iGaming Business - Issue 113 iGB-113_NovDec-print-p55-63-Salary-Survey-cover | Page 2

Salary Survey
iGB-PENTASIA
SALARY SURVEY 2018
The inaugural iGB Salary Survey refl ects the evolving needs of a sector grappling
with the challenges of maturity, writes Stephen Carter.
Welcome to the fi rst-ever iGaming Business industry salary
survey in partnership with the sector’s leading recruitment agency
Pentasia. Their data experts have segmented the advertised salary
data from its global network by job, grade and location to give the
industry’s most comprehensive and detailed insight into sector
recruitment trends to date.
With the analysis starting in 2016-17, enabling benchmarking of
the data from this point, it is understandably tempting to look for
patterns or evidence in the data of the forces that have reshaped
and buffeted the sector in recent years, from consolidation, to
CSR and compliance pressures, impending Brexit and, of course,
regulation and tax changes.
Turning fi rst to the headline fi ndings, the sector as a whole saw a
2.7% increase in average salaries in 2017-18 compared to the prior
year, broadly consistent with wider trends, the UK jobs market for
instance experiencing 2.8% growth in the period.
As Pentasia MD Alastair Cleland comments, this underpins
igaming’s status as “a thriving and growing market, with a talent
shortage that continues to favour candidates”.
The headline fi gure however masks some huge variances
within the data, most signifi cantly with regards to seniority.
As shown in the bar chart opposite, growth has been far more
pronounced at the uppermost levels, widening the gap between
senior and managerial pay. Cleland provides analysis of this on the
opposite page.
There are also vast differences in the annual salaries paid by
companies to candidates for doing the same job at the same grade.
Thus while the average annual MD/C-suite salary was £128k
across the two-year period from 2016-2018, the top 10% earned an
average of £235k. Similarly, in senior marketing roles, the average
earned was £101,500, while the top tier took home £176,000.
It’s also fair to assume that this upper 10% has a distorting effect
on the overall average for each job category, meaning that many
reading this survey who consider themselves to be earning the
norm may not necessarily see their pay measuring up to this.
Viewed from a regional/jurisdictional perspective, the hike in
senior level salaries was most prominent in Gibraltar, up 42%
year-on-year.
Principal igaming consultant Cara Kerr told iGB: “The ‘Brexit
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iGamingBusiness | Issue 113 | November/December 2018
effect’ has not been noticeably evident – though clearly the effects of
the coming few months could be signifi cant.”
In Malta, set to receive the biggest post-Brexit boost from the
Crown Dependency licences losing EU (grey) market access
when the UK leaves in 2019, average salaries were up 3.4%, above the
overall industry growth rate but behind the UK and Ireland
with 5.84%.
Head of Malta Pentasia Anthony Hennessy says the island is
suffering “a major talent shortage exacerbated by infl ux of new
operators”. The gaps are “particularly painful at the mid-management
level…where it really slows the pace of business” and include affi liate,
account and customer service managers.
A robust compliance function is of course becoming increasingly
pivotal to building a sustainable business in the igaming sector, driven
by recent reputation-damaging regulatory interventions and fi nes
levied on operators for KYC, money-laundering, social responsibility
and advertising failings in the UK. This has attached a growing
premium to “senior compliance talent who can identify and make
recommendations based on imminent and changing regulation”,
says Cleland.
As for the impacts of the consolidation dance which has seen most
of the major listed players combine in recent years, Cleland says the
effects have been gradual as businesses have been careful to retain
their most talented staff. “Displacement caused by merging teams has
created some areas where candidate availability outstrips vacancies –
such as London, where candidates are fi nding they must either travel
for work or transfer to new sectors”, he adds.
Emerging and potentially disruptive tech is also attracting those
with entrepreneurial tendencies away from the big igaming fi rms to
smaller, more agile startups, with those building on blockchain and
AI proving particularly magnetic, according to Cleland. He points
out that: “ICOs have enabled these smaller operations to become
cash rich quickly and enables them to offer highly attractive salaries
alongside the chance of new success.”
Last but not least, remote working is becoming number one request
on the candidate wishlist, but one that that sector employers are by
and large still unwilling or unable to accommodate. “As the freelance
and remote economy continues to grow, likely either employers or
candidates will need to adapt or compromise, says Cleland.