Women in Gambling: Valuable Players and Successful Leaders

Experts of the Rosloto company will tell you about the role of women in the modern casino industry and explain why operators should not ignore this category of users and how to achieve gender equality in the enterprise.

Female Players as Target Audience

Only 5 years ago, most marketing campaigns were aimed at men. Today, the situation has partially changed. Advertisers are still focused on successful guys aged 18–35, but many female users like entertainment for money, and this factor is worth taking into account.

The National Gambling Commission of the UK published the following statistics for 2022:

• 42% of the UK women regularly place bets. They prefer bingo, scratch cards, and lottery draws (slot machines are less popular).
• 8% is the annual increase in the female audience. It is easy for marketers to attract customers who are 35+ years old.
• There are more women aged 45–64 than men who enjoy gambling activities. Almost all of them prefer digital products — sports betting on the Internet and online casino solutions.

Researchers from the University of Liverpool agree with the published statistics. In their opinion, girls with verified accounts spend more time on gaming sites and spin the reels in slots at higher limits.

Lebby Eyres, CEO of The Health Lottery, said:

When placing bids in the Grand National, women are interested not only in the final result but also in watching the enchanting horse racing. They enjoy the gameplay no less than men.

The UK is not the only market where the gap between male and female audiences is quickly closing:

• In Australia, the proportion of women who visit casinos is 45.8%, and these are mostly online users.
• Talking about the frequency of visiting land-based establishments in Canada, the indicators are almost equal: 46% versus 54%. At the same time, iGaming is still dominated by the male audience: its share is 82.4%.
• In Kenya, 69% of men and 44% of women regularly bet on sports events.

Simone McCarthy, professor at Deakin University of Australia, noted:

Statistics for the last year show an increase in participation of female customers in most forms of gambling entertainment. About a third of them place bids at least once a month, and another 20% visit platforms with slots once a week.

Why Do Women Visit Casinos and Bookmakers’ Offices

The 21st century was marked by active digitalisation of most areas of the economy and an accelerated pace of life, in which there was almost no room left for relaxation. Playing on gaming sites or in land-based locations helps people take their minds off the daily routine and stress.

Reasons that motivate the female audience to launch slot machines are:

• dramatic change in lifestyle (moving, divorce, or retirement);
• the desire to be isolated, take a break from everyday tasks, and have fun;
• suppression of strong emotions (boredom, fear, anxiety, or depression);
• stress reduction.

In the wagering niche, the motives of gamblers are slightly different. Often, a healthy interest in their favourite sport and a desire to imitate familiar people (for example, work colleagues) come to the fore.

The YouGov European online publication conducted a survey among fans of betting and announced the following results:

• 48% of respondents noted that the placement of bids on a match makes it more interesting to watch the competition;
• 44% said that wagering increases the chances of seeing the game in live mode.

Women rarely play to earn money. The statement is true for both casinos and bookmakers’ offices. In most cases, the female audience is driven by the search for new emotions, such as joy, a feeling of success, and satisfaction with the outcome of the match.

Effective Marketing Strategies

Gambling is closely related to other sectors of the economy (tourism, retail, and service). The growth of the number of women in leading business areas allows us to evaluate the benefits of working with this target group and understand in which direction to move.

Marketers identify several strategies aimed at this category of clients:

The active development of the iGaming sector makes it easier to promote bets among women. If half a century ago, the weaker gender was traditionally excluded from gambling, then today, everything has changed dramatically.

In the 21st century, players have modern and reliable smartphones based on Apple technology. They no longer need to undergo strict face control to get into a prestigious casino. All games are available online with just a few taps on the touch screen.

Attraction of the Female Audience: The Health Lottery Experience

The company unites 12 public lotteries in the UK and conducts the raffles on their behalf.

The project has been operating since 2011. Each year, The Health Lottery donates 20% of the proceeds to local medical organisations. The brand is known as a major patron that supports many non-profit initiatives and charitable foundations.

In March 2023, Lebby Eyres took over as CEO of the firm. She joined the team after many years in journalism and immediately noticed differences between the gender balance in the media and the gambling industry.

One of the key changes Ms. Eyres has initiated is a major re-launch of The Health Lottery. It was decided not to ignore the women’s requests but to adapt the product to their needs.

During the restart, the company updated:

• official website;
• logo;
• the style as a whole.

Lebby Eyres noted:

We made a rebranding to increase engagement and provide a better emotional connection with our customers.

