Women’s college basketball became a sports mainstay this season, attracting enormous viewership and mainstream cultural relevance — which led to new heights for the sport in the betting market.
Sunday’s NCAA championship game between Iowa and South Carolina was the most-bet women’s college basketball game of all time at multiple major sportsbooks, including ESPN BET, Caesars, BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel — with the latter three confirming that it was also their most-bet women’s sporting event of all time.
The game, which saw the Gamecocks avenge their 2023 Final Four loss to the Hawkeyes, takes over the record mantle from the UConn-Iowa matchup in this year’s Final Four, which itself broke the record set by LSU-Iowa in the Elite Eight.
ESPN BET told ESPN that Sunday’s contest took 20% more bets than Friday’s game, while FanDuel said it took 22% more money, and Caesars VP of trading Craig Mucklow says the book took “double” the handle of the previous record.
South Point Casino sportsbook director Chris Andrews tweeted that Sunday’s contest took about as many tickets as either of the 2024 men’s Final Four games and had handle “similar to a well-bet college football game.”
FanDuel also notes that the 2024 title game saw a 155% increase in handle and a 205% increase…
