Professor Amanda Roberts

Professor Amanda Roberts is Professor of Psychology in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from University College London and a PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience from Cardiff University. Prior to joining Loughborough, she held academic posts at King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, the University of East London, and the University of Lincoln.

Professor Roberts is internationally recognised for her research on gambling and behavioural addictions, with a particular focus on gambling-related harm and its intersections with mental health, suicidality, interpersonal violence, and homelessness. Her work adopts a public health perspective, examining both structural and psychological determinants of harm and evaluating treatment, prevention, and harm-reduction interventions. She has extensive experience conducting applied research with vulnerable and underserved populations, working closely with NHS services, prisons, homelessness services, and third-sector organisations.

At Loughborough, Professor Roberts’ research spans gambling in elite sport, grassroots and youth sport, and emerging contexts such as esports. She leads large-scale, multidisciplinary projects and collaborates internationally with researchers in Canada, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand. Her work has informed national policy, including the UK Government’s gambling reform agenda, and has contributed directly to harm-reduction strategies implemented by NHS services and charitable organisations.

Professor Roberts has recently secured over £1.5 million in competitive research funding as Principal Investigator and serves on several national and international advisory groups. She is strongly committed to mentoring early-career researchers and fostering inclusive, collaborative research cultures. Her overarching aim is to advance evidence-based policy and practice that reduces gambling-related harm and promotes health equity.

Professor Roberts’ research programme focuses on gambling-related harm and behavioural addictions from a public health perspective. Her work examines how gambling harm intersects with mental health, suicidality, interpersonal violence, and homelessness, across contexts including elite sport, grassroots and youth sport, and emerging digital environments such as esports.

Her programme integrates quantitative and qualitative methods with applied research conducted in partnership with NHS mental health and addiction services, prisons, homelessness services, and third-sector organisations. These collaborations enable rigorous evaluation of structural and psychological risk factors, screening and referral pathways, treatment effectiveness, and harm-reduction interventions, with the aim of improving real-world service delivery.

Professor Roberts leads multidisciplinary research teams and maintains extensive international collaborations across Europe, North America, and Australasia. She holds honorary research roles within NHS and international academic centres, and works closely with UK treatment providers and policy-facing research networks. Policy impact is central to her work, with findings feeding directly into national implementation plans for gambling disorder treatment and suicide prevention.

Recent Research and Major Grants

Professor Roberts has recently secured over £1.5 million in competitive funding as Principal Investigator to investigate gambling-related harm. Her portfolio includes projects delivered with NHS and charitable partners and multidisciplinary teams across multiple UK universities. Two flagship studies exemplify the scope and impact of her work:

• Routine Screening for Gambling Harm in Mental Health and Addiction Services (NIHR, £562,000)
  This pioneering project introduced structured screening for gambling-related harm within NHS mental health and substance use services. The study identified barriers to implementation, improved referral pathways, and is shaping national policy and NHS service development for gambling disorder.
• Gambling and Suicide: A Psychological Autopsy and Qualitative Inquiry (GREO, £820,000)
  This groundbreaking study applied psychological autopsy methods to understand the relationship between gambling and suicide, combining interviews, clinical records, and gambling data. Its findings have informed the UK National Suicide Prevention Strategy, marking the first formal recognition of gambling harm as a suicide risk factor.

Looking ahead, Professor Roberts aims to establish a Gambling Harm Research Hub at Loughborough University, positioning the institution as a UK leader in gambling research across sport, esports, and youth contexts. She is actively pursuing major funding opportunities through NIHR, ESRC, UKRI, and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network to support the next generation of researchers.

Conference leadership & organisation

Professor Roberts co-established the Current Advances in Gambling Research (CAGR) conference series in 2019, creating an international platform for researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and individuals with lived experience to share emerging evidence. The next conference is scheduled to take place in Helsinki in 2026. She also contributes to international knowledge exchange through global research and policy networks, ensuring close alignment between research, policy development, and harm-reduction practice.

Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling (AFSG) Co-Chair. The AFSG is a group of academic researchers dedicated to advancing the research needed to effectively prevent, reduce, and address gambling harm. The purpose of the AFSG is to act as a coordinated body to assert the importance of rigorous, independent research to prevent, reduce, and address gambling harm in the UK

Honorary NHS Research Fellow at the National Problem Gambling Clinic, London

Honorary Research Fellow in the Gambling and Addictions Research Centre at AUT University, New Zealand

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Chartered Psychologist, British Psychological Society (BPS)

Member, International Public Health Working Group on Gambling-Related Harm

Professor Roberts also plays an active role in national and international research networks focused on gambling and behavioural addictions, contributing to research governance, policy engagement, and peer review for leading journals, publishers, and funding bodies.

• Roberts, A., Clarke, R., Laidler, F., Rogers, J., Harman, C., Bowden-Jones, H., Smith, L., & Sharman, S. (2025). Screening for gambling-related harm: Scholarly commentary. Addictive Behaviors, 108335. 
• Cowlishaw, S., Roberts, A., George, S., & Kessler, D. (2025). Tackling gambling harm requires a public health approach. bmj, 388.
• Rogers, J., Roberts, A., Sharman, S., Dymond, S., Ludvig, E., & Tunney, R. (2025) High stakes. Commentary on the 2023 UK Government White Paper on Gambling Reform.
• Roberts, A., Rogers, J., Sharman, S., Stark, S., Dymond, S., Ludvig, E. A., ... & Young, M. M. (2025). Why it is important to conduct gambling research that is fair and free from conflicts of interest. Addiction
• Murphy, M. P., Murphy, R., & Roberts, A. (2024). Correlates of Problematic Gambling in Emerging Adult University Students in Ireland. Journal of Gambling Studies, 1-18.
• Christensen, D. R., Roberts, A., Williams, R. J., Allami, Y., Belanger, Y. D., Shaw, C. A., el-Guebaly, N., Hodgins, D. C., McGrath, D. S ., Nicoll, F., Smith, G., & Stevens, R. M. G. (2024). Awareness and impact of casino responsible gambling/harm minimization measures among Canadian electronic gaming machine players. International Gambling Studies, 1-21.
• Kock, L., Cox, S., Shahab, L., Roberts, A., Sharman, S., Buss, V., Brown, J. (2024). The Intersection of Gambling with Smoking and Alcohol use in Great Britain: A Cross-Sectional Survey in October 2022. BMJ Open, 14(4), e079633.
• Saunders, M., Rogers, J., Roberts, A., Gavens, L., Huntley, P., Midgley, S. (2023). Using geospatial mapping to predict and compare gambling harm hotspots in urban, rural and coastal areas of a large county in England. Journal of Public Health, 45(4), 847-853.
• Onwuegbusi, T., Roberts, A., Sharman, S., Hogue, T. (2023). An eyetracking investigation of young people’s gaze behaviour to gambling and non-gambling moving adverts. European Addiction Research, 29(2), 109-118.
• Smith, L. R., Sharman, S., & Roberts, A. (2022). Gambling and crime: An exploration of gambling availability and culture in an English prison. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 32(6), 389-403.
• Mason, R., Smith, M., Onwuegbusi, T., Roberts, A. (2022). New Psychoactive Substances and violence within a UK prison setting.  Substance Use and Misuse, 57(14), 2146-2150.
• Roberts, A., Murphy, R., McNally, E. J., Derevensky, J., & Sharman, S. (2022). Teachers’ attitudes towards and awareness of adolescent gambling behaviour in the UK. International Gambling Studies, 23(1), 160-184.
• Roberts, A., Sharman, S., & Bowden-Jones, H. (2022). Clinical Services for Problematic Internet Usage. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 46, 101180.
• Sharman, S., Roberts, A., & Bowden-Jones, H. (2022). The National Centre for Gaming Disorders - Who is accessing this service? Journal of Behavioral Addictions: Letter to the Editor, 11, 2, 147–149.
• Roberts, A., Sharman, S., & Bowden-Jones, H. (2022). The ability of the UK population surveys to capture the true nature of the extent of gambling related harm. Addiction: Letter to the Editor. Accepted 23^rd Feb 2022. Published 8^th March 2022.
• Mason, R., Roberts, A., Spaight, R., Shaw, D., Whitley, G., Hogue, T., Siriwardena, A.N., Rogers, J., Law, G. (2022). Ambulance attendance for substance and/or alcohol use in a pandemic (ASAP): Interrupted time series analysis of incidents. Drug and Alcohol Review, 41(4), 932-940.