How Emily Sanders Went from Dealing Cards to Co-Founding a Gaming Analysis Platform at 23

The online gaming industry generated billions in revenue last year. Women represented roughly 44% of the player base. And yet, the people who build, run, and review the platforms where all that money changes hands look nothing like the audience they serve.

Emily Sanders noticed that disconnect from both sides of the table.

She spent three years as a live casino dealer at Evolution Gaming in London, dealing cards to players across time zones on camera shifts that started before dawn and ended well after dark. By 23, she’d co-founded TeenPatti.us.com, a review platform focused entirely on Teen Patti, one of India’s most popular card games. It’s the kind of career jump that doesn’t happen by accident.

We sat down with Emily to talk about the transition from dealer to analyst, the testing methodology behind her reviews, and what the data actually says about women in gaming leadership.

How She Went from Dealing Cards to Analyzing Them

Most people don’t think of dealing as a research position. Emily did.

50×50: What were you doing before you started TeenPatti.us.com?

I was a live casino dealer at Evolution Gaming. Started right after finishing my Communications degree at Manchester. Three years of sitting across from players, dealing cards on camera for audiences you never see. You learn things from that side of the table that no amount of playing teaches you.

50×50: What kinds of things?

You start recognizing patterns. Which platforms treat their dealers well and which ones cut corners on streaming quality. Which games are structured to be fair and which ones have setups that quietly favor the house beyond what the published RTP suggests. I was keeping spreadsheets of all this before I ever thought about building a platform. That habit turned into something much bigger.

50×50: When did the idea for a platform actually take shape?

Around mid-2022. I’d been dealing Teen Patti tables for about two years at that point, and I realized something strange. The game has millions of players across India and the diaspora, but there was no serious, dedicated resource for them. Poker players have forums, odds calculators, and comparison tools coming out of their ears. Teen Patti players had close to nothing. That felt like a gap worth filling.

50×50: You studied Communications at Manchester, not statistics or game theory. How did you end up doing probability analysis?

Communications taught me how to research properly, present findings clearly, and figure out what an audience actually needs. The probability side came from sitting at those tables. When you deal hundreds of hands per shift, the math becomes intuitive. I formalized it later, but the instinct was already built in.

People sometimes assume you need a maths degree to do casino analysis. You don’t. You need patience, attention to detail, and a willingness to track data that most people find boring. I found it fascinating.

Building a Review Platform from the Player’s Side of the Table

Running a gaming review site sounds straightforward. Sign up, play some games, write about the experience. Emily’s process is considerably more involved than that.

50×50: Walk us through how you actually review a platform.

I sign up like any regular player would. Use my own money for deposits. Then I play systematically. I’m not there for fun during a review. I track every session, calculate the actual RTP across hundreds of hands, time the deposits and withdrawals down to the minute, test the mobile interface on multiple devices, and document how their customer support handles real questions. Most review sites skim the surface. We go through the full player experience because that’s what actually matters.

50×50: What separates your platform from the dozens of other casino review sites?

Focus. Teen Patti has hundreds of millions of players across India and the global diaspora, but most casino review sites treat it as an afterthought. They’ll list fifty slots, twenty table games, and then add Teen Patti as a single bullet point near the bottom. At TeenPatti.us.com, every review starts with Teen Patti. We test the specific variations a platform offers, check whether live dealer tables have Hindi-speaking dealers, measure streaming quality at different connection speeds, and calculate actual RTP from real gameplay sessions. That level of specificity doesn’t exist anywhere else for this game.

50×50: Why Teen Patti and not poker or blackjack? Those have much bigger global audiences.

Bigger global audiences don’t mean better-served audiences. Poker players have dozens of dedicated platforms, comparison tools, strategy forums, and odds calculators. They’re spoiled for choice. Teen Patti players had almost nothing comparable when we started. The game has deep cultural roots going back generations, it’s growing internationally, and its player base deserved better resources than what existed. We built what we couldn’t find.

There’s also a commercial reality here. India’s in-app purchase revenue grew 41% year-on-year in 2024, with 8 million new paying gamers entering the market according to Lumikai’s research. Two-thirds of India’s gaming audience now comes from non-metro cities. This isn’t a niche. It’s one of the fastest-growing gaming markets on the planet, and the players in it deserve tools built for them.

