Picture this: It’s the night of Selection Sunday. Both the men’s and women’s tournament brackets are set. You log onto a sportsbook and see that you can wager on every scheduled men’s game. Depending on what state you’re in, you can bet on futures, specific rounds of the tournament, game lines, spread, player props and team props.
But the odds for the women’s games? Nowhere to be found.
The next day, Monday morning, still crickets.
A year ago, I wrote an article exploring the question of whether sportsbooks were keeping up with the growing popularity of women’s college basketball. The answer then was a resounding no. In all honesty, I set out to write this article expecting that I would find a similarly negative trend. And on the Monday morning after this year’s Selection Sunday, it looked like sportsbooks were behind the ball yet again.
But, slowly, a few markets started to roll in. DraftKings added the women’s tournament to its “popular” tab and had a point spread for every scheduled game, though not always a moneyline or total. FanDuel put up some game lines and player props for big names like Angel Reese (LSU), JuJu Watkins (USC), Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame), Paige Bueckers (UConn) — and a separate tab just for “Caitlin Clark Specials.”
The…
