Women in gaming: Embracing equity to drive a better balance in business

I admit it. I had to Google ‘equity’ to fully understand the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day and, most particularly, how it is different from its sister term ‘equality’. If you’re like me, I’ll save you the trouble – Google told me that equality is the principle of everyone receiving the same (or equal); whereas equity is recognising that our individual differences mean we actually need unequal distribution to achieve equality.

‘Embracing equity’ therefore is the notion that we should acknowledge that our differences mean we each begin the race from a different starting block, and flexible application of policies and expectations is the fairest way to approach collective culture and values, especially in the workplace.

It’s been my observation that male networks breed male-dominated recruitment; where everyone has a ‘friend in the business’ that they used to work with to recommend for a role, perpetuating the gender imbalance. As organisations, we need to instead be unafraid of securing talent from outside our industry to allow thought-diversity and strategic innovation to flourish.

To attract quality and diverse external candidates to the sports and gaming industries (where the current representative gender split is around 70/30 men to women), ways of working and policy design need to be equitable rather than equal, and this should be an immediate focus of every company in our sector.

Prioritise equality

Here at LiveScore Group, we have recently rolled out our enhanced family policies globally, extending our maternity leave support to six months full pay plus six months half pay, and we are strong proponents of shared parental leave, allowing families to navigate the paid work versus home care divide more fairly and challenge institutionalised gender roles. We believe that creating a positive experience for expectant parents is the best way to stimulate loyalty among this subset of employees.

It is, of course, impossible for companies alone to embrace equity in the workforce without more government support. For example, until now the UK has had one of the most expensive (and least subsidised) childcare system in the developed world, with Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, a charity dedicated to tackling the root causes of maternity discrimination, noting that “two-thirds of parents pay the same or more for their childcare as their housing”, resulting in “millions” of women leaving the workforce or stymieing their careers after childbirth. Given yesterday’s budget announcements, huge progression may now be underway in this area, but it goes to show that ineffective or flawed national structures will always bleed into inequality in the private sector and overcoming them should be a motivation for all.

That being said, as an industry we can still, independently, go beyond to embrace equity in those areas we are more readily able to affect. In addition to our updated family policies, LiveScore Group has implemented global policies which help our employees (and their managers) deal with health issues like menopause and pregnancy loss, allowing for discretionary leave and other flexible working arrangements. Importantly, we are also at the beginning of an education programme to train managers in how to recognise, react and best accommodate employees who might be experiencing personal issues such as these.

While learnings can be taken from the macro level, understanding how a company can embrace equitable practice is often best enabled by intrinsic reflection. In this regard, LiveScore Group has a fantastic Women’s Employee Resource Group made up of women from every department, seniority and international office of our business. I’m so often inspired and encouraged after meetings with this group, where individuals bring a fresh perspective from within the organisation in terms of creative opportunities for improvement and growth. Certainly, I am confident that the future is bright in terms of achieving a better balance in our business, and I can only hope other companies specialising in sport and gaming aim for the same.

Rani Wynn is general counsel and board member at LiveScore Group. Wynn, yet another Aussie in London, made the jump from broadcast media to sports and gambling in 2018 when she joined LiveScore Group (then part of Gamesys). As general counsel, she has shaped a full service legal team to underpin and drive forward the group’s vast commercial and transactional aspirations globally. A fervent promoter of industry diversity, Wynn established LiveScore Group’s women’s resource group in 2022 to tackle workplace gender imbalance.