Stop gambling. Stay stopped.
ShieldBet blocks gambling sites and apps on your phone, tracks your progress day by day, and brings a trusted person in when it matters. It's built for the moment willpower runs out, not just the moments it doesn't.
You didn't fail. The tools did.
People in recovery don't usually lose ground because they're weak. They lose ground at a specific moment: tired, stressed, alone, when the tool that was meant to protect them can be switched off in seconds with no one else in the loop.
ShieldBet was built by someone in recovery, after every other blocker failed the same way. The difference isn't the blocking itself. It's the architecture underneath it: protection that holds even when willpower doesn't, because turning it off requires a person who isn't you.
Roughly 1 in 25 UK adults score in the problem gambling band.
The UK Gambling Commission's Gambling Survey for Great Britain found that 2.7% of adults scored 8 or higher on the Problem Gambling Severity Index in 2024, around 1.4 million people. A further 3.1% scored at moderate risk.
Source: Gambling Survey for Great Britain, Annual Report 2024 (UKGC).
Layered protection, working as one system.
ShieldBet doesn't rely on a single safeguard. Each protection layer below covers what the others can't, so one weak moment doesn't undo the whole system.
Site and app blocking
Known operators, affiliates, tipsters, and paid-entry products are blocked before the page loads. The blocking layer understands paths, not just domains, so reddit.com stays open while r/sportsbook doesn't.
Network protection
Protection covers the whole device, not one browser. Every browser, every app, every connection passes through the same checks, and decisions are made on your phone rather than sent away for a verdict.
Removal friction
Disabling protection, logging out, or uninstalling is designed to be harder than a single tap. Where a trusted partner is set up, removing protection can require their approval, so the decision doesn't happen alone in a vulnerable moment.
Recovery tools
When an urge spikes, ShieldBet offers a guided pause and a place to write down what's happening, instead of leaving you alone with a blocked screen. Your recovery vault keeps the reasons you started close by.
Trusted partner accountability
One person you choose is brought in at the moments that matter: meaningful attempt patterns and any attempt to remove protection. They support the decision, they don't watch your screen.
Progress tracking
Your clean streak counts up day by day, and blocked attempts are recorded as protection working, not as failures. Progress you can see is one of the quiet things that keeps recovery going.
A calm response that gets more serious if it needs to.
Walk through what actually happens, step by step. Most blocked attempts end quietly at step two. The later steps only appear when a pattern builds.
It usually starts with an ordinary moment.
Late at night, after a stressful day, or when an advert lands at the wrong time. An urge builds and a hand reaches for the phone. This is the moment every blocker is really for, and the moment most of them lose.
The page never loads.
The site or app is stopped before it opens, and a calm screen explains why. No alarm, no lecture, no report sent anywhere. A single blocked attempt stays between you and your phone, and most moments end right here.
A pattern gets a different answer.
If attempts repeat within the same hour, another plain block screen isn't much help. Instead, ShieldBet opens a short guided support conversation: what's happening right now, a genuine pause, and coping prompts drawn from behaviour-change research.
One person who cares gets a calm message.
Where partner accountability is set up, a meaningful pattern sends your trusted partner a calibrated alert. Not your browsing history, not a running commentary. Just enough for them to check in, at the moment checking in actually helps.
The moment passes. The streak holds.
Nothing was gambled, and that counts. Your clean streak stays intact, you can note what happened in your recovery vault, and the app goes quiet again. A blocked attempt isn't a failure. It's the protection doing its job.
Layered checks, in this order.
Every page you visit passes through these checks. Most clear in milliseconds. Riskier ones get the full evidence engine.
Instant blocklist check
Known gambling operators, affiliates, tipsters, and paid-entry products are blocked instantly. Verified safe services such as banks, the NHS, gov.uk, search engines, and major retailers clear instantly too.
Smart path check
For platforms like Reddit, Discord, Twitch, and Telegram, general browsing always gets through. Only risky subpaths go to the full analysis below.
Page analysis
The URL, page text, layout, and an on-device detection model all contribute. None of them decide alone. Together they build a picture.
The final decision
One component weighs all the evidence and makes a single call: block or allow. Every decision keeps a reason code and a record of why.
Accountability that supports, not surveillance.
A trusted partner is one person you choose: a partner, a parent, a close friend, a sponsor. They aren't there to watch you. They're there so the decision to remove protection never happens alone, in the exact moment it's hardest to make well.
Alerts are written to be warm and informative, never a list of everything you looked at. You stay a person with dignity the whole way through, not a subject being monitored.
Protection events, not private life.
- Whether protection is currently active
- Whether a meaningful pattern of blocked attempts is building
- Attempts to remove or disable protection
- Requests that need their approval, where that's set up
The private things stay private.
