INSIGHT
INSIGHT
PIONEERING
CULTURAL CHANGE
All-In’s first Index is a tantalising slice of the diversity story but it’s far
from the full picture. Hannah Gannagé-Stewart reports
ALL-IN DIVERSITY’S inaugural
All-Index could mark a turning
point in both external and internal
perceptions of the gambling industry
– if others take the opportunity to
come on board. The 43-page report
published on the All-In Diversity
website in late November lifts the lid
on diversity and inclusion in gaming
for the first time but is only a snapshot
of 25 firms; the project’s co-founders,
Christina Thakor Rankin and Kelly
Kehn, have been clear since its launch
in 2017 that for the All-Index to paint
an accurate picture of the industry
as many businesses as possible have
to participate.
Importantly, there are clear benefits
to doing so. Participants receive a
ranking on the basis of their answers,
offering them some context on their
current performance and what more
might need to be done. The published
ranking is anonymous, so there is no
risk of individual performance being
released unless a business chooses to
share it.
Moreover, as part of the project’s
goal to establish and finesse the
All-Index in the first year, All-In
Diversity has been liaising with the
British Standards Institution to have it
formally recognised.
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iGB Affiliate Issue 72 DEC 2018 / JAN 2019
GVC is one of several big names to
have participated in the first survey.
Juliet Daye, the company’s head
of diversity, inclusion and talent
development, says being part of the
first report was not only important to
aid their own benchmarking initiatives
but “symbolic” of their belief in
the importance of it. “It’s beneficial
on a practical level to complete the
survey because it gives you an audit
of what you’re doing and what
you’re not doing,” she explains. “We
only started looking at diversity and
inclusion on the Ladbrokes Coral side
at the beginning of 2018, and started
implementing it in March this year.”
Daye says she was pleased with where
Ladbrokes appeared among the list of
25 given the firm is “at the start of the
journey on this”.
Meanwhile, GVC only started
rolling out its diversity initiative
at the end of November. As such,
Daye said she wasn’t surprised to see
GVC rank a little behind Ladbrokes
Coral. As a business that has grown
extraordinarily quickly over the past
few years, GVC perhaps exemplifies
both the advantages and the challenges
that igaming has in this area.
As head of CSR and corporate
communications Jay Dossetter points
out, “From a GVC perspective, the
business has come a long way in such
a short time. This year there was a
recognition that we needed to grow up
fast and take the broader issues around
CSR seriously and give more resources
to it.”
GVC won’t be alone in only recently
recognising the need to measure
and manage diversity and inclusion,
but its sudden need to play catch-
up is perhaps a warning for smaller
businesses to take the plunge before
their scale demands it.
NetEnt is notably absent from
the list of 25 inaugural participants.
It does not feature despite its long-
“The gender split within the 25 firms that
opted to complete All-In Diversity’s first
questionnaire was 53.4% male and 46.5%
female – closer to equal than some may
have anticipated”