DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION – MORE THAN JUST A TRENDING TOPIC

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

More than just a Trending Topic

As is now a yearly custom, iGaming NEXT’s annual conference drew in more than 2,000 delegates, who descended onto Valletta’s Mediterranean Conference Centre for two days of punchy educational content and exclusive networking opportunities. This year’s official theme saw tradition make way for innovation, and titans of Europe’s online gambling industry gathered to be part of the many conversations.

“Get ready to go back to the future,” screamed the official teaser poster, while the increasingly important verticals of Web3, NFTs, blockchain and the metaverse took centre stage. “Innovation and future thinking were what this year was all about,” said iGaming NEXT Head of Commercial Rory Credland, who was also in charge of the event’s agenda. “When you start developing the content, the strapline is an important element, because it formulates and shapes the event. That always takes a bit of time to come up with,” he added.

But concurrently, another theme was emerging, as the company sought to put diversity, inclusion and gender equality at the top of the agenda. While 38% of this year’s attendees were female – a figure consistent with last year – the percentage of female speakers positively rose from 28% in 2021 to 40% in 2022. “We made a conscious effort to have better representation across the board,” said Credland, who helped form the agenda alongside an advisory board of experienced gambling industry professionals, many of whom hold senior management positions at leading companies. “It’s not always possible because of time commitments or subject matter, or whatever the reasons may be,” he added. “But subconsciously, at least, we always try to get as diverse a representation as possible, and we’ll keep on aiming for that.”

On Day 2, the pre-lunchtime panel on the main stage was focused on the topic of D&I, and whether online gambling firms are doing enough to diversify their personnel. The session, entitled “It’s time to think outside the (tick) box”, was moderated by Betsson Group Senior Talent Development Manager Maria Loumpourdi, who was also the chair of the D&I committee at Bank of Valletta until January 2022. Loumpourdi was joined on stage by Better Collective Lead HR Consultant Rikke Refsgaard Larsen – chair of the company’s D&I board – and happyhour.io partner Kelly Kehn, who co-founded the impactful All-in Diversity Project back in 2017.

Loumpardi made an incredibly pertinent observation that certainly got the ball rolling. “Let’s dive right into it. When we talk about diversity and inclusion, we often hear the term equality of opportunity. But what I see is that the term ‘equality of opportunity’ is often being misused to justify an inequality of outcome.” For obvious reasons, this had ignited a lively 25-minute discussion on the main stage.

In addition, there was also an entire conference track dedicated to D&I just the day before, held upstairs at the MCC on the Wednesday. This was the fruits of a collaboration between Malta-headquartered operator Betsson Group and iGaming NEXT, and the result was a series of thought-provoking sessions on unconscious bias training, neurodiversity and creating a trans-inclusive workplace, among others.

While improvements have been made over the last few years, the iGaming industry is still a male-dominated sector, and more work needs to be done to not only address the obvious gender imbalance, but to also highlight the alarming lack of ethnic minority staff at gaming firms. The media must play a pivotal role in keeping D&I at the top of the agenda by dedicating enough column inches, but also by holding companies in the space to account, and making sure they follow through on the promises published in their annual sustainability reports.

Gone are the days of pole dancing acts and scantily clad women to attract the attention of male businessmen at trade shows. Thank goodness, that is no longer a common or accepted practice, and that’s just how we like it. Nonetheless, we shouldn’t be patting ourselves on the back for achieving what is clearly the bare minimum.

At iGaming NEXT, we have the tools to bring about the much needed structural and cultural changes. We have the means to showcase individuals as the industry leaders that they are, for their business intelligence and work ethic. Gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality and orientation should not be a factor. Naturally, it should always come down to finding the right person for the job or the most appropriate expert in their field, but we can only get to this state once we’ve identified and addressed our own unconscious biases and blind spots, ensuring that there is genuine equal opportunity for all.