BetBlocker’s Pedro Romero: Sustainable Gambling Zone Crucial for Industry

The Sustainable Gambling Zone, part of the Consumer Protection Zone, focuses on promoting safe and responsible gambling. This initiative, originally launched at ICE 2018, has been steadily expanding and drawing more attention to its main focus - promoting safe and responsible gambling to industry decision-makers and establishing sustainable play as the basis of core industry standards.

BetBlocker International received a €20,000 donation from 11 brands promoting responsible play. The brands included Acordjoc, Betsson Group, BGaming, Cirsa, Flutter, Grupo Orenes, Merkur, MerkurDosniha, Novomatic, Novomatic Spain and Zitro. With this donation, the total amount raised by these brands to support safer gambling has risen to €462,500.

Pedro Romero, Head of SG Partnerships at BetBlocker International, highlighted the importance of ICE Barcelona in leading harm minimization initiatives. He noted that the Sustainable Gambling Zone was a project focused on minimizing harm, protecting players, and ensuring that these issues are part of the mainstream industry conversation. Romero also emphasized that BetBlocker has supported over 300,000 active users worldwide in 2025, a significant milestone. However, he advised against complacency, stating that more consistent engagement from the wider industry is needed to make meaningful changes in how they protect players and reduce gambling-related harm.