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Caitlin Clark’s impact on WNBA betting
Oddsmakers and sports betting experts have no difficulty explaining the massive uptick in WNBA betting this season.
As we head deeper into the summer months, fewer total dollars typically are wagered on sports betting for one main reason: Football season is still months away. Football — both the NFL and college football — is still king for bettors. Without those sports to wager on, many casual bettors take some time off from betting or bet smaller amounts on other sports.
Due primarily to the emergence of Caitlin Clark, one sport that has seen an uptick in wagering this summer has been the WNBA.
Optimove, a marketing technology firm, analyzed more than 15 million bets placed on 43 WNBA games in the month of May, including nine in which Clark and the Indiana Fever played. The firm found that Fever games generated an average 380% increase in the number of bets compared to a baseline game (a May 17 game between the Washington Mystics and Connecticut Sun).
Two bookmakers we spoke with corroborated what the analysis found.
“Without question [she’s helped],” Halvor Egeland, senior trader at BetMGM, told me via text. “WNBA was already growing year over year, but everything surrounding Clark has certainly been the biggest factor.”
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Another oddsmaker noted that the number of people coming up to the counter at his sportsbook talking about and betting WNBA games was “more than double” last year.
Games involving Clark and the Fever were responsible for every one of the top five WNBA games in terms of total bets at sportsbooks in May, per Optimove.
“Even before Caitlin Clark became the first rookie in WNBA history to record a triple-double in her July 6 game against the New York Liberty, her presence has been a major factor in boosting betting activity,” Rony Vexelman, VP of Marketing at Optimove said in a release. “She highlights the importance of star power in driving fan engagement and betting interest. Sophisticated sports betting operators and marketers pay close attention to key players like Clark, as their influence extends beyond the game and into the broader betting ecosystem.”
Clark will be participating in the WNBA All-Star Game on July 20, along with impressive Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese, who has set a WNBA record with 13 consecutive double-doubles this season.
Clark led the Iowa Hawkeyes to their first two national title games in program history, though they lost each time. After winning a laundry list of awards in college, the superstar guard was taken first overall in the WNBA draft by the Fever.
The Des Moines native is averaging 16.1 points, six rebounds and 7.4 assists per game on 39.3% shooting, including 33.1% on more than eight 3-point attempts per game during her first professional season with Indiana.