This season, women's college basketball has become a mainstream sport, attracting huge viewership and mainstream cultural relevance, leading to new heights for the sport in the betting market.
Sunday's NCAA Championship game between Iowa and South Carolina was the highest-stakes game in women's college basketball history at multiple major sportsbooks, including ESPN BET, Caesars, BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel. The latter three matches also confirmed it's highest payout – bet on the greatest women's sporting event of all time.
The game, which avenges the Gamecocks' loss to the Hawkeyes in the 2023 Final Four, takes over from this year's Final Four matchup between UW and Iowa, which itself was the Elite Eight matchup between LSU and Iowa. broke the record set by.
ESPN BET told ESPN that Sunday's contest had 20% more bets than Friday's game, and FanDuel said it had 22% more money, Caesars vice president of trading Craig McCraw said. said the book had stakes “double” the previous record.
South Point Casino sports book director Chris Andrews said Sunday's contest attracted about the same number of tickets as any of the 2024 men's Final Four games and said it would be “similar to a high-stakes college football game. '', he tweeted.
FanDuel also points out that the 2024 title game saw a 155% increase in handles and a 205% increase in tickets compared to the 2023 National Championship, which was the record holder before this season. Masu. DraftKings Director of Sportsbook and Race Operations Johnny Abello told ESPN that prior to this year's NCAA Tournament, the record holder was Iowa's victory over Nebraska in this year's Big Ten Tournament championship game, but the NCAA He said each of Iowa's games in the tournament “cast a shadow” on that record. The number of games for the national championship was “astronomical.”
The 2024 NCAA Tournament marked a turning point for women's sports betting, as multiple individual records were set. Two central factors worked together to get the sport to this moment: increased media exposure and Iowa star Caitlin Clark.
“Available in limited quantities. [women’s] past games. There wasn't much interest because the game wasn't televised,” Abello said. “You may have seen a lot of games on national television this year. And we had some great players this year. Caitlin Clark is probably the most notable. But there are a lot of other players besides her. there was.”
Grant Tucker, a college basketball trader at Caesars, added before reaching the Final Four: “The betting handle just follows you everywhere.” [Clark] to go. ”
Now that Clark has departed for the WNBA, it remains to be seen whether women's college basketball can maintain its momentum in the betting market. Iowa State opens as a 30-1 underdog to win the 2025 national title, while South Carolina opens as a +250 favorite to win, according to ESPN BET odds.