The expert’s journalistic experience taught her how much girls love real-life stories. For this reason, another section was added to the official page of the brand. It publishes the reviews of real people who benefited from charitable funds raised by The Health Lottery.

After the re-launch, the provider posted an anonymous survey. The purpose of collecting information was to understand whether clients liked the latest changes.

Women as Industry Leaders

Gambling is a niche that has been dominated by men for many years. They held key positions and made important decisions on the development of iGaming enterprises.

In recent years, there have been several precedents in the market when girls have achieved unconditional success.

Entain

The British holding specialises in sports betting and gambling. Its shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange and are included in the prestigious FTSE 100 index.

The company obtained 18 licences, has more than 10 offices in Europe, North America, and Asia, and hired about 28 thousand employees.

In January 2021, Jette Nygaard-Andersen became chief executive officer of Entain and the first woman to hold this position.

Ms. Nygaard-Andersen's main achievements are:

1. Audience growth by 25%. At the end of 2021, the brand managed to increase its customer base by 25% in key operating markets. These are the USA, Great Britain, and Scandinavian countries. One of the main reasons for this was the use of unconventional marketing techniques. Some players were attracted thanks to exclusive free products, which were installed on the official website of Entain and in AppStore and Google Play.
2. Construction of the Ennovate innovation laboratory. The holding invested £100 million in the project aimed at promoting advanced technologies in all parts of the world. Ennovate employees are studying the impact of artificial intelligence and Big Data on many sectors of the economy, including gambling.
3. Investing in the Girls Who Code startup. The organisation is dedicated to the gender gap reduction in the field of technology and support for inclusiveness at work.

Jette Nygaard-Andersen noted:

The growth of our customer base by 25% puts us on par with such companies as Netflix and Google. Like us, they are implementing innovations to expand the supply and global market presence.

FanDuel Group

The American bookmaker offers betting on various competitions, horse racing, and fantasy sports and develops casino software.

FanDuel takes a leading position in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and West Virginia. The firm also continues its active expansion into other markets as iGaming is legalised in American states. The brand has 9 offices in the United States and Scotland.

Amy Howe took over as FanDuel CEO in 2021. Previously, she worked for Ticketmaster North America (a ticket sales and distribution company) for 6 years as an executive director.

Ms. Howe's main initiatives are related to the reduction of customer acquisition expenses. She has spoken about the wasteful spending on advertising and promotion that takes place in the US online gambling industry.

Ms. Howe cited New York State as an example. Here, bookmakers offer players generous rewards (signup bonuses and risk-free bids). Operators pay high taxes for it but, at the same time, cannot mention this item of expenditures as marketing costs.

Changes in the FanDuel advertising policy helped reduce this budget line by 8% without losing the company's customer base.

Amy Howe also stated:

We have set ourselves a fairly ambitious goal: by 2026, 40% of senior positions in the company will be occupied by women. And I truly believe that over time, this will make our industry successful.

The Health Lottery

Lebby Eyres, CEO of the enterprise, noted:

Our client base is distributed quite evenly. As for the staff, there is a clear bias towards men (75%), while women make up only 25% of all company employees.

Ms. Eyres offered several ideas on how to help women make a career:

1. Provide flexible working conditions. Thanks to this, more girls will be able to apply for management positions.
2. Support in starting families. Many women are afraid to go on maternity leave and risk becoming unnecessary to the company due to their temporary absence. The introduction of personal development programs can solve this problem.

The Main Things About Female Players and Market Leaders in Gambling

In the 21st century, this category makes a significant contribution to the development of the casino industry.

• The shift of focus to a mixed target audience will increase the profitability of iGaming platforms. This approach will open up new opportunities for promoting and scaling casino businesses.
• Among the effective strategies for attracting women, we can name Self-image, Empowerment, and Acceptability. Most advertising moves are based on emotions. All girls want to be offered beauty and luxury and have the desire to be successful and belong to a closed club.
• Women have proved themselves well in managerial positions. Their initiatives are aimed at growing the customer base, reducing operational costs, and promoting gender equality and inclusion.

The Rosloto company scales iGaming projects in the world’s leading regulated markets, taking into account all industry requirements and requests of different target groups.

From us, it is also possible to order the following useful services:

• creation of a turnkey online casino;
• integration of payment systems;
• development of exclusive HTML5 slots based on individual sketches;
• drafting a business plan, and much more.

For all questions, please contact our managers.