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Leveling the Playing Field for Women in Gaming across Asia and MENA

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Women are the fastest growing demographic in gaming, both as players and increasingly as industry leaders. Niko Partners finds that this growth is often complimentary. As more women Identify as gamers, more are pursuing careers in the field. And, as more women work in the field of gaming, we see more games developed that appeal to and better represent women both as players and as characters.

Niko Partners’ Female Gamers in Asia report estimates 37% of gamers in Asia are women, and the number of women gaming is growing by 11% annually – almost double the rate of men. Some parts of the region demonstrate this shift more strongly than others. Southeast Asia has a gamer population that is 53% female, and the Philippines leads the way with a percentage of 63%. While markets in MENA, South Asia, and China are less balanced, we still see strong growth across the Asia and MENA region.

Mobile phones have been a huge boost for women’s access to gaming, with 97% of female gamers in Asia using their mobile device to play. According to Niko’s research, puzzle games, multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBA), battle royale, simulation, and RPG games are the most popular genres among women. PC and console games also attract women, with 40% of women playing on PC and 16% of them playing on console.

For developers hoping to ignite demand and grow their engagement with women, considering genre, gameplay, storyline, and style, can be great ways to tap into this demographic. Social media is also an important strategy for reaching female players, as more than half (53%) of the women we surveyed see social media as their primary information source about gaming.

Although female gamers in Asia are predominantly casual players, the younger generation of women (Gen Z and beyond) is participating in competitive gaming and esports. Esports is a potential growth driver for female gamers, as it complements the social and cultural elements of gaming. We are seeing increasing representation of women as gamers though livestreaming and even among esports professionals. Women are also engaging with esports and streaming as fans, and are more likely to spend money, play longer, and consume gaming content if they do engage with esports, compared to those who do not.

Women’s achievements in esports are also promising. Najd Fahad is the first Saudi women to win a FIFA tournament at GCC Games, Michelle “Moxxi” Song, was the first woman to work as a play-by play caster at Dota 2’s The International, Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon, was the first female player in Overwatch League, and Li “VKLiooon” Xiaomeng, is the first woman to win the Hearthstone World Championship. These kinds of trailblazers are among a growing number of inspirational figures in the pro gaming scene paving the way for future gamers.

Trailblazers in women esports glory (from left to right): Najd Fahad, Michelle “Moxxi” Song, Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon, and Li “VKLiooon” Xiaomeng

Despite their significant contributions to the gaming industry, women often encounter barriers working in historically male-dominated environments. Still, women are breaking barriers by pursuing careers as analysts, producers, designers, artists, publishers, and marketers. Individually, they are taking leadership roles such as Tricia Sugita, Chief Marketing Officer of Cloud9, Alodia Gosiengfiao, co-founder of Tier One Entertainment , and Leena Xu, Chief Revenue Officer at Sentinels.

Another important aspect is mentorship and educational programs for women gamers pursuing careers in gaming. Events that offer career mentorship and networking opportunities can help improve this access. Women’s representation in career roles in the gaming industry is strengthened through events such as Women in Gaming Asia gaming career expo, which helps to build community among professionals and provide career support for women in the industry.  These kinds of events connect women in the industry to studios and companies, building networks, and also guiding them through the industry, as well as giving them tools to face challenges in the workforce.

We are seeing more of these kinds of events every year. Last year, Riyadh hosted a session called “Breaking the Code: The Challenges for Women in Gaming Leadership” at Next World Forum. Niko Partners has also presented about gender inclusivity in gaming industry at Gamescom Asia 2022. Besides these events, there are also game development academies and competitions hosted exclusively for women developers, such as 2023 She Jams in Saudi Arabia, as well as Tuwaiq Academy, operated collaboration with Apple.

Fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in the gaming industry is imperative, and beneficial for the industry overall as women’s perspectives as industry leaders will lead to games with wider appeal. This can go a long way in helping to solve problems experienced by women in the industry, and companies will find that their products reach a wider audience.

Women-only tournament and gaming lounge as safe space for women gamers: VCT Game Changers and sQuad core (Source: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games, Wajod Alkhamis/The National)

Niko Partners is a certified woman-owned business that has been operating in the games industry for over 20 years. We make inclusion and diversity central to our work, through our research, hiring practices, and internal mentorship programs. We hope our work on women in gaming can help spread this message. Our Female Gamers in Asia report is a comprehensive guide on the rise of women gamers in Asia, along with other market reports that include data and insights on the growing segment of women gamers. These reports are based on our gamer survey that include responses from women who game as well as industry leaders. Diversity and inclusion are also an important aspect of Niko Partners in operating its business. Contact us if you want to understand the best strategies for reaching and representing women gamers via our reports and custom research capabilities.

Source: Nico Partners

George Miller (Gyorgy Molnar) started his career in content marketing and has started working as an Editor/Content Manager for our company in 2016. George has acquired many experiences when it comes to interviews and newsworthy content becoming Head of Content in 2017. He is responsible for the news being shared on multiple websites that are part of the European Gaming Media Network.

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Relax Gaming appoints Antonia Svensson as Chief Commercial Officer

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Relax Gaming, the iGaming aggregator and supplier of award-winning content, has announced the appointment of Antonia Svensson as its new Chief Commercial Officer, marking a key step in the company’s next phase of commercial growth.

Svensson brings over 13 years of experience in the gaming industry, having held senior leadership roles across payments, content supply, and operations.

Her career began at Trustly, overseeing payment solutions for the gaming vertical, before joining Yggdrasil Gaming as Chief Commercial Officer. Most recently, she served as General Manager Malta at Light & Wonder, where she was responsible for the company’s online casino business across Europe.

