bwin is Founding Sponsor of 'The Transparency Project'
bwin is the founding sponsor of The Transparency Project, the world’s first ever public data repository for privately-funded datasets related to addictive behavior. The project is an initiative of the Division on Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance, a Teaching Affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Its purpose is to make data available to scientists so that they can advance the available empirical evidence and knowledge base about addiction.
bwin, the world’s leading online gaming provider, is making available its anonymous activity data from over 40,000 users which underpins the world’s largest longitudinal research study into problem gaming. The Division on Addictions created this repository to promote transparency for privately-funded science and offer better access to scientific information. The Transparency Project aims to collect and archive high quality addiction-related privately-funded data from around the world and provides a valuable resource for academic research across a broad range of scientific areas, including psychology, economics, health policy and public health.
Privately-funded scientific studies have often come under scrutiny by researchers, advocates, the media and the public, who can be distrustful of their results. “We seek to improve this complex situation by increasing accessibility to privately-funded data. It is our hope that this increased access will provide the impetus for the development of public-private research partnerships and simultaneously advance what we know about addictive behaviour,” says Professor Howard J. Shaffer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Director, Division on Addictions, The Cambridge Health Alliance, a Teaching Affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
“Greater access to scientific information, in this case actual internet gaming activity records, should accelerate our ability to understand problem gaming, and also to implement the mechanisms necessary to detect it early. Our ultimate goal, of course, is to prevent it from occurring in the first place,” adds Manfred Bodner, Co-CEO of bwin.
A Scientific Dialogue
On 16 February 2009, Professor Howard J. Shaffer will engage in a scientific dialogue in Brussels hosted by the EGBA (European Gaming and Betting Association). There he will introduce the Transparency Project and some of the findings specifically related to gaming addiction and prevention already harvested from data that is available through the project.
For further information about The Transparency Project please visit www.thetransparencyproject.org.
