iGaming industry 'needs to become more diverse, especially at senior levels'

Malta-based casino and game developer Hero Gaming penned a statement calling for the iGaming industry to “come together to ensure that [they] have a diverse group of people to represent our organisations in events and conferences”.

Marie Theobald, Chief People Officer at Hero Gaming commented in the wake of recent industry events, publications and panels where some have complained of a lack of diversity.

Ms Theobald wrote:

“We still have a long journey ahead of us – as an industry, we need to become more diverse, especially at senior levels. Nevertheless, there are plenty of people from different backgrounds in our industry who have been immensely successful, but have unfortunately not had anyone turning the spotlight onto them.”

Last week, the Guardian reported on the Global Gaming Awards, hosted by Gambling Insider, and cited criticism stemming from a lack of diversity on its panel of judges. The Guardian claimed that “the judging panel of 52 people contained one woman and no black people.”

CEO of Gambling Insider Gary Roudette commented on LinkedIn that “we acknowledge how this looks”. Mr Roudette further added that he believed the imbalance was caused by “the sad fact is there are not many women CEOs in the gaming industry’s leading companies.”

In rebuttal, Karonline Pelc, founder and CEO of SharedPlay.io remarked:

“There aren’t enough women CEOs in the industry and I appreciate you might not be able to secure the commitment of the few but there are many in senior leadership positions, with fantastic expertise warranting ‘authority’ to judge”.

The Global Gaming Awards claims that it “represents a dynamic cross-section of the global gaming industry”.

Featured Image: Global Gaming Awards