Bally Bet, an online Arizona-based sportsbook, has a 15-year deal with the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA’s first deal with a U.S. sportsbook. (File photo by Shirell Washington/Cronkite News)
Phoenix Mercury guard Kahleah Copper’s, center right, is a popular option for sports bettors thanks to her standout performances on the court. (File photo by Shirell Washington/Cronkite News)
With the growing popularity of women’s sports, sportsbooks are seeing a surge in betting on WNBA games during the 2024 season. (File photo by Shirell Washington/Cronkite News)
PHOENIX – When sportswriter Jim Turvey arrived at his in-laws for dinner, he was shocked to hear his non-sports-centric relatives discussing Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese and Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark.
The WNBA rookies rivaled each other at LSU and Iowa in a memorable championship game in the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball tournament, with a rematch the following April that drew a women’s college basketball record of 12.3 million viewers in the women’s Elite Eight. Clark and Reese’s high-profile matchups and competition have spiked growth in women’s basketball.
“It’s truly broken through to everyone and anyone. Unless you’re living under a rock, you know about women’s sports and women’s basketball in particular,” Turvey said.
TV networks are not only experiencing the financial benefits of increased interest in women’s sports; sportsbooks are also feeling the impact. In April’s LSU-Iowa rematch in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, FanDuel received the most wagers all time for women’s sports. This season, Caesars Sportsbook saw a 516% increase in bet counts during the WNBA’s opening night, while BetMGM reported that the amount of money bet on WNBA futures, like predictions for the league’s championship team and MVPs, rose by 175%.
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“At the top, they list the sports, right?” Turvey said, describing the typical sports betting app interface. “It’ll say MLB, Olympics, soccer, and then Caitlin Clark.”
While women’s sports leagues like the WNBA are seeing an influx of fans betting on games, futures and parlays, teams and betting companies are partnering in search of ways to increase engagement and provide up-to-date betting content on professional women’s sports leagues.
Bally Bet, a licensed and regulated online Arizona sportsbook, signed a 15-year partnership with the Mercury in 2021, becoming the first U.S. sportsbook operator to partner with a WNBA team. The sportsbook advertises throughout Footprint Center and produces a behind-the-scenes video content series covering the team.
“There’s a community out there that has been desperately seeking more (betting) content on the league that they love, and that’s the WNBA,” said Christopher Boan, lead writer for the Gambling.com group.
Boan predicts that the WNBA could become the highest-grossing summer sport to wager on, overtaking the MLB, and the viewership numbers support his bet on the women’s game. WNBA games are averaging nearly 1.32 million viewers, tripling the amount of viewers (462,000) from last season. With the influx of new fans, betting companies are looking for ways to increase engagement and provide up-to-date betting content on professional women’s sports leagues.
Noticing the desire from fans for more women’s sports betting content, Turvey and his fellow journalists and co-hosts Calvin Wetzel, Dani Bar-Lavi, and Mary Liebig began their podcast Bet She Wins, which covers the sports betting landscape across all women’s sports.
The ‘Bet She Wins’ team – Jim Turvey, Calvin Wetzel, Dani Bar-Lavi and Mary Liebig – breaks down the latest trends in women’s sports betting. (Photo courtesy of ‘Bet She Wins’)
The crew released their first episode in May 2024, breaking down their best Clark fades and bets on other high-ranking players in the WNBA.
After the Bally Bets and Mercury collaboration, FanDuel became the WNBA’s official sportsbook partner –and the deals haven’t stopped there. On July 18, DraftKings announced its partnership with the WNBA for sports betting and daily fantasy sports, making the company the league’s second official partner.
Since these partnerships were made, the prevalence of wagering money on games has only continued. In March 2023, Bally Bet garnered over $247,000 in mobile event wagering. This year, the sportsbook’s profits for March jumped to almost $800,000.
Bally Bet isn’t the only organization witnessing this growth.
‘Bet She Wins’ represents a fresh voice in the sports betting community that focuses on women’s sports. (Photo courtesy of ‘Bet She Wins’)
Bettors wagered a new record of approximately $759 million on sports in March, according to Arizona’s Department of Gaming. Dayne O’Brien, the department’s public information officer, expects the industry’s growth will increase.
“It’s still fairly new (legalized sports gambling) and growing within the state. And no new industry is going to hit the ground running at full capacity,” O’Brien said.
Undoubtedly, Clark and Reese’s transition from the NCAA to the WNBA has helped increase viewership, leading to an increase in eager sports bettors. FanDuel now offers a Clark markets tabs, providing the latest forecasts on the Fever rookie.
However, not everyone is content with America’s newfound pastime.
On June 29, before the Mercury’s anticipated match against the Fever, Mercury guard Kahleah Copper took to her X account to ask fans to stop putting her in their parlays. Copper’s incredible performance and prolific scoring have made her a popular option for prop bets.
“There are a lot of factors that can drive anger online, it’s really unfortunate, and those players very much do need to be protected,” Turvey warned.
NCAA president Charlie Baker has continued to urge states to ban prop bets to keep college athletes from “getting harassed.” The organization stated that 15-25 percent of online harassment regarding competitions is betting-related.
The NCAA also reported an increase in harassment toward players, coaches and officials during this year’s men’s and women’s basketball post-season tournaments.
Behind all the flashy ads and easily accessible apps, there’s an even darker side to the sports betting world.
Sports betting apps frequently engage a younger audience. As of 2024, the largest demographic of sports bettors falls between the 25-34 age range, according to YouGov.
Texts to its 1-800-NEXT-STEP helpline have continued to increase, according to Arizona’s Division of Problem Gambling. Elise Mikkelsen, the division’s director, says the spike in texts could result from increased advertising, which is required to receive a betting license.
“We’ve had more attention to our helpline number than previously,” Mikkelsen said. “You usually don’t see with the inception of any new modality of gambling, problems with gambling until much further down the road.”
Still, she noted that the department is monitoring the increase in activity and prepared to provide services to those in need.
Robert Daughenbaugh, a gambling addictions counselor and professor at Rio Salado College in social and behavioral studies, similarly spoke on the challenges in recognizing someone who struggles with problem gambling.
“If a person overdoses, you see that, but with gambling, you don’t see any overdose,” Daughenbaugh said. Daughenbaugh also noted that people with problem gambling have the highest suicide rate of any addiction disorder.
One in five problem gamblers has struggled with suicidal thoughts, according to a 2019 study conducted by GambleAware and the United Kingdom Gambling Commission.
Despite the widely documented dangers of gambling addictions, the professor has still seen a significant spike in the number of people betting on sports.
“Women signed up for mobile sports betting apps in the past year at a 115% increase from 2020,” Daughenbaugh said.
Twelve percent of women are monthly sports bettors and four percent of female bettors reported that their introduction to making wagers were because of the rise of superstar female athletes like Clark and Reese, according to PlayNJ.
Although sports gambling can help promote and further the growth of women’s sports, Mikkelsen stressed the importance of education and resources for fans who choose to gamble in order to stay safe mentally and physically.
Likewise, Turvey and his co-hosts encourage and advise listeners to bet responsibly throughout their podcast episodes. He explained that leagues like the WNBA need to continue addressing the dangers of sports gambling and protecting their players from harassment to ensure safe sports betting.
“I do think very much as long as those things are addressed and people can do (bet) it responsibly, sports betting is absolutely a way to drive interest in sports,” Turvey said.