A MATTER OF LIFE & DEATH

Women’s Football: A Matter of Life or Death

By Christina Thakor-Rankin

Earlier this year the All-In Diversity Project partnered with the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA)to host a session exploring the growing popularity of women’s sport and how this might have an impact in areas such as betting integrity and new commercial opportunities. The session covered a number of areas including the rising number of female sports bettors and included statistics indicating that 43% of sports bettors in the US could be women. Other research suggested that women sports-bettors were on average 20% more successful than their male counterparts. The session appeared to be well received by an open, interested and predominantly male audience.

A few weeks later elements of this discussion were repeated in a smaller closed session. What happened next came as something of a surprise. All-in was contacted and criticised for spreading misinformation in suggesting that the number of female sports bettors was so high. The surprise was not that our integrity or that of the information was being questioned, the surprise was that the this came from 1) a woman; and 2) a woman who considers themselves to be a supporter of women in the industry.

With that in mind it feels somehow fitting that as the Women in Gaming awards enter their second decade of celebrating women in the industry, the focus for this month should be about supporting women.

According to WGP Global women’s football (soccer) is the fastest growing sport in the world. According to FIFA the last women’s World Cup was watched by over 1 billion people, with 260 million watching the final live.

Add in some anecdotal data such as betting operators now regularly offering odds on women’s football, cricket and golf (not just tennis), the rise in women’s sports and betting communities on social media, female sports pundits appearing alongside their male counterparts, and reports from problem gambling organizations about the rise in female sports betting addiction the evidence is there for anyone who wants to see it. Women’s sport and sports betting is now ‘a thing’.

But women’s sport is so, SO, much more than just about female sports bettors and the commercial opportunities it presents to forward-thinking betting operators. In 2021 is it also fast becoming a platform for promoting gender equality and women’s rights.

The Olympics and Para Olympics have seen female athletes raise awareness about the inequalities that continue to exist within sport. The Norwegian women’s volleyball team received a fine and risked disqualification after taking a stand against the skimpy bikini bottoms which are a mandatory requirement of the women’s uniform and appearing in shorts as worn as by the men’s team. The event also saw Lauren Hubbard represent New Zealand as the first ever transgender athlete

and high-profile individuals such as Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka bravely speaking out about the pressure faced by young women in sport and the impact on their mental health. Their actions garnered the respect and support of not just other women but also men in sport.

There is one sport though that is fast becoming the champion of women’s rights about any other - women’s football or soccer to avoid confusion with the other ‘football’. Here’s why.

In 2018 Saudi Arabia announced that it was taking its first steps towards female emancipation by changing the laws to allowing women to do three things that they were not allowed to do before: drive, go to the cinema and attend sports events.At the time Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world that still banned women from driving. In aligning the removal of the iconic driving ban with images of women attending a soccer match it instantly elevated the game to something much more than just a sport.

Whilst the association between women’s rights and driving drivers continues to be complex (activists arrested and jailed just before the end of the ban continue to be held in prison), the association between women’s rights and soccer is a very different matter. This month saw Monika Staab, ex Bundesliga coach make history when she tookcharge of the first Saudi women’s national team, in a project backed by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF). This comes on the back of the Saudi bid to host the 2027Asian Cup. One of 5 bidders (the others being India, Iran, Qatar and Uzbekistan) the Saudi submission unequivocally links the bid with women’s football and by association women’s rights.

In talking about the bid in March of this year, SAFF Secretary General Ibrahim Alkassim said that of the 5m football fans in “Saudi Arabia, 33 per cent are female and their share is growing” and that they “deserve our full attention, and today’s announcement of our new ambition for women’s football will hopefully send an encouraging message to all.”But it was the statement made by SAFF Board member and Ministry of Sports Planning and Development Deputy, Adwa Alarifi, that really drive the message home:

“As we in Saudi Arabia undertake our own transformation through our national Vision 2030, we want to use our long-standing passion for football to make sure that women and girls across our country can get involved and enjoy the game.”

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 is the country’s long-term economic strategy for diversification, and which has already seen women gain new rights such as getting passports, travelling, living independently and set up businesses without requiring male permission.

Women’s soccer has been a vehicle for pushing gender equality for a few years now, with countries like Norway leading the way by ensuring gender pay equality across the men’s and women’s national sides, but when a country like Saudi Arabia, a country synonymous with the denial of women’s rights for so long, adopts women’s soccer as its‘poster boy’ for modernization this takes the game to a whole new level.

Compare this with the fate of the national women’s soccer team in Afghanistan,in fear of their lives for having committed the sin of playing football following the return to power of the Taliban and evacuated by the Australian government following an appeal by FIFA and Fifpro.For these women football literally was, and for those left behind, continues to be a matter of life or death.

Between them, the Saudisand the Taliban have just turned women’s football into a platform for women’s rights. On their own these two things are probably not enough to turn women’s soccer into a modern-day suffragette movement. Fortunately, this is not the case. The actions of the Saudis will ripple across the Middle East and beyond and add to the continuing interest in women’s football, ensuring that by the time the next women’s World Cup comes around in 2023 it will without doubt be the most popular sport on the planet and take place against the backdrop of the men’s World Cup and a mere 6 months before in Qatar amid protests and calls for boycotts against a country with a questionable record on human and women’s rights and allegations of stadiums being built by migrant slave labour.

Compare this to the women’s event co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand and the first event of the modern digital age to include women of every creed, colour and religion from every part of the world taking part ina sport which many will see as synonymous with women’s rights and gender equalitystanding shoulder to shoulder (and most likely including the Afghan women’s team) under the tournament slogan ‘As One’ - watched by billions across the world.

It may not be the start of a new suffragette movement, but hopefully it will be the moment that the world wakes up to the fact that for some women the right to play football continues to be a matter of life or death, and for that reason alone, the world’s continued support of the women who play it, so much, much, more important.

Melco Not Giving Up In Japan

After nearly a decade working in Yokohama with the local government and agencies Melco Resorts & Entertainment has announced it is closing their office after the newly elected Mayor has given the integrated resort proposal the thumbs down.

In a statement on the closure Lawrence Ho the Chairman and CEO of Melco said: “For the past several years, we have worked with our partners to devise a superlative, worldclass IR proposal that reflects the unique characteristics and culture of Yokohama and which would put the city on the global stage of tourism,” Lawrence Ho went on to say. tion to quality and craftsmanship, and our dedication to creating a world-class entertainment destination. We designed this resort in a way that reflected Melco’s focus on quality, demonstrating a respectful approach to partnership, developing the most advanced protection measures in the world, and with stringent ethical business conduct during the process.”

However local sentiment was set against any such development, and the project ground to a halt.

“Unfortunately, the citizens of Yokohama have decided otherwise, and the mayoral election results give a clear verdict,” added Ho. on an anti-IR platform, has now closed the door on the process we engaged in with our partners. While we are disappointed, we are grateful for the friendships that we have formed throughout the process and express our sincere gratitude to the people and government of Yokohama, as well as our business and community partners, for their tremendous support.

“Melco has been working on the ground in Japan for over a decade. We firmly believe in the country’s long-term potential and remain committed to exploring opportunities to develop the world’s best integrated resort in Japan. We will be closing our Yokohama office while maintaining a representative office in Tokyo.”