When it comes to women placing wagers, two numbers stand out.
More than 4.6 million U.S. women joined sports betting apps in 2021, with female user rates growing 115 percent, compared to 2020, according to data analysis company GWS.
Though the number of male users still exceeds females by 250 percent, the rate of men using sportsbook betting apps grew by just 63 percent in the same time period, according to the Business Journals.
“It doesn’t surprise me that there’s more growth among women just because, historically, there have been fewer women who wagered on sports, so now that they have access to that, it’s natural that the percentage growth is going to be higher than men because the male market was more mature,” said Mike Seely, a sports betting journalist for SportsHandle who has written about the growth.
Some sportsbooks have shown so much success in attracting new female users that they have a higher proportion of women than men in its user base. Whether the sportsbook is large or small, women are making more inroads.
BetRivers, along with its New Jersey outlet SugarHouse, signed some 600,000 women in 2021, compared to just under 380,000 men.
FanDuel signed an estimated 1.7 million women in 2021, according to GWS.
FanDuel Sportsbook at Footprint Center in Phoenix, opened up last year when sports betting was legalized in Arizona. It’s a place where sports bettors can go to place bets, watch games and buy a drink.
Noah Kirk, the general manager of the center’s sportsbook, has seen an increasing number of women at the center, which is home to the NBA’s Suns and WNBA’s Mercury franchises.
“We see more and more female customers almost every day,” he said.
Increased popularity brings greater accessibility, and with incentives like referral bonuses, the growing number of women comes as no surprise.
“A lot of women enjoy sports just as much as men,” Kirk said. “It’s just teaching new customers and not just necessarily women, whether it be the older population as well, how they will interact with the newer way of sports betting. It’s not the guy at the bar.”
It’s a big deal for women, said Lisa Diaz, a sports betting personality and CEO of sports betting company BettingInHeels. “We can actually step into a male dominant world now that sports betting is everywhere.”