In addition to her executive background, Svensson has sat on several gaming industry boards, including Fantasma Games, contributing strategic insights to support business development and innovation.

Now based at Relax Gaming’s Malta headquarters, Svensson will oversee all commercial activity across the group, supporting its global roadmap and driving new revenue opportunities through strategic partnerships.

Martin Stålros, CEO at Relax Gaming, said: “It’s a pleasure to welcome Antonia to Relax as our new CCO. Her standout experience and industry knowledge can serve as a fantastic asset to the company on a commercial level and I’m delighted that she has joined Relax at such an exciting stage in our development.”

Antonia Svensson, Chief Commercial Officer at Relax Gaming, said: “Relax Gaming has carved out an impressive reputation as one of the most forward-thinking and dynamic companies in iGaming. Having watched its growth closely over the years, I’m incredibly proud to now be part of this journey.

“I’m eager to collaborate with the talented team here to drive strategic growth, strengthen our partner relationships, and unlock new commercial opportunities across global markets.”

The post Relax Gaming appoints Antonia Svensson as Chief Commercial Officer appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Neosurf and BridgerPay announce new strategic partnership

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Pioneering cash-to-digital payments company teams up with market-leading payment orchestration platform to help partners unlock their full potential

Neosurf, the progressive online payments company known for its expertise in cash-to-digital solutions, smooth user experiences and providing ongoing responsible gaming and AML support to its partners has announced it has formed a new strategic partnership with the highly scalable and data-centric payment orchestration platform, BridgerPay.

Famed in the online payments industry for its prebuilt connections, unified dashboard and single-source reporting, BridgerPay is a fully agnostic platform that can be integrated into any set-up to help clients automate their payment flows and gain real-time insights into their customers.

Among the company’s wide range of solutions, BridgerPay is particularly well-known for its Bridger RetryTM capability, which empowers clients to save up to 30% of soft declined card payments by automatically referring them to fallback providers without disrupting the customer experience.

“Like Neosurf, BridgerPay is a company that’s fully committed to improving the online payments experience not just for operators, but for their customers as well,” said Andrea McGeachin, Neosurf’s Group CEO. “By teaming up with them, we’ll be able to ensure that Neosurf is seamlessly integrated into their clients’ checkouts as a payment option, giving bettors even more freedom over how they deposit.

“Not only will this improve the online cashier experience for customers by giving them instant access to our quick and secure cash-to-digital solutions, but it will also allow all BridgerPay partners to serve the huge number of players who prefer to use cash for their online transactions.”

With BridgerPay already helping organisations worldwide connect with hundreds of payment providers through simple, ready-made integrations,  adding Neosurf further expands merchant choice and customer access.

“We’re delighted to partner with Neosurf. Their cash-to-digital payment solutions will play an important role in helping our clients reach and engage new customers across a wide range of markets,” said Matthew Boundy, PSP Partnership Manager. “Offering a service that reduces operators’ transaction costs, supports responsible gaming and AML best practice and provides a frictionless user experience to customers, they’re a key partner for us and will add enormous value to our clients.”

Though initially covering just European markets, the partnership between Neosurf and BridgerPay has plenty of scope to grow in future and will also see the two companies share knowledge and collaborate on technical solutions as they continue to innovate within the online payment space.

The post Neosurf and BridgerPay announce new strategic partnership appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Bede takes gamification to the next level with all-new Tournament feature

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Bede, the data-driven iGaming technology provider known for its market leading software and full-service platform solutions, has announced the launch of a proprietary Tournament feature that has the potential to completely revolutionise partners’ gamification options.

Created to provide a flexible and cost-effective solution for customers looking to engage their players via tournament and leaderboard promotions, the new feature makes it easy for operators to create their own custom contests without any of the limitations of normal provider-led offerings.

Whereas traditional tournament packages are typically tied to one provider – meaning operators can only incorporate games from a pre-defined line-up – Bede’s Tournaments offer a completely agnostic solution, allowing partners to have greater freedom and offer much more choice to their players.

The feature also alleviates the need for admins to learn provider-specific systems in order to set up their tournaments as they can simply create them in the centralised Bede back office, enabling them to take a more consistent approach and reduce the front-end work required to get them up and running.

Of course, all tournaments built via the Bede back-office can also be combined with any of the other services that are included in the company’s platform tool kit, meaning operators can easily create and automate prizes or view tournament history and performance data in the Player Account Manager (PAM).

From an end-user perspective, Bede Tournaments use APIs that make it simple for players to understand and check their current leaderboard position, creating an intuitive and highly immersive front-end experience that helps keep them engaged for the duration of every contest.

With these core product features working in tandem to drive user activity and increase customer satisfaction, Bede’s new Tournaments will change the way operators think about their gamification options and provide partners with a more dynamic way to incentivise players.

Colin Cole-Johnson, Chief Executive Officer at Bede Gaming, said: “With gamification features becoming an increasingly important part of operators’ engagement tool kits, our latest innovation makes it easy to create exciting tournaments that boost activity and truly appeal to players.

“Designed to address the drawbacks of traditional provider-led tournament offerings such as limited game choice and complicated technical set-up, our Tournaments will give operations teams the freedom and flexibility to create their own custom contests without the hassle of having to learn a new system each time. This way, they can pick the games and prizes they like, while also utilising our full suite of platform services to create an altogether more enjoyable experience.”

The post Bede takes gamification to the next level with all-new Tournament feature appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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