Updated (April 7, 2024, 5:11 PM ET): The undefeated South Carolina women’s team held off Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes to win the women’s March Madness championship Sunday, 87-75.
2024 is shaping up to be a milestone year for women’s sports, both in terms of investment and engagement. We found that when we put effort and money into the infrastructure of the women’s game, people take notice.
This year’s Women’s March Madness will be featured on primetime television, with more news outlets continuing to provide regular, knowledgeable coverage of these athletes. The result was Gangbuster ratings, with 14.2 million people watching him watch Friday’s Final Four matchup between Iowa and UW. As a result, headlines about the women’s tournament sometimes outnumbered those about the men’s tournament. Today’s championship game between Caitlin Clark’s Iowa State and an undefeated South Carolina team will be a game for the ages.The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch put it“Motherf——Welcome to the new world.”
We found that when we put effort and money into the infrastructure of the women’s game, people take notice.
As viewership continues to rise over the past few years, betting on women’s sports has increased as well. According to Action Network host Maria Marino, FanDuel reports Monday’s top betting event is LSU vs. Iowa. 28% increase A bet on last year’s national championship game. WNBA betting in partnership with FanDuel has exploded as well. And this incredible growth is happening globally across women’s sports. A study published last year by the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) found that bets on soccer have increased by 20% each year since 2020, with tennis, basketball and cricket increasing by more than 10%. Her annual growth rate (%) from 2017 to 2022.
Sports betting clearly benefits women’s sports in a number of ways. This is another indicator to further prove the commercial viability of a company and shows the revenue it generates. Money has always been the primary means to equality.
Women’s sports therefore offer the purest distillation of the current state of sports betting and its dilemmas. It’s about having honest conversations about them. To achieve equality in men’s sport, small talk, questionable coaching practices or the reality of betting must be scrutinized equally and to the same extent.
While it’s clear that more people watching means more people betting, studies have shown that betting itself can increase viewership and fan engagement in men’s and women’s sports alike. For example, the NFL has long enjoyed increased engagement from fans playing fantasy football. Still, Marino is quick to point out that he believes betting follows ratings, not the other way around.
“Most casual bettors look to bet on sports when they are interested enough in something, want to consume it, and feel like they know enough about it,” she told me. “So the increase in participation when it comes to betting on women’s basketball is just a sign that interest in the sport and its popularity is exploding.”
Indeed, gambling represents a new frontier in investing in women’s sports. “We talk about investment in terms of programming and marketing opportunities and advertiser diversification. Sports betting brings in a whole new group from the advertisers and marketing side,” said Women’s Basketball Writer and Girls Talk Sports said TV founder Christina Williams.
But this new frontier has its fair share of pitfalls. In recent years, as more states have legalized sports betting, more gambling scandals have come to light (not surprisingly). In the past few weeks alone, the Shohei Ohtani translation controversy and the NBA investigation into Jontay Porter’s prop bet have led to a flood of articles about the problems facing American sports when it comes to betting. Ta. Even those of us who still support legalization are concerned about the growing public health crisis of gambling addiction, especially among young bettors, challenges to the integrity of the game, and increased harassment of athletes. are doing.
Women’s sports are not immune to similar issues. IBIA’s report details several cases of match-fixing in women’s sports dating back more than a decade, and urges leagues and governing bodies to combat corruption by increasing oversight and regulatory efforts and striving for pay equity. He emphasized the need to be proactive. “Stakeholders should actively challenge the misconception that women’s sport is less susceptible to match-fixing,” the report said, noting that there is a correlation between lower wages and increased vulnerability to bribery. He added that there is a possibility.
“We should be having the same conversations we have in men’s sports, about the concerns, the problems, and the positives,” said Nicole Auerbach, senior writer at The Athletic and host on SiriusXM.
Too much money is at stake, Deitsch added. “I hope that doesn’t happen, but I think you’re naive if you somehow think that women’s sports are immune to scandals like that.”
Women’s sports and female athletes are often infantilized to downplay their competitive quality, marketability, and earning potential. As investments increase, that same infantilization can become twisted to ignore potential problems. Women can also be bad actors, and they are not inherently immune to economic pressures or moral failings.
Women’s sports and female athletes are often infantilized to downplay their competitive quality, marketability, and earning potential.
Importantly, the infrastructure surrounding betting on women’s sports continues to lag compared to men’s sports. As Auerbach and Williams told me, betting lines are still not widely available and can be inaccurate, and even if you do find an app that bets on women, there are far fewer options for parlays and prop bets. . This reflects the overall lack of available data and statistics regarding women’s sports, a long-standing complaint among female athletes and those who cover them.
“I actually think betting on women’s sports is pretty unfair,” said ESPN features writer Katie Burns. “So even though betting on women’s games, especially college basketball and the WNBA, has skyrocketed, the ways to bet on those games have declined significantly, which is both good and bad. ”
The problem also extends to fan behavior. Recently, there has been an increase in fans mistreating players by failing to make prop bets. The NCAA is particularly concerned about online harassment of players, with association president Charlie Baker calling for a complete ban on prop betting. Of the 38 states where sports betting is legal, four have already outlawed prop wagering on college games.
Concerns about gambling-related harassment should be particularly acute for female athletes, given the prevalence of gender and racial abuse on social media. After LSU’s loss to Iowa on Monday, Angel Reese spoke out about the abuse she has received since LSU won the national championship last year. Iowa guard Gabby Marshall says she deleted social media due to “hateful comments” from fans angry over a controversial offensive foul in Friday’s Final Four that effectively ended the college’s season. .the It’s not a stretch At least some of the bitterness from bettors Those who feel that they suffered a terrible loss because of that one play. (Women’s college hoops officiating has come under fire all season for inconsistency and lack of transparency.)
Women’s sports are here to stay and will bring in a lot of money for a lot of people. But that funding and popularity requires regulation, guidelines, and fair oversight. We owe it to our fans, investors, and athletes to get this right and learn from the mistakes they’ve already made.
If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call the National Council on Problem Gambling for help. 1-800-522-4700or visit us online ncpgambling.org/chat.
