Keita Young has a job that she hopes will someday be obsolete.
“The end game is when there is not the need for DEI officers, but I think there is a long runway that I am on, and I am on the beginning of it, where people who are different or perceive themselves as different have that opportunity,” Young, the senior director for diversity, equity, and inclusion at FanDuel, told .
In the more than five years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and made'legal wagering a states’ rights issue, the industry has had many internal struggles, gone from being at odds with to partners with professional sports leagues, and is at once a new industry many are excited about and one that others want to tamp down.
As sports wagering has become more commonplace – more than 30 U.S. jurisdictions have live, legal wagering in some fashion with at least three more to come by the end of the year – stakeholders have managed the issues critical to offering their products and have now begun to refine the finer points and look beyond matchups, odds, and parlays.
Responsible gambling and more stringent guidelines designed to protect those at risk have been discussed persistently in 2023, and close behind as a serious topic is DEI. Nearly every major operator now has a DEI director, department, or committee, and regulators are prioritizing representation of all kinds within the industry. Some legislatures have started to include DEI in bills and laws.
But what, exactly, does diversity, equity, and inclusion mean, and what does it look like in a practical sense?
“When you talk about equity,” FanDuel's Young said, “it's not about everybody starting on the same page, it's about everybody getting to the same page.”
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Gaming more diverse than hospitality
FanDuel, the biggest operator by market share across the U.S., and PENN Entertainment, which recently signed a deal with ESPN to offer ESPN BET as its digital platform, are among the operators that have formalized what previously were looser, grassroots DEI efforts. Lawmakers in Maryland and Massachusetts mandated DEI in their industries, and regulators in those states are vigorously implementing those mandates.
According to an April 2023 American Gaming Association study, diversity has grown by 20% over the last 10 years among operators, including the two noted above. The study indicated that 61% of gaming industry employees are minorities vs. 42% of the total U.S. workforce, while 60% of operator employees are minorities. The number of Black workers in the industry has grown from 12% to 19% since 2011.
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When it comes to who places wagers, consumers are overwhelmingly white and male. According to a recent study by customer-experience company Disqo, 87% of sports betting search, app, and website visits were made by men, predominantly Gen Xers and millennials. The study points to baby boomers and women as untapped markets.
True change must come from top
Stakeholders say that just because the sports betting audience is predominantly male doesn’t mean leadership should be. And in the longer term, diversifying leadership will bring ideas that will, in turn, broaden the customer base.
As the industry works to diversify itself and its offerings, that effort has to come from the top, suggests Nakisha Skinner, a member of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
“I think the best avenue, quite frankly … is through those who are in power,” she said. “Those executives, those on the boards, or directors, they have to reach out and develop programs. The operators themselves have to avail themselves of ways to engage the community on this topic. It's important for the operators to develop diverse perspectives.”
The idea that the current consumer base is not diverse shouldn't matter.
“If the expectation was that only those who predominantly make up any one industry or consumer base, that that audience should be the only reflective voice, there would be no diversity,” Skinner said. “To the point about the audience not being diverse, those diverse perspectives will still benefit the community and allow marginalized people to be heard.”
‘You don’t ever call a white guy a minority’
To illustrate how quickly the industry has changed, gaming consultant Bill Pascrell III tells the story of a time he was on a diversity panel that was not at all diverse.
“More than a decade ago, I did a panel at ICE (International Casinos Exhibition) on diversity. You don't ever call a white guy a minority, but I was the only white kid in my kindergarten class – that gives me sensitivity to what minorities go through,” he said. “So, I go up on stage, and sitting [near the front of the audience is female executive] Jan Jones from Caesars, and I get up on stage, and I am realizing that the other three people on stage, it hit me like a ton of bricks … four white guys?
“Back then, there weren't that many conferences that did that much with diversity. I get up on stage, and Jan looks at me like, 'What the f*** are you doing?' So I gave a shout-out to Jan and said she should be up there.”
In the 2020s, a diversity panel at a gaming or sports betting conference is likely to be populated by women, Blacks, Asians, or Hispanics. The same could be said of C-suites for most major operators in the business.
Jones, who has been an executive with Caesars Entertainment since 1999, was for 20 years the company's executive vice president for government relations and corporate responsibility. Under her guidance, Caesars increased its diversity, with 41% of management positions now held by women and 57% held by minorities. In 2019, she joined the company's board of directors.
Pascrell believes that DEI in sports wagering goes beyond the moral responsibility that Skinner points to. It's just good business.