Women seek to level the field when it comes to sports betting, SBC Summit Americas panel says
Women comprise more than half the US population, according to Sirius XM VP Travel and iGaming/Sports Betting Vertical Laura Fernandez. But judging by the attendance at Thursday’s SBC Summit Americas panel “The Future is Female: Elevating Women’s Sports Through Betting,” interest from the industry lags, as the conference room was less than half filled.
“It’s a huge opportunity, but we’re not seeing a whole lot of campaigns targeting female sports betting,” Fernandez said. “You’re seeing it dabbled here and there, whether it’s BetMGM with Vanessa Hudgens or at Caesars sportsbook with Halle Berry, but we’re not seeing a whole lot of it.”
According to Lauren Dwyer, the WNBA’s Senior Director, Growth & Innovation, it’s meeting the interests of fans. She noted that where sports betting is legal, 37% of female fans and 40% of male fans make bets on WNBA games.
That proves it’s not true, according to Dwyer, that fans don’t or won’t bet on the WNBA.
“I think you see that for WNBA fans, especially women, they’re leaning in, they want to seek out and engage with the WNBA their favorite teams, their favorite players and have a stake in it,” Dwyer said. “They really are engaging in that way because they care and because they do want to bet. I think that’s debunking that misconception pretty strongly.”
Sue Schneider, Co-Dounder of Defy the Odds, a company designed to provide support and mentorship to underrepresented generations in gaming, has been in the industry for more than 30 years. She believes that an influx of information from data providers would do wonders to advance women’s sports betting.
“Going to Sue’s point about the data,” said Schneider’s co-founder in Defy the Odds, Paris Smith. “When you have the right data, you can do the micro betting, you can do all these things. Those are things that are really for bettors. Those are things that are much easier to engage in by providing that type of an opportunity. But you have to get the data in order to do so that’s going to really engage.”
AI Gaming Director Ana Clara Barros says in her native Brazil, getting women interested in betting is a difficult task because of traditional attitudes about women being designated caretakers.
Men, Barros said, are targeted by advertising or through traditional sportsbook or casino ads.
“But you need more than a pink ad to reach and connect to women and remain relevant,” she said.
What’s the solution?
Fernandez believes that as interest in women’s sports continues to grow, so will interest in betting on women’s sports. Dwyer wants to make sure that when people visit a sportsbook or app, they have the same opportunities to wager on the WNBA as they would any other sport.
And Schneider wants what men have: An opportunity to start communities online that educate and promote interactivity and prove, if the opportunity arises, women can “trash talk as well as a guy.”
Dig deeper
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