The global iGaming industry has spent much of the past decade discussing diversity. In 2026, however, the more important question is no longer whether women are entering gambling, gaming technology, affiliate marketing, payments, and digital entertainment. They clearly are. The question is whether women are reaching the positions where the industry's biggest decisions are actually made.

Women in iGaming have become increasingly visible as founders, commercial directors, compliance specialists, affiliate executives, marketers, product leaders, regulators and conference speakers. Yet visibility should not be confused with parity. Across the wider global economy, women represent 41.2% of the workforce but only 28.8% of top leadership positions, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF, 2025).

The gap becomes even clearer at the highest corporate level. Deloitte's global boardroom research found women occupied only 23.3% of board seats, while just 8.4% of board chairs and approximately 6% of CEOs were women. At the observed rate of change, Deloitte estimated global board parity would not arrive before 2038. For iGaming, these numbers matter because the sector is simultaneously undergoing another major transformation, gambling is becoming increasingly digital, mobile, technology-led and data-driven.

Europe's online gambling revenue is projected to increase from €47.9 billion in 2024 to approximately €54.8 billion in 2026 and €59.1 billion in 2027. That means the industry is effectively deciding who will lead the next generation of gambling at precisely the same time that the traditional structure of corporate leadership is being challenged.

The conclusion of Diva Jackpot's analysis is therefore nuanced. The gender gap is narrowing, but it cannot yet reasonably be described as closed. 2026 may instead represent the point at which gender diversity moves from an industry conversation to a measurable business and governance issue.

Key Findings: Women, Leadership and iGaming in 2026

Women Catehories	Women as A Percentage?	What It Means?
Women in global workforce	41.2%	Female talent is not a niche labour pool
Women in top leadership globally	28.8%	Significant leadership gap remains
Women in global board seats	23.3%	Boardroom parity remains distant
Female global CEOs	~6%	CEO representation remains particularly low
Women in EU managerial positions	35.2%	European management is becoming more balanced
Women on EU corporate boards	~34%	Regulation is accelerating board-level change
EU target for underrepresented sex among non-executive directors	40%	2026 becomes a significant governance milestone
Female GB gambling participation, past four weeks	44%	Women represent a substantial consumer segment
Male GB gambling participation	51%	Participation gap persists
European online gambling GGR forecast, 2026	€54.8bn	Digital gambling continues expanding
European online gambling GGR forecast, 2027	€59.1bn	Leadership decisions increasingly concern digital consumers

Sources: WEF, Deloitte, European Commission, Eurostat, UK Gambling Commission and EGBA/H2 Gambling Capital.

The Gender Gap Before 2026 Is Progress Without Parity

From Participation to Leadership

Historically, gambling leadership developed from industries that were themselves heavily male-dominated: land-based casinos, bookmaking, sports betting, technology and finance. Digitalization gradually disrupted that model. Modern iGaming companies require expertise in disciplines including SEO, affiliate marketing, UX, CRM, responsible gambling, payments, compliance, data analytics, social media, cybersecurity and product development. The diversification of professional functions created considerably more pathways into the industry. But expanding participation at junior and middle-management levels does not automatically produce equal representation at executive level.

McKinsey's Women in the Workplace 2025 report illustrates this wider structural problem. Women represented approximately 49% of entry-level employees in its dataset, but representation progressively declined through management until women accounted for only 29% of C-suite executives. McKinsey identified what it calls the "broken rung," for every 100 men promoted to manager in 2025, only 93 women received the equivalent promotion. For iGaming companies, this distinction is important. A company can employ many women while still having a disproportionately male leadership structure.The relevant measurement should therefore increasingly become: Who controls budgets, products, hiring, acquisitions, technology strategy and board-level decisions?

Why 2026 Could Become a Turning Point

Europe Introduces a New Governance Benchmark

One of the most important developments affecting European corporate leadership is the EU Gender Balance on Corporate Boards Directive.
The rules establish targets for large listed EU companies of:

• 40% representation of the underrepresented sex among non-executive directors, or
• 33% among all directors.

Companies covered by the framework are expected to meet the targets by 30 June 2026. Although the directive does not specifically regulate gambling companies, listed gaming operators and the broader ecosystem of European technology, payment and entertainment businesses operate within this changing governance environment. The evidence also suggests legislation can influence representation. Women accounted for approximately 39.6% of board members at the largest listed companies in EU countries with binding quotas in 2024, compared with 33.8% in countries using softer measures and only 17% in countries where no substantial action had been introduced.

