals of his generation, he commands massive respect across journalism and politics, and he is an outstanding hire for the BGC.

“Kevin is joining an already top class and growing team at the BGC. This shows that we are building something exciting at the BGC as we strive to become the very best in the business, he added.

Dugher was appointed in December 2019 and joined the BGC in February 2020 – he came from UK music, serving as the chief executive there.

Dugher served as Member of Parliament for Barnsley East for 7 years before he joined UK Music. While he was an MP, he held various Shadow Cabinet positions including Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from 2015-16 during this timeframe.

The Betting and Gaming Council was constituted in July 2019 to replace the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) and Remote Gambling Association (RGA), leading to the creation of a single industry association in the UK – former chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), was named its founding chair.

At the time of its launching, the BGC had announced that £10m (€11.8m/$13.1m) of funding would be made available for a national education programme designed and delivered by the charities GamCare and YGam.

In recent times, the BGC has revealed new measures to help identify and reduce potential problem gambling in licensed betting venues. These include a new Anonymous Player Awareness System, a real-time algorithm that will run on betting machines in shops, to identify areas of player behaviour that could signal harmful play.