All On Board Entain’s Equality Express

Following soon on the heels of appointing a female chief executive, Jette Nygaard-Andersen, Omni-channel Entain continues its ground-breaking bid to bring gender equality to a hitherto über-macho gambling industry.

“Putting its money where its mouth is”, the FTSE100 gaming giant reduced its median hourly gender pay gap from 7.1 to 5.3 per cent in 2021 – compared to a UK national gender pay gap of around 15 per cent.

2021 was also the year that Entain–owners of top gambling brands, such as: bwin, Coral Ladbrokes, PartyPoker and Sportingbet—appointed Nygaard-Andersen their CEO, making her the first female boss of a UK-listed betting operator.

“At Entain our vision is to create a ‘best place to work’ where our colleagues feel valued, respected, and engaged, and to ensure that this is reflected in the way they are rewarded,” said Nygaard-Andersen.

“We are pleased to report that our median hourly pay gap has reduced to 5.3 per cent — substantially lower than the national average of 15.4 per cent.

“This reflects the gender parity in our retail business where 54 per cent of our colleagues are female.”

Entain’s gender positivism is part of its progressive EnTrain diversity and technology programme that launched in November last year.

“While we are encouraged by this [progress], we take nothing for granted and have put in place programmes and policies such as EnTrain and Women@Entain which will help us continue on this journey [to gender equality],” continued Nygaard-Andersen.

“This approach to diversity, equity and inclusion is vital to our purpose of revolutionising betting and gaming interactive entertainment.”

The EnTrain programme is multi-million-pound global initiative to increase access to technology and improve diversity, with the goal of positively impacting the lives of over one million people around the world by 2030.

“Entain is an ambitious business,” added the CEO. “And sustainability is one of our two core strategic pillars.”

Nevertheless, few would disagree that there are still many miles to travel on the road to gender equality in the gambling industry.

At Entain, for example, and despite its progressive employment policies, only 39 per cent of its upper pay quartile is female.

And the company’s median bonus pay gap is still a whopping 59.6 per cent.