By Genius Sports Press 
At our recent Women in Tech Summit, we had the opportunity to hear from employees, leaders, and advocates at Genius Sports about the importance of allyship, the unique challenges that women face working in technology, and the company’s commitment to building an inclusive and diverse workforce.
Over the past two decades, women’s representation in technology has made significant strides. Today, women make up over a third of the total tech workforce, compared to only 10% in the early 2000s. At Genius, 14% of our tech team are female currently. While we’ve been actively working to improve female representation, we recognize there is still much to be done and we are committed to improving.
We know promoting gender equity and inclusion benefits everyone. Research consistently shows that companies with higher levels of gender diversity are more profitable, more innovative, and better at retaining top talent, as well as being better places to work.
At the Summit, our CTO, Mike Patel shared his view on its importance: “We need to embrace diverse perspectives to shape how our technology is applied and create meaningful and lasting change around how fans interact with sport. It’s critical for our business and, ultimately, it’s the right thing to do.”
Women’s professional sports have also experienced a surge in interest over the past decade, finally receiving the attention they deserve. The industry is expected to become a billion-dollar market in 2024. And as a company at the intersection of sports and technology, we have a unique opportunity to make lasting impacts for women and women’s sports.
One notable example is the recent announcement of our augmented technology and data partnership with the WNBA. This upcoming season, the WNBA will be the first professional women’s sports league in the U.S. to use optical tracking across every team, providing innovative 3D player pose and ball-tracking data in every arena. This groundbreaking technology will provide the WNBA with unique player and team analysis, coaching strategy tools, and sports science capabilities, promoting technology parity in women’s basketball.
Our Director of Business Development & Sales, Rebecca Dyer, a successful former NCAA basketball player herself, commented: “Being able to provide this first league-wide deal of its kind on the women’s professional level is a really significant milestone for us. It’s a big first step in casting our net even wider across women’s sports, which is something that’s really close to me, along with all our staff here. There are so many opportunities for women in the sports field and I think that we do such a good job at celebrating that.”
Internally, Genius Sports has also set goals to improve representation by increasing the number of female job applicants entering our recruitment pipeline and to reduce attrition rates.
Head of Talent Acquisition, Harriet Kendall, spoke at the event: “This has been a fantastic opportunity not just to celebrate women and their achievements at Genius Sports, but to share our commitment to attracting diverse talent, both in tech and for other roles in the organization. We presented our processes in talent attraction, recruitment and development, and how their continuous improvement will help us shape the most inclusive environment possible for current and future Geniuses.”
Achieving these goals requires broad engagement strategies, fairness in advancement opportunities, and diverse hiring practices. However, every individual within the organization plays a crucial role in building a culture that prioritizes a sense of belonging and ensures equal opportunities.
For this reason, we shined a spotlight on allyship during our Women in Tech Summit, as our Information Security Director, Mona Yang, explained: “Given we operate in a male dominated company; we have a huge opportunity to accelerate change by empowering allyship. Equality is not a woman’s problem. To have a truly inclusive culture, everyone needs to contribute”.
To Genius, allyship means amplifying women’s voices, ensuring they have a seat at the table where decisions are made, and recognizing and rewarding their contributions. It means providing mentorship, sponsorship, and professional development opportunities to help women advance in their careers. It means bringing up their names for promotions and key assignments, even and especially when they’re not in the room.
Male allies can also educate themselves about the unique challenges and biases that women face in the workplace. They need to listen to and believe women when they share their experiences and be willing to speak up and take action when they witness discrimination or inequity.
Creating a truly equitable and inclusive workplace requires the active participation and commitment of every individual in the organization. When everyone takes responsibility for driving change, no matter their gender or position, we can create a culture where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to reach their full potential.
