Keen tussle: England (in white) and Denmark’s women footballers battle in out at the ongoing Women’s World Cup. There are expectations that the viewership is likely to double the 1.12 billion who watched the tournament in 2019. — AFP
THE 2023 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women’s World Cup is on track to be the best-attended and viewed women’s sporting event in history.
More likely than not, it will also be the most-wagered-upon women’s sporting event we’ve seen yet.
That’s a good thing. Betting boosts audiences, media coverage and sponsorships.
For women’s sports, which still struggle with gender equality, the money and attention is critical to future growth, especially if it can be done while maintaining the integrity of the industry.
In important, measurable ways, that growth is already happening.
According to a new study on betting in women’s sports, bets on soccer have grown at a roughly 20% annualised compounded growth rate since 2020.
Tennis, basketball and cricket saw over 10% annualised compounded growth from 2017 to 2022.
Betting data for this year’s Women’s World Cup is not publicly available yet, but a spokeswoman for Flutter Entertainment Plc, the world’s largest online betting firm and owner of FanDuel, recently told me the company expects the international competition to boost trading activity further.
That’s a safe bet.
Viewership for women’s sports is growing rapidly, with expectations that this year’s Women’s World Cup could have double the 1.12 billion viewers who watched the tournament in 2019.
Likewise, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) reports that national TV audiences for its 2023 season are up 67% over last year.
Audience growth parallels an increase in betting. In July, German researchers, using data provided by Flutter and other gambling industry organisations, operators and suppliers, traced the expansion.
In 2019, just over 300,000 legal bets were made on women’s soccer; in 2022, the number had reached 700,000 (worth around €30mil in betting volume).
In the world of basketball, the WNBA reports that the number of bets made grew 270% in 2022 over the 2021 season.
Women’s sports made up a small fraction of the US$93.2bil in bets that legal US sportsbooks handled in 2022. But the steady growth in those wagers is critical to understanding one important factor: audience engagement.
Research shows that gamblers pay closer attention to a sports broadcast if they have money riding on it.
The competitiveness of a match doesn’t always matter, either. In 2015, economists found that ratings will spike during blowouts if one of the teams has a chance to cover the point spread.
If viewers stay with a broadcast longer, they are more likely to pay attention to advertisements and become fans of new teams – both of which enable leagues and their broadcast and streaming partners to charge higher rates.
Women’s sports are right to seize the opportunity. Last September, the WNBA extended a multi-year deal with FanDuel, cementing the company’s role as the league’s top sportsbook and fantasy partner.
And in June, TAB New Zealand became the first gambling firm to be named an official betting partner of the Women’s World Cup.
These deals and others will bring added attention, engagement and – critically – money to women’s sports.
Though the equality gap with men’s sports won’t be bridged overnight, those revenues can contribute to better salaries, prize money and treatment, including safer travel arrangements.
Of course, any expansion of gambling risks undermining the integrity of a given sport, and women’s sports are not immune.
Sportradar, a leading monitor of suspicious betting activities, detected 1,212 suspicious matches in 12 different sports worldwide in 2022.
While only 24 of those came from women’s sporting events, mostly from lower-level competitions, that’s no reason to sleep on a potential problem.
The low incidence numbers are likely due to the lesser profile of women’s sports. As the industry’s popularity grows, match fixing is likely to increase.
While this is a problem long associated with men’s sports, it poses a unique threat to women’s sports, which have expanded partly because of their close association with social movements like #MeToo and purpose-driven advertising. Match fixing will dent the brand.
Historically, athletes are most vulnerable to corruption when they are paid poorly.
As gambling expands in women’s sports, that vulnerability will increase unless leagues and teams take steps to raise pay to such a level that bribes are no longer attractive to their athletes.
Not every women’s sports association may have the opportunity to do that. But FIFA does. It has US$4bil in reserves, yet prize money at this year’s Women’s World Cup stands at US$110mil, versus US$440mil for the men’s 2022 World Cup.
If FIFA, the WNBA and other leagues won’t bridge the sports gender gap out of pocket, they should consider recruiting legal sportsbooks that might sponsor better pay.
In time, these betting partners might even see it in their self-interest to serve as key proponents of pay equality.
For gamblers, fans and athletes, that’s a future worth wagering on. — Bloomberg
Adam Minter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia, technology and the environment. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