Women Now Hold More Than One-Third of EU Management Roles

Eurostat data published in 2026 provides another useful benchmark. Women occupied 35.2% of managerial positions across the EU in 2024, compared with 31.8% in 2014. The geographical differences are substantial.  Sweden recorded 44.4% female managers, Latvia 43.4% and Poland 41.8%. At the opposite end were Cyprus at 25.3%, Croatia at 27.6% and Italy at 27.9%. These differences have implications for iGaming because Europe contains several important gambling, affiliate and technology clusters. The availability of experienced female leadership candidates is therefore likely to vary considerably by labor market. It also suggests that talking about "European iGaming" as a single homogeneous employment market can be misleading.

Women Are Also Changing the Gambling Consumer Market

The leadership question cannot be separated entirely from changing consumer demographics. Women are not simply employees within gambling companies. They represent a large segment of the gambling population. The UK Gambling Commission's 2025 annual data found that 44% of female participants had gambled during the previous four weeks, compared with 51% of males. The gender differences become more interesting when individual gambling products are examined.Recent Commission data found relatively little gender difference in participation in scratchcards and online instant-win games. Betting remained considerably more male-dominated: 13% of males reported betting compared with 4% of females in the relevant survey wave.
This suggests the future gambling market may not simply involve women adopting traditionally male gambling behavior. Instead, operators should expect different product preferences, motivations, discovery channels and risk patterns across consumer segments.

Why Female Leadership Can Become a Commercial Issue

Understanding a Broader Customer Base

The commercial argument for leadership diversity is stronger when the consumer population itself becomes more diverse. Teams dominated by one demographic group may unintentionally design products around their own assumptions. That does not mean women automatically understand female consumers better, or that men cannot design successful products for women. Such assumptions would themselves be stereotypes. The strategic advantage comes instead from diversity of perspectives during decision-making.

The Growth of Online Gambling Makes Leadership More Important

The gender debate is happening inside an expanding market. EGBA and H2 Gambling Capital estimated Europe's gambling industry generated approximately €123.4 billion in GGR [Gross Gaming Revenue] during 2024, of which €47.9 billion came from online gambling.
Online gambling is forecast to reach:

Year	European Online GGR
2024	€47.9bn
2025	€51.1bn
2026	€54.8bn
2027	€59.1bn
2028	€63.0bn
2029	€66.8bn

By 2029, online gambling is expected to represent approximately 45% of Europe's overall gambling market. Casino is particularly important. Casino products represented approximately 45% of European online gambling GGR in 2024. Consequently, decisions made today about recruitment and executive succession could determine who controls a substantially larger digital gambling economy later this decade

Women, Gambling Harm and Responsible Leadership

Any discussion about expanding female participation in gambling must also address gambling-related harm. Marketing to women should not become an exercise in finding another demographic from which operators can extract additional revenue. The UK Gambling Commission's 2025 annual survey estimated that among people who had gambled during the previous 12 months, 5.3% of male gamblers recorded PGSI scores of 8 or above compared with 2.7% of female gamblers. Male gamblers also recorded higher levels across lower PGSI risk categories. However, lower prevalence does not mean women are protected from serious consequences. Among female respondents who had gambled during the previous 12 months, Gambling Commission research found that 2.1% reported at least one severe consequence associated with their gambling. Potential adverse consequences reported by female gamblers included reduced spending on everyday necessities, lying to family members, isolation, borrowing or using savings to continue gambling and relationship conflict. This has an important strategic implication.

SWOT Analysis: Women in iGaming Leadership 2026–2027

Strengths	Weaknesses
Expanding female management talent pool	Women remain underrepresented at executive level
More diverse consumer understanding	Limited industry-specific leadership datasets
Broader perspectives in product development	Leadership pipelines may weaken above middle management
Increasing regulatory and investor attention	Conference visibility can create an illusion of parity
Growing professional networks for women	Executive recruitment may repeatedly draw from established male networks

Opportunities	Threats
Female-led entrepreneurship	Diversity initiatives becoming symbolic rather than structural
AI, compliance, payments and product create new leadership pathways	Economic downturns could reduce DEI investment
Gender-aware responsible gambling innovation	Female-targeted marketing could increase gambling harm
Mentorship and executive-development programmes	Tokenism
EU governance reforms	Backlash against corporate diversity policies
Better collection of workforce diversity data	Persistent promotion and compensation inequalities

Where Casinos Can Differentiate

The strongest opportunity is not to create "gambling for women."
That would risk replacing one stereotype with another.
Instead, operators can differentiate through organizational design.

1. Publish Leadership Diversity Data

Operators already publish extensive financial, sustainability and safer-gambling information.
Publishing gender representation at employee, management, executive and board level would make progress measurable.

