BRIAN McDermott never knew about Scott Davies’ gambling addiction despite working day-in, day-out with him on the Reading training pitch together.

The former Royals youngster looked set for a glittering career before gambling rapidly crippled his hopes and saw him slide down the leagues.

Davies quickly saw his problem spiral out of control and eventually ended up at Dunstable Town just three years after being released by McDermott, who guided Reading to promotion in 2012 but was always unaware of the real problems the midfielder – who played for the club between 2006 and 2011 – was dealing with.

Now the pair have joined forces to raise awareness about problem gambling with EPIC Risk Management, who launched the Gambling Harm Prevention in Sport Review White Paper at Wembley on Wednesday.

The white paper advocates for a greater focus on education at all ages, focused on lived experiences, as well as a bigger commitment from organisations engaging with gambling sponsors to engage with education around safer gambling.

And McDermott is keen to champion the power of speaking out. 

He said: “The most important thing is that we are talking, and we have got conversations going on.
“There’s a long way to go but we are talking about it, which is important. 

“I talk about my story, my message – it’s not about me preaching. It’s about how I am in a good place today, and how I’ve got there.

“There are loads of scare stories out there. If you have a scare story and it remains to be a scare story, it’s not a strong message. 

“A strong message has the scare stories, but you have come out the other side of it and now you have a recovery story. 

“It’s really important to say if you have an addiction problem, there is a way out of it.”

Problem gambling remains an issue across sport, with Brentford striker Ivan Toney recently charged by the FA for multiple breaches.

But while McDermott urges people to speak out if they have a problem, he knows it is not as simple as that - having managed Davies without knowing about his problem. 

“Managers will say they have an open door but generally players won’t go to the manager,” added McDermott. 

“The most important thing is a player speaks to someone to get help. An addiction is a very cunning thing, and it can be hidden. 

“People can work at the top end of the game, and no one knows they have a problem, and I know that from experience.”

Davies has been in recovery since 2015, returning to the game at non-League level with the likes of Oxford City and Slough Town before taking to the dugout with the Rebels in November last year.

Having now joined former boss McDermott as a manager, Davies is keen to take what he learned from his playing career into his time in charge.

“For me it’s about not just managing them as players but managing them through life,” said Davies.

“I am almost like a second father figure for some of these lads, especially the younger ones – we have got lads that are 18, 19 – I am 35 next month. I don’t just want them to be good footballers, I want them to be good people.

“I am very lucky that I have the opportunity and I want to be more than just a good football manager, I want to be a good person to these players. 

“I have got a fantastic relationship with Brian now, and he always says to me I wish you would have said something. To try and break that mould of no one saying something, for me to be the first one, it seemed nigh on impossible. 

“We are making small steps, it is never going to be fixed completely, but we can make it better.”

Gambling Harm Prevention in Sport Summit, presented by EPIC Risk Management and UCFB's Global Institute of Sport (GIS)