Sky Betting & Gaming (SBG), Kindred and IGT are ahead of many other iGaming companies in supporting diversity and inclusion.
This was disclosed in the 2021-22 edition of the All-Index Report as published by the All-In Diversity Project, a not-for-profit industry-driven initiative that benchmarks diversity, equality and inclusion.
A total of 40 organisations across 16 jurisdictions, consisting of 140,000 employees, participated in the report.The report provides critical information on the industry’s progress at a time when iGaming companies are seeking to attract a greater number of institutional investors.
Asset managers are increasingly scrutinising companies’ diversity, equity and inclusion policies and are actively pushing for gender diversity at both board level and in the senior management ranks of the companies in which they invest.
“We have been collecting diversity data through our investment platform for years. But I would really say it’s over the last few years that we have seen a big increase in the demand for that information,” Katey Bogue, vice president at Nasdaq, commented recently.
There is no shortage of studies that link gender diversity to higher profitability.
One of the most quoted studies, by McKinsey, found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the bottom quartile.
Nasdaq vice president Katey Bogue: “We have been collecting diversity data through our investment platform for years. But I would really say it’s over the last few years that we have seen a big increase in the demand for that information.”
The All-Index report uses answers from participating companies to create a leaderboard. The answers are then rated on a scale of 1-100.
Flutter-owned SBG topped the list with a score of 85. Stockholm-listed Kindred Group was second with 79, while supplier giant IGT received a score of 78. Light & Wonder and Penn National Gaming both scored 73.
“Inclusion work is never done,” said SBG in a statement. “As an organisation, we will always experience the symptoms of society’s wider challenges. However, with a strong strategy, laid on authentic values demonstrated by our leadership team, we’re making the changes in our organisation that we’d want to see in the wider world.”
Elsewhere, Dorothy Costa, IGT SVP of people and transformation, commented: “As a leader in sustainability, IGT prioritises fostering a culture of continuous improvement and cultivating an inclusive and welcoming work environment.“We continue to make significant progress in our diversity and inclusion initiatives through employee feedback, surveys, and industry benchmarks that are critical to measuring our success.
“IGT remains dedicated to driving change by adopting emerging trends and taking actions that help ensure all employees are empowered to thrive and bring their full and authentic selves to work,” she added.
In addition to measuring each organisation’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, the All-Index survey also evaluated the impact of Covid-19 in the workplace and emerging global trends in the workforce.
This year’s report recorded the widest gap between male and females in the industry, with the number of males (56%) exceeding the number of females (43%) for the first time in five years.
The biggest gap came at entry level and is “a real cause for concern when looking at long-term prospects for role models, mentors and talent pools”, the report noted.
IGT senior vice president of people Dorothy Costa: “IGT remains dedicated to driving change by adopting emerging trends and taking actions that help ensure all employees are empowered to thrive and bring their full and authentic selves to work.”
If the index is to be used as a benchmark for the industry, “then it is closer than ever before to hitting 30% female representation at executive board level, and in the case of non-executive roles, has surpassed it”, the NGO said.
Other noticeable trends in the report show that the number of organisations offering company paid sick leave has dropped from 95.8% in 2019 to 84.4% as of now, while the number of organisations with a policy on flexible working has increased from 75% in 2019 to 84.4% in this year’s report.
In addition, the report said companies are reacting to changing views and attitudes in society, with maternity leave now starting to be replaced with the more generic ‘parental leave’ to same sex couples.