New 'Bet She Did' podcast puts women in iGaming in focus
SiGMA News has launched Bet She Did, a new podcast series focused on the careers of women shaping the iGaming industry. The first episode features Fabiola Olaso, a marketing director and global acquisition and growth adviser whose career began almost by accident in Costa Rica.
Hosted by reporter Cyrielle Delmas, the series sets out to examine not only professional success, but the setbacks, risks and decisions that sit behind it. Delmas describes the podcast as a platform “dedicated to celebrating and amplifying the voices of female leaders shaping the iGaming industry”, adding that it is “for every woman who has ever questioned whether there’s a place for her at the top”.
For its first episode, Delmas turns to Olaso, whose route into online gambling began in 1999, at a time when the sector was far less structured than it is today. The result is part career profile, part industry history, and part reflection on what it takes to survive in a business known for rapid change.
A career that began by chance
Olaso recalls entering the industry with no plan to do so. “I had no clue about gambling, what it was all about,” she says. “It was simply an opportunity, I guess, because it came straight to my door.”
The opportunity came while she was picking up a boyfriend from work. He was employed at 5Dimes, a Costa Rica-based sportsbook, and Olaso says she was offered a job on the spot. “I was not really looking for a job. I was actually entering university,” she says. After negotiating the hourly rate, she was handed a thick manual and told she needed to learn it within days.
She began in customer service, in an era when iGaming operations looked very different from today’s digital-first businesses. “Everything was over the phone,” she says of the early 2000s. “We had a call centre. The operators were all call centres back in the day.”
That environment, she suggests, forced people to become adaptable. Staff were expected to move between tasks, learn new roles and solve problems quickly. Olaso moved from customer support into operations, training, wagering and eventually marketing. “You couldn’t stay just doing one thing,” she says. “It was part of the role as well.”
Learning outside the comfort zone
A recurring theme in the interview is Olaso’s belief that discomfort is often a sign of growth. She tells Delmas that people stop learning when work becomes too comfortable.
“In the moment you start feeling comfortable with your job, it means you stop learning,” she says. “Every time that somebody takes you out of your comfort zone, it’s because you’re learning something new.”
That attitude shaped much of her career. When asked to learn line-moving, help with horse racing, mentor customer service staff or write training manuals, she accepted the challenge. “Fabi, can you do this? Fabi, can you do that?” she recalls. “Little by little,” she built a broader understanding of the business.
The early industry she describes was informal, intense and male-dominated. “It was more of the cowboy way,” she says. “There was no structure. There were no different departments. Everybody had to fill in for different situations.”
Olaso estimates that women made up only a small minority of the workforce at the time. “If we were 10 women out of 100, maximum, I would say,” she says.
Working in that environment, she says, could be both motivating and difficult. “It has been encouraging, and it has been intimidating at times,” she says. “Even discouraging at times.”
The value of psychology and marketing
Olaso later returned to university to study marketing and psychology, a decision she describes as central to her development. “I think it was actually a key to my growth,” she says. “Marketing back then taught you how the consumer behaves.”
For Fabiola Olaso, that knowledge applies not only to customers but also to staff. She argues that iGaming companies must understand why players stay, why employees leave, and how culture affects retention. “If you work in a toxic environment, it spreads quickly, and people will resign,” she says.
Her move into European marketing came when she was approached by Technalis in Spain. At the time, she had planned to take a break and pursue a master’s degree, but the company wanted help developing the marketing side of its software and bingo brands. Bingo was new to her, but she accepted the challenge. “I don’t really know anything about bingo,” she recalls thinking. “But I always told myself I would figure it out somehow.”
Bet She Did!
Reporter Cyrielle Delmas says the podcast was created to bring forward stories that often remain unseen: “the failures, setbacks, doubts, and difficult moments that are rarely spoken about openly in the iGaming industry”.
For Delmas, those stories are especially important in an industry where women’s paths to leadership are still too rarely explored in depth. “I’ve always been fascinated by the journeys of women who rise to leadership positions in traditionally male-dominated industries like iGaming, the challenges they overcome, the resilience they develop, and the impact they create along the way,” she says. “Those stories deserve to be heard, not only because they’re inspiring, but because they can encourage and empower others who aspire to follow a similar path.”
She adds that there is never a “perfect” time to start promoting female voices, because “the conversation is always relevant and necessary”.
‘Owning your success unapologetically’
Delmas says the title, Bet She Did, was chosen deliberately. It is “intentionally bold and memorable”, she says, because it reclaims a phrase sometimes used dismissively towards successful women. According to Delmas, the phrase can be used to imply that a woman’s success came from opportunism rather than talent, hard work or ambition.
“For me, the title turns that narrative on its head,” she says. “’Bet She Did’ represents confidence, courage, and determination. She did because she dared to take risks, speak up, lead, and push through challenges.”
For Delmas, the title captures “the essence of what it takes to become a leader” and is ultimately about “owning your success unapologetically”.
Although the series is likely to resonate strongly with women and newcomers to the sector, Delmas says its audience should be wider. She hopes men will also engage with the conversations, “to better understand the realities, barriers, and biases women can face, and how they can actively contribute to meaningful change”.
The first episode makes clear that Bet She Did is not a polished success story stripped of difficulty. Olaso’s career, as told here, is built on improvisation, resilience and repeated leaps into the unfamiliar.
Asked for the secret to staying grounded through change, she offers a simple answer: “Believe in yourself. If you don’t know it, learn it.” She adds: “Keep moving, keep learning, keep growing.”
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