When we think about developments in tech industries, the focus tends to be on big, headline-grabbing events. For instance, right now virtually the entire world of tech is focused on Apple’s latest keynote and the various headlines from the world’s most valuable company. Sometimes smaller or more niche developments have a fairly major impact on aspects of the tech world, and one to keep an eye on is the expansion of sports betting. While this isn’t a tech breakthrough or anything close to it, widely legalized sports betting is going to mean a whole new category of apps and sites that will need to be state of the art to handle the attention. Our question is how much of a role women might have in it.
There’s truly no way to gauge at this point which if any prominent women in tech will be involved in sports betting app development. At this point, we don’t even know where the most prominent apps will come from – leagues, established European betting firms, casinos, brand new companies, or some combination of all of these. However, there are some encouraging signs regarding women’s access to and involvement with the betting industry in general which would suggest there will be some involvement.
First there’s the fact that the closest model to the coming betting industry – the online casino business – is extremely inclusive of women. Again, that doesn’t speak specifically to the development side of things, but it’s interesting to note that this business is almost too expansive to bother with gender differentiation. A huge selection of games has been made available online and via mobile devices, roping in themes from princesses to sports simulations, fruit slots to superhero movies, etc. It’s just got a little bit of everything and is entirely all-inclusive. So while betting will still revolve largely around sports perceived to be more popular among men, don’t count on any kind of intentional male slant in the offerings.
Following up on this idea, we actually know that women’s sports betting is somewhat on the rise as well. The betting industry is constantly growing, and sports fans are also always gaining access to more content and coverage. People follow women’s tennis voraciously for instance, and in Olympic sports women get every bit the attention men do. If you follow NBA Twitter even for a few days you’ll see that the WNBA is enjoying a serious publicity surge even among male fans. More interest in women’s sports will also contribute to there being more betting offerings in the same sports. Again, this doesn’t speak to development but it does speak to involvement and potential interest.
In addition to the growing popularity of women’s sports contributing to betting offerings, the reverse could occur. That is to say, betting offerings could shine a brighter spotlight on women’s competitions, as theorized by ESPNW. There’s no question that betting helps to fuel the popularity of men’s sports, at least on some occasions and among some fans. It could similarly bring visibility and marketing opportunities to the women’s games, which in turn would also further the need for women to get involved on the tech side of things.
We’re still in the very early stages of this discussion, but the pieces are in place for women to have a major impact on the development of the sports betting industry. That could mean a surprising number of opportunities for women in tech.