The WNBA is assembling a team of All-Star sportsbook partners. The league and DraftKings announced on Thursday that the operator has signed up as the WNBA’s second official sports betting partner.
Already with FanDuel on the roster, the WNBA now has the U.S. market’s two biggest hitters on board. DraftKings will become an official sports betting and daily fantasy sports partner of the league. That brings the WNBA in line with the NBA, which also has the two sportsbook giants as its official partners.
DraftKings will receive rights to league and collective team IP as well as marketing, activation and hospitality opportunities around tentpole league events. The sportsbook will also be able to utilize official WNBA data feeds to support the gameplay experience for fans. It will also receive increased media exposure across the WNBA’s digital and linear media platforms.
DraftKings has been the co-official sportsbook of the NBA since 2021, while FanDuel became an official WNBA sportsbook partner as part of an extension of the DFS deal it signed with the league in 2022.
DraftKings slam dunk the latest step in WNBA’s growth
Signing up another betting market leader continues the WNBA’s surge in momentum.
The league is projected to receive around $2.2 billion over 11 years through a new media rights deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon, beginning after the 2025 season. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert had previously stated she hoped the next media rights deal would double the league’s annual rights revenue; the new deal would more than triple it.
That is reflective of the league’s rise in prominence. Broadcast ratings have continued their steep upwards trend in 2024 thanks in part to the debuts of renowned former college stars such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
The WNBA said in June that the first month of the current season was the highest-attended opening month in 26 years and its most-watched first month ever. Half of all games in May were sellouts, a 156% increase from the prior year. As of the end of May, WNBA games were averaging 1.32 million viewers, nearly tripling last season’s average.
“What’s happening now in women’s basketball is confirmation of what we’ve always known: the demand is there, and women’s sports is a valuable investment,” said Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison at that time.
WNBA betting growing in popularity
That extends to betting, too. Multiple leading sportsbooks have reported in recent months that WNBA wagering has reached unprecedented levels.
As far back as last November, BetMGM reported that betting on the WNBA was growing faster on its platform than wagering on MLB and the NHL.
Key to the growth has been engaging fans. Edison added on Thursday that the new DraftKings deal “enables us to offer WNBA fans additional ways to engage with their favorite teams and players, responsibly and with integrity.”
“This opportunity for DraftKings to lean in with us to support women’s sports will welcome more fans to the WNBA,” she added.
Those comments echoed what numerous panelists said at SBC Summit North America in May about the size of the opportunity for the league and women’s sports in general.
