From gaps to roadmaps: Our updated research priorities
Our Head of Evidence Assurance and Evaluation David Taylor introduces our Evidence Roadmaps which set out the priority research themes needed to build a robust evidence base for gambling in Great Britain.
Posted 23 October 2025 by David Taylor
Today, we have published our Evidence Roadmaps, the result of several phases of stakeholder engagement which involved valuable contributions and collaboration from representatives across the gambling ecosystem.
What are the roadmaps and how were they created?
The roadmaps are an update to our existing Evidence Gaps and Priorities document as we enter a new phase in the provision of research, prevention and treatment activity that is supported by the new statutory levy.
We’d received feedback that the existing six themes were very wide in scope, so we’ve worked hard with stakeholders to produce today’s update to address that. The document retains the themes but provides more detail on some of the identified evidence gaps through the addition of a set of roadmaps, which also provides greater transparency of our regulatory evidence needs.
The roadmaps were produced through the collection of views from a survey exercise and a series of workshops that included sessions with researchers and academics, policymakers, people with lived experience of gambling harms, and the gambling industry. These views were considered against the Commission’s Corporate Strategy and licensing objectives to develop a comprehensive and expansive set of priorities.
The six evidence themes are:
- early gambling experiences and gateway products
- the range and variability of gambling experiences
- gambling-related harms and vulnerability
- the impact of operator practices
- product characteristics and risk
- illegal gambling and crime.
How will these evidence gaps be filled?
It is important to be clear that the Commission will not be the only body who can or should tackle the important questions outlined in the roadmaps publication. The themes and roadmaps all relate to our role as the regulator to keep gambling safe, fair and crime free, but there’s an opportunity for other stakeholders to fill identified gaps with robust research and triangulate evidence to build a stronger collective understanding.
In terms of Commission-led research, we’ve been clear in the publication about where we are planning research in the coming year, and this will be helped by levy funding. Alongside UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as the main commissioner of research under the new system, the Commission will also be in receipt of levy funds to commission further regulatory research which will allow us to accelerate progress in many areas in line with these evidence roadmaps. Levy funding also brings an opportunity to conduct longer programmes of work, potentially including a longitudinal study.
By working closely with UKRI and others, we hope to see an array of new research and data projects emerge that align to these priorities and contribute to making progress against the roadmaps. We also hope that being clear about our priorities will enable academics and researchers to obtain funding from other sources and, where appropriate, we will consider issuing letters of support for research that addresses a roadmap area.
We are trialling a Research Reporting Form (opens in new tab) that stakeholders, academics and researchers can use to tell us about their research and how it addresses our roadmaps and research priorities.
What comes next?
As outlined in the document, we are commissioning research in a number of areas to fill these gaps ourselves. We will also be continuing to engage with stakeholders to identify additional work that is being conducted.
Although academic research can take well over a year from commencement to publication, we intend to revisit the Roadmaps towards the end of next year to provide an update on known progress against the roadmaps – both completed and in progress.