Diversity snapshot confirms ‘tipping point’ in career path of women

A survey completed by 25 gambling firms appears to confirm a ‘tipping point’ in the career path of women at middle management level.

The All-Index, which has been compiled by the All-In Diversity initiative with academics from Oxford Brookes University, includes reaponses from Caesars, Paddy Power Betfair, GVC, Playtech and the Rank Group.

The Q3 interim report, which will be published in full on the All-In Diversity website tomorrow (Thursday 22 November), appeared to show that respondents were in general doing better than national averages for some common diversity metrics.

For example, out of the group of 25 firms to respond 21% of employees in tech roles identified as female – higher than the US average of 19% and 17% in the UK.

Women were also found to make up 28% of non-executive director positions among the firms that reported, which is greater than the 18% reported in the US and 26% in the UK.

However, a deeper dive into the 43-page snapshot reveals a less surprising picture.

According to All-In’s data just 17.02% of leadership roles are held by women from the reporting group, despite them making up 47.06% of entry-level positions.

The survey also reveals a drop off in pay equity as salary bands get higher, with just 20% of the industry’s highest earners being female.

Further, the report states: “All age bands are near 50:50 female/male. The biggest difference reported was in the 35-45 age group with 55% of this group reported as male and 45% of the group reported female — this may relate to a ‘tipping point’ and may warrant deeper interrogation in future surveys”.

The demographic breakdown of gender by job roles also reveals that women appear to be more highly represented in ‘people’ or ‘process’ driven roles.

Women significantly outstripped men in human resources and people management for example, where they made up 75.27% of those roles in the reporting group.

They were also well represented in sales and commercial (54.85%) and marketing and advertising (50.31%).

In contrast, women made up just 17% of information security and hardware, network and infrastructure roles, 18.21% of risk management roles and 24.36% of business strategy, product development and innovation roles.

All-In Diversity co-founder Christina Thakor Rankin said: “To the uninitiated or anyone unfamiliar with the industry, the numbers at first sight might well generate the reaction ‘What’s the problem? The ratio of men to women is 50/50.’”

However, she added: “When it comes to the decision-making roles, a decision-maker being a manager or above, the numbers are far from 50/50. When it comes to decision-making roles, women are still under-represented. And that is the point. That is not equality”.

Co-founder Kelly Kehn agreed the first report i still a partial picture. “Our goal for the report is to be an ongoing global perspective for the industry. In order for that to happen, the roster of participants does to need to grow further than those businesses already supporting diversity in the West.”

“We need data from operators and suppliers in key jurisdictions such as Eastern Europe, South America and Asia in order to get a clearer picture”.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE: The All-In Diversity Project has re-opened the survey for participants that would like to be included in Q4 submissions.

Gambling companies can sign up on the All-In Diversity website and the deadline runs to the end of the year. The cost of participation is £500.

The results from Q3 and Q4 will be combined and the full year report will be released during ICE London, 4-7 February.

Full list of 25 participants

Addison Global Ltd
Betfair Holding (Malta) Limited
Betfair Ltd (Spain)
Betfair (UK)
Caesars Entertainment
Colossus Bets
Gamevy
Gaming Innovation Group
GVC Holdings
IGT
Kindred Group
Ladbrokes Coral Group
LeoVegas Mobile Gaming Group (Sweden)
Massachusetts Gaming Commission
Microgaming Software Systems Ltd
Paddy Power Betfair Romania
Panserve Limited
Playtech
Power Leisure Bookmakers Ltd
Power Leisure Bookmakers Limited (Sede Secondaria)
The Rank Group
Red Tiger Gaming
Spinnr Games
TSED Unipessoal, LDA
Videoslots