The Numbers That Expose the Gender Gap in Gaming

Emily’s experience isn’t just a personal anecdote. The data behind the gaming industry’s gender gap tells a story that most industry reports prefer to bury in appendices.

Source: AIGDF/Coral Recruit report, February 2025

50×50: You’re a 23-year-old woman running a gaming analysis platform. What has that actually been like day to day?

Honestly? A lot of proving yourself. When I was dealing, nobody questioned whether I belonged at the table. That’s the thing about dealing. You’re performing a function, and your competence is visible in real time. Every hand you deal is evidence that you know what you’re doing.

But the moment you step into the analysis and business side, the dynamic shifts. I’ve had meetings where people assumed I was the social media coordinator, not the co-founder. I’ve submitted detailed probability analyses and gotten responses asking whether “someone senior reviewed the numbers.” You build a thick skin fast, or you don’t survive in this space.

50×50: The AIGDF report found that women make up 44% of gamers but only 12-14% of the workforce. Why does that gap persist?

It’s a pipeline problem and a culture problem running in parallel. Young women play games at nearly the same rate as young men, but when they look at who actually works in the industry, they don’t see themselves. The few who do break in often end up in marketing or community management, not in product, analysis, or leadership positions. The All-in Diversity Project found that globally, women hold only 32% of managerial roles in gambling. That number is actually getting worse, not better.

The irony is that female gamers in India spend 8.5% more per month than male gamers, according to Lumikai’s FY24 research with Google. Women also game 11.2 hours per week compared to 10.2 for men. The industry is actively ignoring the demographic that’s putting the most money and time into the product. That’s not just an equity problem. It’s a business problem.

50×50: Do you see that changing?

Slowly. There are more women building platforms, leading studios, and shaping industry direction than there were even five years ago. Nozomi Kato’s work in the gaming content space is a good example of someone who came from a completely different background and carved out a legitimate position. But individual success stories aren’t the same as systemic change. We need structural shifts in how gaming companies hire, promote, and allocate investment.

I’m not waiting for the industry to figure this out on its own. Part of building TeenPatti.us.com is showing that a young woman can do rigorous gaming analysis, build a profitable platform around it, and produce work that holds up against anyone in the space. The best argument for inclusion is results.

What She Tells Every Woman Considering a Career in Gaming

Emily is direct about the challenges. She’s equally direct about the opportunities.

50×50: If someone reading this is considering entering the gaming industry professionally, what would you tell them?

Start building evidence of your expertise before anyone gives you permission to. I was tracking casino data in spreadsheets for a full year before TeenPatti.us.com existed as even an idea. That body of work became the foundation for everything we built. Nobody can question your knowledge when you walk into a meeting with a thousand data points and the analysis to match.

Second, pick one area and go deeper than anyone else. Don’t try to be the person who knows a little about everything. Be the person who knows more about one specific thing than anyone in the room. For me that was Teen Patti platform analysis. For someone else it might be game design, regulatory compliance, or player behaviour analytics. Depth beats breadth every time in this industry.

And third, stop waiting for an invitation. The gaming industry doesn’t hand out seats at the table. You bring your own chair.

50×50: What’s next for you and the platform?

We’re expanding the testing methodology. I want to build the most rigorous casino evaluation system specifically for Indian card games. That means larger sample sizes per platform, more detailed tracking, and eventually tools that help players analyze their own gameplay patterns. We’re also hiring, and I’m intentional about building a team that reflects the audience we serve.

The global live dealer market hit $7.8 billion in 2024, according to Growth Market Reports, with projections reaching $20.4 billion by 2033. Asia-Pacific alone accounted for $1.7 billion of that. The growth is real, and it creates opportunities for people who are willing to do the work. I want to make sure women are claiming their share.

Other women are carving similar paths across the gaming industry. Carolyn Glover’s leadership in online gaming content management shows what becomes possible when women reach decision-making positions. The industry needs more of that, at every level, from entry-level analysts to C-suite leadership.

Emily Sanders didn’t follow a conventional career path into gaming analysis. She sat at the table, watched the patterns others missed, and built something that serves an audience most of the industry overlooks. At 23, she’s running a platform, publishing original research, and hiring a team on her own terms. If the gaming industry’s gender gap is going to close, it will be because people like her stopped waiting and started building.

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