WOMEN’S SPORT AND SPORTS BETTING§
Conducted by the German Sport University Cologne, the study analyses the economic development of five women’s sports (soccer, tennis, basketball, cricket, and volleyball) and the women’s sports betting market, including its size, growth and characteristics. It also examines the potential vulnerability of women’s sports to match-fixing. The results did not come as a surprise, although it is important to be able to finally confirm what until now were often just assumptions. The study concluded that there is indeed a growing interest in betting on women’s sports. It was also possible to understand the nuances of this growth: data showed that football has consistently attracted the highest number of bettors, followed by tennis, with basketball, cricket, with other sports trailing far behind. More specifically, the study confirmed a 20 percent compound annual growth rate for the number of people betting on women’s football between 2017 and 2022, and there was a similar trend in relation to the total number of bets on women’s football. However, when examining the total volume 3 of bets, the picture changes with tennis boasting the highest volume during the past 5 years. This suggests that the average value of bets placed on tennis is much larger than in other sports. The gender-specific analysis of the study also highlighted some ground-breaking trends. In terms of volume, the growth of women betting on women’s sports has grown at a faster pace when compared to men betting on women’s sports during the past 5 years. Additionally, the share of female bettors betting on women’s sports has grown over time, with annual growth rates of up to 10 percent in all the sports analyzed, while the total number of women betting on women’s soccer has more than doubled. It is clear that interest in betting on women’s sports, as well as the interest that women have in sports betting, are here to stay, and whilst the study has made significant advances in our understanding of this phenomenon, further research and analysis is required. For the sports betting industry, we
need, for example, to better understand what this means for sponsorship and partnership and broadcasting. One of the lessons learned from the men’s game is that sports betting can contribute to raising interest in sports which, in turn, can help in securing or improving broadcasting and distribution deals. However, as the study confirmed, while there has been an unprecedented demand for basketball, cricket and football, with record-breaking TV ratings across the women’s sports examined, many sports and leagues either don’t have broadcast deals, or these deals do not properly reflect their current or potential market value. This does raise the intriguing question: if traditional broadcasters aren’t prepared to capitalize on these broadcasting opportunities, might the sports betting operators step-in? The same challenges and opportunities also apply to sponsorship and partnership. Some sports have already understood their benefits and have successfully pursued them. The multiyear partnership between the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and FanDuel has benefited both parties. FanDuel’s support saw continued growth of the WNBA whilst is saw increases of 270 percent in bet count and 101 percent in handle year over year for WNBA betting across all FanDuel Sportsbook retail locations 4 . With increased growth in women’s sport, comes an increased responsibility to protect our customers, sports betting operators, athletes and sport from match-fixing. When it comes to sports integrity, IBIA, together with its members (the regulated betting operators), currently applies the same risk management approach to detecting and reporting potential suspicious betting activities in both men’s and women’s sports betting markets. However, it will be important to assess whether this needs to be adapted to any specific situations in the women’s game. It was therefore very important that the study also examined the integrity of women’s sports. It did so from an academic
3 Volume in this instance refers to total sums being wagered on different women’s sports. 4 https://press.fanduel.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2022/FANDUEL-GROUP-AND-WNBA-ANNOUNCE-MULTIYEAR-PART- NERSHIP-RENEWAL/default.aspx#:~:text=FanDuel%20Group%20and%20WNBA%20Announce%20Multiyear%20Partnership%20Re- newal,-Share%20this%20Article&text=NEW%20YORK%2C%20Sept.,Fantasy%20Partner%20of%20the%20WNBA.
PAGE 39
IMGL MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2023
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker