LAS VEGAS — From down the Strip to the periphery of the city, Vegas sportsbooks raved about Monday’s Elite Eight women’s basketball game between Iowa and LSU.
“We handled more on that game than we ever have on a women’s sporting event,” Westgate SuperBook executive vice president Jay Kornegay said, “including the WNBA and the women’s U.S. soccer team.
“Caitlin Clark has brought betting on women’s basketball to the forefront. She has obviously raised the interest level, not just in viewership, but she has also impacted the gaming industry. Plenty of eyes were on it. I thought it was pretty entertaining myself.”
A rivalry with LSU and Angel Reese, a standalone time slot and the drama of Iowa seeking revenge from an NCAA Tournament defeat to the Bayou Bengals a year ago, with a Final Four berth at stake, and fireworks resulted.
Clark tallied 41 points in the Hawkeyes’ 94-87 triumph. With a reported 12.3 million ESPN viewers, it set a TV record for a women’s college hoops game.
At the SuperBook, it claimed the huge screen with the audio feed to the entire book. The Iowa-LSU betting handle beat each of the six NBA games played that night and Yankees-Diamondbacks, playing at Arizona in the same time frame.
“A lot more money on the women’s…
