PHOENIX — When sportswriter Jim Turvey arrived at his in-laws’ house for dinner, he was shocked to hear his sports-uninterested relatives talking about Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese and Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark.
The WNBA rookies faced off against Louisiana State and Iowa in a memorable final game of the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball tournament, and their rematch the following April drew a women’s college basketball record 12.3 million viewers in the women’s Elite Eight. The high-profile matchup and rivalry between Clark and Reese helped skyrocket the growth of women’s basketball.
“It really reached out to everybody. Unless you’re very naive, you know about women’s sports, especially women’s basketball,” Turvey said.
The increased interest in women’s sports has been a financial boon for TV networks as well as sportsbooks. In April, FanDuel won the largest amount of money wagered on women’s sports in history on an LSU-Iowa rematch in the women’s NCAA basketball tournament. This season, Caesars Sportsbook saw a 516% increase in bets on the WNBA opening game, while BetMGM reported a 175% increase in money wagered on WNBA futures, including picks for the league’s championship and MVP.
“You see the sports listed at the top,” Turvey said, describing the interface of a typical sports betting app. “You see MLB, the Olympics, soccer and Caitlin Clark.”
As women’s sports leagues like the WNBA have seen a surge in fans betting on games, futures and parlays, teams and betting companies are partnering to find ways to increase engagement and provide cutting-edge betting content for professional women’s sports leagues.
Bally Bet, an online sportsbook licensed and regulated in Arizona, entered into a 15-year partnership with the Mercury in 2021, becoming the first U.S. sportsbook operator to partner with a WNBA team. The sportsbook will run advertising throughout the Footprint Center and produce a behind-the-scenes video content series featuring the team.
“There’s a community out there that wants more (betting) content around the league they love, and that’s the WNBA,” said Christopher Boan, lead writer for Gambling.com Group.
Boan predicts the WNBA could surpass MLB as the most highly wagered summer sport, and the viewership numbers back up her betting on women’s games. WNBA games average about 1.32 million viewers, three times the viewership last season (462,000). With the influx of new fans, betting companies are looking for ways to increase engagement and provide up-to-date betting content about the professional women’s sports league.
Realizing that fans were clamoring for more content about women’s sports betting, Turvey and his fellow journalists and co-hosts Calvin Wetzel, Dani Barravi and Mary Liebig launched “Bet She Wins,” a podcast that covers the sports betting landscape across all women’s sports.
The crew released the first episode in May 2024, breaking down Clark’s best fades as well as betting on other top players in the WNBA.
Following its partnership with Bally Bets and Mercury, FanDuel has become the official sportsbook partner of the WNBA, but the deal doesn’t stop there: On July 18, DraftKings announced it would partner with the WNBA on sports betting and daily fantasy sports, making the company the league’s second official partner.
Since these partnerships were formed, the practice of betting money on games has become increasingly widespread. In March 2023, Bally Bet won more than $247,000 in mobile event wagering. This year, the sportsbook’s profits in March jumped to nearly $800,000.
Bally Bet isn’t the only one seeing this growth.
The amount of money wagered on sports betting hit a new record of about $759 million in March, according to the Arizona Gaming Department, and department spokesman Dane O’Brien expects the industry to continue to grow at a faster rate.
“(Legalized sports betting) is still fairly new and growing in the state, and any new industry isn’t going to hit full speed right away,” O’Brien said.
No doubt Clark and Reese’s move from the NCAA to the WNBA has helped boost viewership and led to an increase in avid sports bettors, and FanDuel now offers a Clark market tab, providing up-to-date predictions on Fever rookies.
But not everyone is happy with America’s new pastime.
Ahead of the Mercury vs. Fever scheduled matchup on June 29, Mercury guard Kalia Copper took to her X account to ask fans to stop betting on her in parlays. Copper’s stellar performance and scoring ability have made her a popular choice for prop bets.
“There are a lot of factors that fuel anger online and it’s really unfortunate but these players absolutely need to be protected,” Turvey warned.
NCAA president Charlie Baker continues to urge states to ban prop bets to protect college athletes from “harassment,” with the organization saying 15 to 25 percent of online abuse surrounding athletics is gambling-related.
The NCAA also reported an increase in harassment against players, coaches and officials during this year’s men’s and women’s basketball postseason tournaments.
Behind the flashy advertising and easily accessible apps lies a darker side to the world of sports betting.
Sports betting apps often attract a younger demographic: As of 2024, the largest demographic of sports bettors is the 25-34 age group, according to YouGov.
The Arizona Department of Problem Gambling has seen a continued increase in text messages to its 1-800-NEXT-STEP helpline. Department Director Elise Mikkelsen said the spike in text messages could be due to increased advertising required to obtain a gambling license.
“There’s a lot more attention being paid to helpline numbers than there used to be,” Mikkelsen said. “Problems with gambling don’t usually emerge until much later, even after new forms of gambling have begun.”
Still, she said police are monitoring the increase in activity and are ready to provide services to those who need them.
Robert Dauggenbau, a gambling addiction counselor and professor of social and behavioral sciences at Rio Salado College, similarly spoke about the difficulty of recognizing someone who suffers from a gambling problem.
“When people overdose, you see it, but with gambling you don’t see the overdose,” said Dauggenbau, who noted that the suicide rate among people with gambling problems is the highest of any addiction.
A 2019 survey by GambleAware and the UK Gambling Commission found that one in five people with a gambler problem suffer from suicidal thoughts.
Despite the widely known dangers of gambling addiction, the professor is still seeing a huge increase in the number of people betting on sports.
“Women who signed up for a mobile sports betting app in the past year were 115% more likely than in 2020,” Dauggenbau said.
According to PlayNJ, 12% of women bet on sports monthly, and 4% of female bettors said the rise of female superstar athletes like Clark and Reese inspired them to start gambling.
While sports betting can contribute to the promotion and development of women’s sport, Mikkelsen stressed that education and resources are important to ensure fans who choose to gamble stay safe, both mentally and physically.
Similarly, Turvey and his co-hosts encourage and advise listeners to bet responsibly throughout the podcast episodes. He explained that leagues like the WNBA need to continue to address the dangers of sports betting and protect players from harassment to ensure safe sports betting.
“As long as those issues are addressed and people can do it responsibly, I think sports betting can definitely be a way to increase interest in sports,” Turvey said.