The gambling industry - parity on fair pay who is top and bottom

Female and working in the gambling industry? Then you will no doubt be far happier working for the likes of Betfair, William Hill and Entain than say Grosvenor Casinos or Genting Casinos.

Why? Because the first two companies are happy to regard you on a par with your male colleagues – certainly in terms of what your work is worth to them, financially. The latter two companies, not so much.

In other words, Betfair and William Hill are the companies who hardly differentiate between male and female employees when it comes to salary. And, actually, in the case of Betfair women are paid more than men with a pay ratio 0.9 per cent in favour of the fairer sex. At William Hill the difference is barely worth mentioning – just 0.9 per cent in favour of men.

The male to female fair pay statistics start to fall though when you begin to look at other companies such as

Entain Marketing. There men have the upper-hand with salaries 3.8 per cent higher than those given to women, which is thou much better than other industry sectors but Grosvenor Casinos pay men 5.8 per cent more than their female colleagues. Go to Genting Casinos though and the difference is really starting to creep up. Men there are paid as much as 8.5 per cent more than their female counterparts.

BBC report highlights continuing disparities:

The disparities came to light in a report published this week by the BBC. It looked at pay grades in middleranking incomes across a range of UK industries, from gambling to banking, construction, insurance and education. To be fair to the gambling industry as a whole, it was one of the more equal payers.

The worst offending companies forpay disparity are in the Banking and Finance industries. There the gap between womens’ and mens’ salariessits at around 22.1 per cent. Admittedly that has narrowed over the years – but only by a mere 0.4 per cent. An equally big offender is the Construction industry where the gap in salary between the sexes is also 22.1 per cent. Even in Public Institutions, the gap favours men, with 8.9 per cent of them receiving a higher salary.

In total eight out of 10 businesses pay men more than women for doing the same job. Of those rare companies which pay women more than men,

, some of the more outstanding amongst them include Airbus Operations with 17.7 per cent higher female salaries, outsourced payroll company Azebra Pay at 16.9 per cent and delivery services DHL at 12 per cent.

Worst company offenders across all sectors included Easyjet with a discrepancy of 47.3 per cent in favour of men, Lloyds Bank with 40.9 per cent and, following closely behind, Savills with a male to female pay gap of 40.5 per cent in favour of men.

The data was gleaned from the government’s Gender Pay Gap Service website, on which 10,217 employees had taken part. Under UK law all companies with 250 or more employees must list their gender pay gap figures.

One of the most striking findings of the report is that, despite continued campaigning for equal salaries between men and women in recent years, the gap remains exactly the same as it did around six years ago – a discrepancy of 9.4 per cent. Alarmingly for women, the gap actually increased between 2018 and 2021, reaching a peak of 10.9 per cent around 2020.

Jemima Olchawski, chief executive at the Fawcett Society, said action plans were needed so that employers knew what steps to take to ensure pay parity between the sexes in their employ.

“Reporting is a good way of identifying pay inequalities, but taking action is key,” she said.

Women climb to higher positions within industry

When it comes to pay disparity there are, of course, exceptions in most industries – especially when it comes to those at the top of the salary chain. Take Bet365 director Denise Coates, for instance. There are, of course, exceptions in

In January it was revealed she received an annual salary of more than £200m in the year to March 2022. This was in addition to around £50m in dividends. The former accountant - who founded the website Bet365 website in Stoke-on-Trent more than 20 years ago - is regarded as one of the highest paid company bosses in the world.

She is quoted as once saying: “I was convinced early on that gambling would work well on the internet. It is private, accessible and allows you to present a huge range of betting opportunities to customers.”

A year earlier, in 2021, Entain’s newlyappointed CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen picked up an annual salary of £2.53m. The gender gap pay disparity at the top then, isn’t the same as it is in the middle and lower levels of the gambling industry, it appears.

And certainly, a report by the All-In Diversity Project last year showed an increasing number of women getting onto all-important boards in the gambling industry. A rise of 10 per cent to 29 per cent of females were appointed onto boards, in fact. That sounds encouraging but it has to borne in mind that women make up only around 20 per cent of those in top positions within the gambling industry.

More men than women work in gambling industry

Meanwhile, the same data collected by the All-In Diversity Project showed there were more men in the industry overall - 55 per cent compared to 43 per cent female (one per cent was those who described themselves as non-binary).

Christina Thakor-Rankin, Board Advisory Co-founder of the All-In Diversity

Project, and a principal consultant at 1710 Gaming, believes the reason there are more men in the gambling industry today, could be down to the growing popularity of sports betting.

She added: “One theory is that the balance in the gaming industry is shifting from casino, historically the leading product, where women have traditionally enjoyed parity, to sports betting, which is still much more male-focussed.”

Maria Naveira Sund, Senior Vicepresident of Engineering at Kambi, the Swedish sports betting platform provider, says she has seen “more women than ever in senior leadership positions.”

Sund’s experience is backed up by Emma Blaylock, CEO of software developers and consultants Pretty Technical. She says half of her management team are women. They got their jobs, she reports, because of their ability and experience. In other words, it had nothing to do with positive discrimination for females.

But Sarah Blackburn, Founder and Director of iGaming marketing and PR agency GameOn Marketing, warned: “I think there is a lot of talk around diversity and inclusion but I’m not sure quite how much real action is going into empowering the women within businesses outside of recruitment, gender pay gaps and social gatherings.”

“It’s crucial that… that they are truly making a difference to help shape our industry for the better when it comes to diversity and inclusion – and I’m not just speaking about gender equality.”