The gambling industry has been known to be dominated by men. However, with the changing times, this is not the case anymore. Women are making a grand entrance into the gambling industry and making their mark.
Amy Howe
FanDuel CEO Amy Howe started her journey in February of 2021. Before long, she started questioning the practices of customer acquisition in the online casino industry. Companies in the sports betting industry are known to be aggressive and predatory when it comes to gaining customers. That is the reason why they give away so many welcome bonuses in the form of free bets in online casino games and live dealer games, as well as other alluring offers to the new players.
Howe believes at a certain point, spending on these practices becomes too aggressive and the free money given out in real money casinos cuts from the profits of the company way too much to be worth the effort. In many states, the companies have to pay taxes on these promotions as if they were revenue instead of marketing expenditures.
Guests arrive at FanDuel Sportsbook inside the Footprint Center, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, in Phoenix. Arizona’s first sports betting operations are now open in time for the start of the NFL season with live wagers allowed on college and professional sports. Betting began Thursday online and at the FanDuel Sportsbook at the downtown Phoenix arena where the Phoenix Suns play and at temporary betting windows at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field. (AP Photo/Matt York)
“If you look at the way we’ve been deploying our dollars in our customer acquisition costs relative to the value of the customer, we obsess about that,” Howe said in January 2022. “We want to make sure that we’re reaching the broadest and the right audience, but we’re doing that in a fiscally responsible way.”
Jette Nygaard-Andersen
Entain’s CEO, Jette Nygaard-Andersen searches for new methods of attracting customers with a similar approach. Instead of giving away free bets, Nygaard-Andersen wants to make free to play more alluring to players. Thus, giving a chance to the players to try out skill games and gaining customers along the way.
Nygaard-Andersen’s strategy seemed to work brilliantly, resulting in Entain’s revenue gains hitting double digits in the year 2020 and growing the global customer base by an impressive 25% in the year 2021.
Adding to the success with new customers, BetMGM Sportsbook which is owned by both Entain and MGM resorts currently has the first place spot for safe online gambling and gaming market share. BetMGM also tied for second place for the market share of sports betting in the states they are operating in. You can read our best online casino reviews to find the best online casinos for you.
“That really puts us aligned with other companies that are high growth customer focused disruptors,” she said. “Like the Netflix and the Google.” she said.
She added that similar to those two incredibly successful companies, “We use our technology to constantly think about how can we could say, evolve our offering, how can we innovate on behalf of the customers.”
Increasing the Female Interest in the Industry
Both female CEO’s have shown the desire to have more female interest in the industry.
“Fifty percent of sports fans are women, right?” Howe pointed out. “But only 15, maybe 20% of the sports betting population.”
Howe says it is important to achieve the interest of female customers in an authentic way. One way they thought up to achieve this goal is to promote female sports and support female athletes.
Nygaard-Andersen adds that technology has a big role in entertaining Entain customers. She points out that artificial intelligence, programming data sets in the company’s platform, and the tech need to be bias-free to allure women’s attention.
“It’s about the underserved groups,” she said. “It’s certainly about women, and it’s about young girls.”
Entain has recently announced that it has invested 100 million GBP in an innovation lab called Ennovate. Their goal is to bring non-profit organizations the newest technology from around the world for societal benefits.
Nygaard-Andersen also mentioned Girls Who Code, an organization that focuses on closing the gender gap in the industry of technology Entain has invested in.
“If we can get more girls excited about technology, then you start from an early age,” she said. “And the minute that girls know that, they can be superstars.”
The parent company of FanDuel, Flutter, recently announced its goal of filling 40% of its leadership roles with women by the year 2026. The publicly released goal goes to show Howe’s enthusiasm for creating opportunities for women in the ever-growing gambling industry.
Female Leaders in the Industry and their Responsibility to Other Women
“I don’t think about myself as a female CEO,” she has said. “I show up because I’m a leader in the industry.” – Nygaard-Anderson
Howe recently gave a speech at the 2022 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. She made her efforts to mentor and grow with other women in the industry apparent during the conference. Many women mentioned Howe’s role in hiring them, promoting them, or connecting them with other positions in the sports industry.
“I know that I’m in a position where I can give back, and it’s something that drives me to be a better leader,” Howe has said. “And I truly believe it’s going to make our company, our industry, successful over time.”
Nygaard-Andersen has also pointed out the importance of including women in a male-dominated industry when it comes to both product design and employment.
“I have ambitions to change the industry,” she said. “Both what we’re doing on the product side, but certainly also how we think about the industry from a diversity and inclusion perspective.”
Though, Nygaard-Anderson doesn’t just want to focus on a person’s gender and confuse the issue at hand. Instead, she focuses more on merit.
“I don’t think about myself as a female CEO,” she has said. “I show up because I’m a leader in the industry.”
