The All-In Diversity Project, an industry-led not-for-profit initiative seeking to benchmark diversity, equality and inclusion across the global betting and gaming industry has just released its first study on the sector’s workforce.

The All-Index interim report for Q3 2018 starts to paint a picture of employee demographics and employment practices around the world. There were some key findings that appear to support some, but debunk other assumptions about industry stereotypes, as well as statistics that point to where we need to focus our efforts in the future.

The data supplied by the first 25 organisations to take part (representing between them over 100 global brands), indicates a near 50/50 split overall with 46.5 per cent of the total 117,000-plus employees identified as women.

While initial results confirm that the sector is not immune from the same "leaky pipeline" experienced in other industries, it does appear to buck the trend in some key areas  with a higher than average percentage of women in tech as well as at board level.

Equally surprising, 18 per cent of jobs in “risk” - a discipline considered by many to be almost completely male-dominated - are held by women. The survey covers a number of areas including employment policies and practices, benefits and proactive strategies supporting equality, diversity and inclusion.

“This is the first initiative on this topic where the sector has collaborated on a global scale and we are very pleased with the end result,” says Kelly Kehn, co-founder of All-In Diversity Project. “Those who have signed up believe in the need for collaboration and  transparency in order to build a more diverse and inclusive workforce for the future.”

“While diversity surveys per se are not new, this, to the best of our knowledge, is the very first initiative which seeks to measure all forms of diversity across a whole sector on a global basis," added co-founder Christina Thakor-Rankin.

"We know there will be challenges along the way, but by choosing to collaborate and share best practice we hope to drive long-term impactful change in our sector and in doing so perhaps provide a blueprint for others.”