The recent NCAA women’s basketball championship game between Iowa and South Carolina attracted unprecedented viewership and cultural relevance, leading to record-breaking betting activity across major sportsbooks such as ESPN BET, Caesars, BetMGM, DraftKings, and FanDuel.
The championship game surpassed all previous records, becoming the most-bet women’s college basketball game in history, ESPN reported. It even outpaced the highly anticipated UConn-Iowa matchup in this year’s Final Four.
According to ESPN BET, the contest received 20% more bets than Friday’s game, while FanDuel reported a 22% increase in money wagered. Caesars VP of trading Craig Mucklow reported that the sportsbook handled “double” the previous record.
Chris Andrews, the sportsbook director at South Point Casino, noted that the game attracted a similar number of tickets as the 2024 men’s Final Four games and generated handle figures comparable to well-bet college football matchups, the report said.
The surge in betting activity can be attributed to increased media exposure and the presence of standout player Caitlin Clark from Iowa.
FanDuel reported a 155% surge in handle and a 205% rise in ticket count for the 2024 title game compared to the previous year’s championship. DraftKings director of sportsbook and race operations Johnny Avello told ESPN that Iowa’s games in the NCAA tournament surpassed its previous record set by Iowa’s win over Nebraska in the Big Ten tournament championship game, with the national championship game numbers reaching “astronomical” levels.
“We handled a limited amount of [women’s] games in the past. There wasn’t a lot of interest because the games weren’t being shown,” Avello told ESPN. “This year, you could have watched many games on national TV. And there were great players this year; Caitlin Clark being probably the No. 1 focus. But there were more players besides her.”
The significant surge in betting underscores the growing financial significance of women’s college basketball. The NCAA recently estimated the value of the women’s tournament at approximately $65 million in its upcoming media agreement, set to commence in September, as reported by the Associated Press.
