The iGaming business offers job opportunities in online gambling in attractive locations such as Malta or Gibraltar. However, many iGaming jobs are also advertised as remote work positions.
What does so-called telework mean, why can these types of work in particular be done in a home office, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of remote work in the iGaming sector and in other industries? We give an overview.
What is remote work, home office, work from home, teleworking?
The Covid 19 situation has forced many workers to work from home wherever possible. We also talk about “home office” – it certainly sounds more modern and professional than working on your knees on the couch in your living room with your laptop.
There are now a lot of terms around working away from a fixed workplace in the office, but do they all mean the same thing?
Remote work, home office, work from home, telework or telecommuting, telecommuting and telecommuting, remote work or even e-work, which is which? There are no precise definitions, but in any case there are different constellations and working conditions:
- There are employees who “actually” have a permanent job in a company or office and work from home due to an exceptional situation such as the Corona pandemic. Perhaps they also use home working for one or two days a week, for example to arrange childcare. Here, home office fits as a term because it complements the “normal” office. Work From Home (WFH) or telecommuting can also fit.
- Other employees do not work on site as a matter of principle because their job is already designed in such a way that presence is not required or intended. Here the term remote work describes the condition well, but one could also speak of permanent teleworking or telecommuting. These workers can be bound to fixed hours or work flexibly and across time zones. So-called remote teams can work together all over the world. Some companies of this kind do not even have a fixed workplace in this sense.
- Freelancers who work mainly online can in principle also do work for clients anywhere and do not have to be on site. Here, too, there is often talk of remote work. Some freelancers, however, call themselves e-workers or digital nomads when they combine work with travel and stroll around the world with their laptops.
The prerequisite for such work is, of course, that the work can be done with a computer outside the company and via the Internet. This applies to a whole range of jobs, for example:
- Development and programming
- Digital design such as graphic and web design, UX design
- Content: copywriter, blogger, translator, ghostwriter
- Online marketing
- Administration, accounting, virtual assistance
- Project manager, product owner, manager
Classical production work or presence occupations such as salesperson, nurse, craftsman or doctor, on the other hand, cannot be carried out as remote work at all or only with difficulty and as an exception.
Remote work in the iGaming industry
If you compare the types of jobs mentioned above with the work opportunities in the iGaming industry, you quickly realise: there is a large overlap and almost all iGaming jobs can also be done as remote work. At the latest since the Corona crisis, face-to-face work in the iGaming sector is actually rather an exception.
Conservative estimates suggest that around 59% of workers in the iGaming industry do some form of remote work.
The SiGMA Group, which organises an annual iGaming conference in Malta, came to the following conclusion in a Corona-related survey: in response to the pandemic, 71% of the companies surveyed had switched completely to remote work and 18% on a rotational basis.
Together, this amounts to 92% of iGaming companies with remote work as opposed to 9.5% of companies that had not implemented such forms of work.
The advantages and disadvantages of remote work in the iGaming business and other industries
Companies in iGaming and other industries often tout remote work as an attractive benefit for employees. Not having to go to the office definitely has charm, and employees benefit from other advantages when working from a home office or elsewhere.
But there are also disadvantages in terms of free time or productivity. We have compared the advantages and disadvantages of remote work.
Cost saving
Remote work not only saves employers money, employees can also save, for example through lower expenses for meals and transport. However, “operating expenses” for electricity, internet and heating at the home workplace have to be added, but the bottom line is that the employee in the home office still comes off cheaper on average.
Work-Life-Balance
Where does work end, where does private life begin? If you work from home, you need discipline and good time management, which you also have to take into your own hands.
If this is not successful, overwork can be the result and the positive work-life balance benefits turn into a negative. On average, remote workers have a higher workload than employees who work from home.