Five of the Most Influential Women in iGaming

By Jane Shaw Senior Editor Updated: 04/14/2023

Jane Shaw Senior Editor See Full Bio

We count on Jane to inform our readers about the latest slot games in the US market. With her passion for video games and a degree in engineering, she’s our gambling tech expert. Jane’s also active in our blog section, where she tackles the curiosities and changes in the industry.

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Most Influential Women in iGaming

• Influential Women In iGaming
• Women in Gambling 2023
• Denise Coates
• Ruth Parasol
• Jette Nygaard-Andersen
• Charlotte Miliziano
• Vanessa Selbst
• Frequently Asked Questions

For many people, the gambling industry is centered around men. While this is true in many cases, the number of women in iGaming has been steadily increasing, with some of the world’s largest online and offline gambling companies operated by females. On this page, we’re going to show you some of the most influential women in the gambling business.

Influential Women In iGaming

While Hollywood may have painted a different picture, the number of influential women in iGaming has been steadily increasing in the last few years. Today, some of the most influential women in iGaming operate giant gambling companies and have other influential positions in the industry. On this page, we’re going to be showing you who some of these women are, and how they’ve got to where they are now.

Women in Gambling 2023

Are you interested in learning about women in gambling? 2023 is likely going to see even more females emerging as key players in the online gambling industry. Whether it’s females starting up companies like Bet365 – a site even larger than the WynnBet Online Casino – or dominating the poker scene, the number of women in the iGaming industry is growing rapidly, and below, we’re going to show you a few of the most notable female names involved in the industry.

Denise Coates

When it comes to females in the iGaming industry, few are as well-known as Denise Coates. Denise Coates is a British billionaire and the founder and joint CEO of Bet365. Born in Stoke-on-Trent, England in 1967, Coates graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in econometrics.

After graduation, she worked for her family’s betting shop business, Provincial Racing, where she became interested in online gambling. In 2000, she founded Bet365, which has since grown to become one of the largest online gambling companies in the world.

As of 2021, Denise Coates is estimated to be worth over $12 billion, making her one of the richest people in the UK. She is also known for her philanthropic efforts, including a £10 million donation to the Royal Stoke University Hospital to establish the Denise Coates Foundation, which supports medical research and other charitable causes in the region.

Coates has been recognized for her business success and contributions to society, receiving honors such as the Order of the British Empire and the Ernst & Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year award. She continues to lead Bet365 and advocate for responsible gambling practices in the industry.

Ruth Parasol

The Parasol family is one of the most notable names in the online gambling industry, and they’re widely considered to be one of the key pioneers in developing online casino software. Ruth Parasol, an American businesswoman, was one of the founders of PartyGaming, a Caribbean-based online gambling company whose flagship brand is PartyPoker.com.

Launched in 2001, PartyPoker.com was one of the first online gambling sites in the world to offer real money poker, and their state-of-the-art proprietary technology helped shape the way online poker was played for years to come. Recently, PartyGaming merged with their Austrian rival – BWin – and because of this merger they’re now able to offer a huge variety of online gambling facilities, including sports betting, live dealer games, and bingo.

Ruth Parasol has always been one of the most successful women in the gambling industry, and it’s reported that she’s worth in the region of $960 million today. However, it’s not just online gambling she’s involved in; her latest venture, for example, is called Recognise and it’s a digital bank that aims to meet the needs of small-to-medium-sized businesses.

Jette Nygaard-Andersen

The two women in gambling we’ve already covered are both founders of companies. The next name on this list, however – Jette Nygaard-Andersen – isn’t a founder, as this Danish national was appointed to the role of CEO at Entain PLC in 2020. Entain is a major online gambling company, although they’re not as well-known as some of the brands you may be familiar with. They operate primarily in the sports betting market, although have, in recent years, diversified into online casinos, too.

Jette Nygaard-Andersen’s appointment as CEO was notable for several reasons. Firstly, she was the first woman with such a senior role in a gambling company that was publicly listed in the UK. Her salary was also one of the highest in the history of online gambling, and she’s worked hard to prove that she’s worth this salary, creating a new joint venture with major gambling operators including MGM.

In keeping with online gambling trends, Jette Nygaard-Andersen has pushed for Entain to focus on live dealer games and video slots. They’ve created several of their own custom gaming studios, and now work with some of the largest US-facing online casinos in the world to provide them with state-of-the-art online gambling software.

Charlotte Miliziano

Charlotte Miliziano may not be one of the most well-known women in iGaming, but she’s certainly influential. Her career started back in 2017 when she took a job as a mathematician at game developer Play’n Go. Just one year later, she’d worked her way up the ranks to become lead mathematician, and just four years after joining the company, in April 2021, she was awarded the position of Head of Games.

Charlotte Miliziano’s main job is working with the other game developers to develop math models for video slots. While she wasn’t behind some of the software provider’s early successes – such as Book of Dead – she’s been actively involved with the development of all games since 2021.

As a result of her mathematical abilities, Charlotte Miliziano has been nominated for numerous awards and accolades within the iGaming industry. Successful women in the gambling industry often don’t get enough credit, but Charlotte Miliziano is an example of someone bucking this trend.

Vanessa Selbst

Vanessa Selbst is an American professional poker player who is widely regarded as one of the best female players of all time. Born in 1984 in Brooklyn, New York, Selbst earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Yale University before turning her focus to poker. She quickly made a name for herself on the tournament circuit, winning her first World Series of Poker bracelet in 2008.

Over the course of her career, Selbst has won over $11 million in tournament prizes, including three WSOP bracelets and two North American Poker Tour titles. She is known for her aggressive playing style and her ability to read her opponents, as well as her commitment to using her platform to advocate for social justice and political causes.

In addition to her success on the poker table, Selbst has also pursued a career in law, earning a law degree from Yale in 2012 and working as a consultant for a law firm. She has been recognized for her contributions to the poker community, including being inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame in 2018.

Selbst gets a mention here as many credit her with encouraging females to try online poker. Since stepping back from playing, she’s also started several other businesses in the iGaming space.

Below, you can see a breakdown of some of Selbst’s top poker wins to date.