2. Build Leadership Pipelines

The greatest problem may not be recruitment.
It may be progression.
Companies should track promotion rates between:
employee → manager → director → VP → C-suite → board.
The objective is to identify where talented women disappear from the leadership pipeline.

3. Expand Mentoring Into Sponsorship

Mentorship provides advice.
Sponsorship provides opportunity.
Senior executives actively recommending women for commercial ownership, major accounts, international expansion projects and P&L responsibility could have considerably greater impact than networking programs alone.

2027 Forecast: What Happens Next?

Diva Jackpot's outlook uses three scenarios rather than assuming gender parity will automatically emerge.

Scenario 1: Accelerated Progress

Under the strongest scenario, regulation, investor pressure, executive succession and talent development combine to increase female representation across senior gaming leadership. The EU board directive could provide additional momentum, particularly among listed companies. Women increasingly move from marketing, HR and communications into CEO, COO, CFO, CTO, product and commercial leadership roles.
Probability: Moderate

Scenario 2: Gradual Improvement - Base Case

This is the most plausible outcome. Women continue gaining representation across iGaming management, but the transition becomes progressively slower at the highest levels. Female executives become increasingly visible while CEO and board-chair positions remain disproportionately male.
Probability: High

Scenario 3: Diversity Plateau

Economic uncertainty or political resistance causes some companies to reduce formal diversity programs. Representation continues improving slowly through demographic change, but structural promotion gaps persist.
Probability: Moderate

Diva Jackpot 2027 Gender Leadership Outlook

Our base-case model therefore does not predict gender parity in iGaming leadership during 2027.
At Diva Jackpot, we expect five developments in the year ahead:

1. Female representation in middle and senior management should continue rising.
2. Board diversity will improve faster in jurisdictions with regulatory requirements.
3. The CEO gap will remain significantly larger than the general management gap.
4. Women will become increasingly influential in technology, affiliate, compliance, payments and responsible-gambling leadership.
5. Companies will face increasing pressure to demonstrate measurable outcomes rather than simply promoting diversity messaging.

The biggest metric to watch will therefore not be the number of women speaking at gambling conferences.
It will be the number controlling P&Ls, technology budgets, product strategy and board votes.

Is the Gender Gap Finally Closing?

Yes, but closing is not the same as closed. The wider economic evidence shows genuine progress. Women hold 35.2% of managerial positions across the EU, while female representation on EU corporate boards has reached approximately one-third. Yet globally, women still occupy only 28.8% of top leadership positions and less than one-quarter of board seats. iGaming now has an opportunity that previous generations of gambling companies did not.
The industry is effectively rebuilding itself around mobile technology, AI, data analytics, payments, compliance, and digital entertainment. That transformation creates new leadership positions. The question is who receives them. If women gain equal access not only to employment but to promotion, investment, entrepreneurship and strategic decision-making, the 2020s could eventually be remembered as the decade in which gambling leadership fundamentally changed. If progress remains concentrated in junior and middle-management roles, however, the industry's glass ceiling will simply move higher. For Diva Jackpot, the most important indicator for 2027 and beyond will therefore be decision-making power rather than visibility. The gender gap is narrowing. The evidence does not yet support declaring victory.

References

Deloitte. (2024). Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective, Eighth Edition. Deloitte Global. Deloitte Women in the Boardroom report

European Commission. (2025). New EU Rules to Improve Gender Balance in Corporate Boards Enter into Application. European Commission. European Commission corporate board gender rules

European Gaming and Betting Association. (2025). European Gambling Market – Key Figures 2025 Edition. EGBA/H2 Gambling Capital. EGBA European Gambling Market report

European Gaming and Betting Association. (2025). European Gambling Market Reaches €123.4 Billion in 2024. EGBA. EGBA European market data

European Institute for Gender Equality. (2026). Gender Balance in Business and Finance 2025. EIGE. EIGE Gender Balance in Business and Finance

Eurostat. (2026). Women Held 35% of Managerial Positions in 2024. European Commission/Eurostat. Eurostat women in management statistics

Gambling Commission. (2026). Gambling Survey for Great Britain: Annual Report 2025. UK Gambling Commission. Gambling Survey for Great Britain 2025

Gambling Commission. (2025). Women and Gambling on International Women's Day 2025. UK Gambling Commission. UK Gambling Commission women and gambling research

McKinsey & Company. (2025). Women in the Workplace 2025. McKinsey & Company. Women in the Workplace 2025
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World Economic Forum. (2025). Global Gender Gap Report 2025. World Economic Forum. World Economic Forum gender-gap findings