The All-In Diversity Project, an industry-led not-for-profit initiative seeking to benchmark diversity, equality and inclusion across the global betting and gaming industry, has released its latest report on the sector’s workforce. This annual survey covers the period 2024/25.
Some of the key indicators of this All-Index Report 2024/25 are the following: 86% of the responding companies track gender; 53% track ethnicity; 50% measure gender pay gap; 17 countries legally recognize third gender, and 3% of global population is non-binary/other.
The 2024 All-Index went from being a benchmark for the global gambling ‘sector’ to global gambling ‘ecosystem’, making it the most representative and nuanced report yet. Whilst operators (B2C) and providers/suppliers (B2B) continued to be the dominant group, this year saw over a quarter (25%) of respondents identify as part of the wider stakeholder network such as regulator, charity, recruiter, payment, and marketing.
MEASURES AND IDENTITIES
There has been a noticeable increase in the number of participants who actively measure gender and gender pay gaps from 2023 to 2024. 50% of respondents now measure gender pay gap, up 8% from 2023. The number of respondents who state that they also measure gender pay gap seems to align with the number of respondents located in a jurisdiction where gender pay tracking or reporting (based on total number of employees) is a requirement. 33.33% indicated that they had identified a gender pay gap, and that this was at all levels. 66.67% reported that they did not identify a gender pay gap compared to 46% in 2023. This is an increase of 20% on last year.
Last year’s All-Index indicated that the number of women in the industry had dropped from 50% to just below 40%. This year’s numbers suggest little change in the last 12 months and number of males to females overall remains close to 60:40 (57% men to 43% women). In terms of the number of women at the top, there has been a shift with the numbers of female Executives rising by almost 3%, but numbers of non-Executives dropping by 2%.
The 2024 All-Index indicates that 25% of participants have expanded their gender metrics beyond traditional gender identities. Research in the U.S. suggests that between 5% to 7% of Gen Z adults (those born after 1995) identified as non-binary. As this trend continues, countries will need to amend existing gender and gender pay laws and regulations to ensure that they remain relevant and reflect both societal changes and other national and international laws and regulations. It will also require organizations to reconsider how they measure gender across global locations and across borders, especially where there is a conflict between countries, states or provinces around legal definitions and recognition of sex and/or gender.
WORKFORCE, ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Diverse and inclusive cultures matter more to start-ups and SME private (challenger brands) the most. This seems to mirror the latest research about values driven Gen Z (those born after 1995 and now becoming a dominant force in the global workplace), who are more likely to be associated with innovative start-ups. Cost conscious challenger brand SMEs looking to attract talent whilst managing the costs of a growing workforce in challenging times adopt a more inclusive approach that lets them cast their recruitment net wider and outside of established talent pools, resulting in a more diverse workforce.
With the exception of marketing and hospitality, where numbers are close to level, and finance, where women now dominate, there has been only minimal fluctuation in gender-role stereotype since the first All-Index 6 years ago.
As highlighted last year, organizations in the E.U. need to take steps to create opportunities for career progression by ensuring talent is identified and developed now, in order to meet the new regulation due to come into force in the future in 2026. Elsewhere, as technology such as AI starts to become more prevalent in many areas of operations, including marketing/CRM/CMS and back-office functions, a lack of females in some roles and functions runs the risk of applications being commercially biased or focusing only on some segments of the actual and potential customer base.
In this sense, 64% said it was everyone’s responsibility to promote an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome and valued. Once hired, top performing organizations reinforced inclusivity through senor leadership messages and information on employee resource groups and networks during the induction process.
Whilst communication is still important, organizations have shifted from a position of saying to doing, with 85% now citing visible role model as the single most popular action to supporting inclusivity. This needs to go hand in hand with monitoring to understand and evaluate impact and progress.
Regarding the All-Index ranking by the All-In Diversity Project, as always, only the top 10 scoring firms are identified by name. These were the leaders of all the 29 gaming companies which participated in this research.
To download the full report, you must click on this link.