Second year of gambling blocking contract put out to tender in Wales
Invitation for bids initiated eight months after the original direct award to Gamban sparked objection from lawyers representing charity BetBlocker
Public Health Wales has put the second 12-month term of a gambling software blocking contract out to tender after coming under fire for not running a competitive bidding process the first time around.
The public health agency, under the umbrella of NHS Wales, has priced the estimated value of the 12-month contract – set to run from 1 April 2027 and 30 March 2028 – at £120,000 including VAT.
Applicants should submit bids to offer free and bilingual (English and Welsh) blocking software in Wales accessible through the national gambling helpline, treatment pathways and other commissioned services. The software should also be “difficult to remove from devices and difficult to circumvent restrictions”.
The launch of the competitive process comes after Public Health Wales awarded the original £218,640 contract to Gamban in February 2026. The arrangement covered 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, with a potential 12-month extension.
At the time of the award, Public Health Wales said Gamban was the “only product of its kind currently commissioned and in active use across Wales”.
However, gambling harm prevention charity BetBlocker told EGR back in February it had “significant concerns” over the contract award and the decision to “make a direct award to one provider without going through the typical process of a competitive tender”.
At the time, it was EGR’s understanding that BetBlocker could have fulfilled the contract for less than £30,000 – almost £190,000 below the sum agreed with Gamban.
BetBlocker subsequently instructed its London-based legal advisers to write to Public Health Wales to express concerns and request the contract with Gamban not be extended beyond March 2027.
Matt Zarb-Cousin, director of Gamban – a subscription service which costs £4.99 a month in England and Scotland – has disclosed to EGR his company will throw its hat into the ring for the 2027-28 contract in Wales.
“Gamban intends to bid for this contract to ensure our market-leading blocking software remains free at the point of need in Wales,” he said in statement.
“It is disappointing that BetBlocker, which is an already free service subsidised by the gambling industry, has sought to use charitable funds to obstruct Public Health Wales making Gamban free.
“Gamban is a far superior blocking software on all platforms, so it would be interesting to hear how BetBlocker investing charitable funds in legal fees to try preventing free access to Gamban is compatible with their charitable objective to prevent gambling harm.”
Duncan Garvie, trustee and founder of BetBlocker, told EGR: “Gamban received a direct award from Public Health Wales on the grounds ‘it is the only product of its kind currently commissioned and in active use across Wales’.
“This is clearly incorrect, given that BetBlocker had received multiple rounds of funding to deliver free blocking software across the whole of the UK from GambleAware and supported over 1,000 Welsh users in 2025.
“How Public Health Wales came to make this significant error is a matter that is still unclear to us.”
Garvie went on to say the actions BetBlocker has taken were to ensure “a full, fair and transparent tender process was undertaken” at the end of the first year of an “incorrectly awarded direct award, rather than to challenge the award that had already been made”.
He continued: “Transparent and open tendering processes are critical to ensuring public funding is spent effectively and that the funding systems are not over-paying their vendors.”
The Wales contract is not the first time the two organisations have locked horns. In June, the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) U-turned on provisionally awarding a contract to provide gambling blocking software to Dutch citizens after Gamban lodged a legal objection over the regulator’s decision to select BetBlocker as the preferred bidder.
A summary hearing initiated by Gamban had been due to take place in the District Court of the Hague on 11 June, yet the case was never heard given KSA decided not to award the contract to BetBlocker.
Later that month, the KSA deemed both bids to be invalid after issues were found with the tenders submitted via the Dutch government’s official online procurement system, TenderNed.nl.
Gamban switched from being free to a subscription model in England and Scotland after missing out on funding from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.