- Your full browsing history
- Your recovery notes and anything in your recovery vault
- A running feed of every individual block
- Anything unrelated to gambling protection
It closes the loophole every solo tool leaves open.
Any protection you can switch off alone will get switched off eventually, not because you're weak, but because urges don't care about the version of you that set it up. Knowing one person is in the loop changes the maths of the weak moment, and a calm check-in at the right time is often all it takes.
At meaningful moments, not constantly.
A single blocked attempt sends nothing. A small number of repeated attempts within a rolling hour sends a supportive message. A persistent run sends a stronger one, and any attempt to remove or disable protection alerts them straight away. Between those moments, ShieldBet stays quiet so their attention means something when it arrives.
What stepping in actually feels like.
When attempts get persistent, ShieldBet doesn't show another block screen. It starts a short, calm conversation. Try a small example below.
What's happening in this moment?
There's no wrong answer. Naming it is the first step out of it.
Whatever happens next, the block stays on. You don't have to win this moment on willpower alone.
Recovery data is sensitive. We treat it that way.
ShieldBet holds information about a gambling problem, which is not something to be casual about. Here is what that means in practice, in plain English.
What we store
Your account details, your protection settings, your trusted partner link, and the protection events needed to run accountability: blocked attempt patterns, tamper events, and your streak. Recovery notes stay on your device. We keep the minimum needed to make the protection work.
What we never do
We never sell your data, show advertising, or share your information with gambling companies, brokers, or anyone else for marketing. There are no third-party trackers on this site or in the app. A recovery tool that monetised your vulnerability would not be a recovery tool.
Who can see what
You see everything. Your trusted partner sees protection status and meaningful patterns, never your browsing history or your notes. We see the operational data needed to run the service, handled under UK GDPR. Nobody else sees anything.
We won't overpromise here. No blocker can guarantee someone will never gamble again. What we can promise is a system built to make the weak moment harder to act on, and data handled with care. The full detail is in our privacy policy.
One paid plan. No free tier.
ShieldBet is a serious recovery tool, not a freemium app. When it launches, a 48-hour free trial will give you full access to every feature. After that, it's £4.99 a month or £40 a year.
Or £40 a year, around two months free. Creating your early access account today needs no card details, and nothing is charged before the app launches.
Coming at launch
- The ShieldBet Android app
- Trusted partner accountability
- Alerts that get serious when they need to
- Guided support intervention for persistent urges
- Tamper detection and partner notifications
- Recovery vault and clean streak tracker
On the roadmap
- Wider device and browser coverage
- Attempt tracking across devices
- Stronger tamper detection
No advertising. No data sold. No third-party trackers. Privacy is a design constraint here, not a marketing line.
Clear answers before you start.
ShieldBet deals with a sensitive problem. These are the practical questions people usually ask before they sign up.
What does ShieldBet block?
Known gambling operators, offshore and crypto gambling sites, affiliates, tipsters, and paid-entry competition products, across every browser and app on the device. On platforms like Reddit and Discord, it blocks risky areas (such as r/sportsbook) while leaving the rest of the site open.
Does it work on Android?
Android is the launch platform, and the app is coming soon. iOS is on the roadmap, though Apple's restrictions mean iOS protection would be layered differently. Creating an account now means we email you the moment the Android app is ready.
What happens during setup?
You create your account on this site, add a trusted partner if you have one, and that's it until launch. When the app arrives, setup walks you through switching on each protection layer in order, confirms everything is active, and links your partner. It takes a few minutes, and the app checks its own coverage as you go.
Does ShieldBet replace therapy?
No. ShieldBet is a behavioural support and protection tool. It can sit alongside therapy or professional treatment, but it does not replace specialist help. If you're struggling, please also reach out to a GP, GamCare, or the National Gambling Helpline.
Can I uninstall it?
Uninstalling is deliberately harder than a single tap. Where a trusted partner is set up, removing protection can require their approval. This friction is the point: it keeps the decision out of a vulnerable moment, rather than making protection impossible to remove altogether.
What can my partner see?
Your trusted partner sees your protection status and whether a risk pattern is building. They do not see your full browsing history. Alerts are calibrated to meaningful moments, not a running feed of everything you do.
What happens if I try to gamble?
The site or app is blocked before it loads, with a calm screen explaining why. Repeated attempts in a short window trigger a guided support intervention instead of another plain block, and where accountability is switched on, your partner may be alerted.
Does it block support sites?
No. Recovery organisations, the NHS, gov.uk, banks, and other verified safe services are kept on an allow list and clear instantly. If something you rely on ever gets blocked by mistake, you can report it directly from the block screen.
Is my data private?
Yes. There is no advertising in the app and your data is never sold. Blocking decisions happen on your device where possible. You can request deletion of your account and recovery data at any time.
The next weak moment is coming. Be ready for it.
Most relapses happen in a short, ordinary moment. ShieldBet is what stands in front of it.