Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
The sports betting sector is attracting more female bettors, DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG) CEO Jason Robins told Benzinga in an exclusive interview following the company’s fourth-quarter earnings Thursday.
Here's a look at the impact females and female bettors could have on DraftKings’ results and future.
The Caitlin Clark Effect: One of the contributing factors is the success of Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball team, Robins told Benzinga Friday.
DraftKings has seen a 9x to 10x increase in betting handle year-over-year on women's basketball, he said. The DraftKings CEO attributes a lot of this performance to Clark.
"In general, we're seeing a lot of growth in women's sports," Robins said.
On Thursday night, Clark broke the NCAA Division 1 Women's Basketball scoring record, which previously stood at 3,527 points. Clark scored the seven points needed for the record less than 3 minutes into Thursday's game, hitting a signature deep 35-foot, three-point shot for the record.
Clark ended the game with a school-record 49 points. Clark also had 13 assists and tied her career high of nine three-pointers made in the 106-89 win.
DraftKings offered bets on how Clark would break the record, with a three-point shot the favorite at odds of -125. Clark breaking the record on a two-point shot or free-throw had odds of +180 and +450, respectively.
Iowa is ranked fourth in the women's basketball Top 25 poll with a 22-3 record. The team is the second pick to win the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship with odds of +850 at DraftKings. No. 1 ranked and perfect 23-0 South Carolina is the favorite at +125.
LSU, which defeated Iowa in last year's championship game, is listed with the third-best odds of +900.
Iowa has four more games left before the postseason. The success of Iowa in the women's basketball tournament could continue to help boost viewership, ticket sales and, in the case of DraftKings, betting on women's basketball.
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Taylor Swift’s Impact: Another contributing factor to more women betting on sports, particularly NFL games, could be musician Taylor Swift.
Swift's romance with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce has boosted viewership for NFL games and also led to sportsbooks like DraftKings offering prop bets that highlight favorite numbers and Swift song titles.
At DraftKings, this includes bets named after the titles of her songs, such as “Blank Space,” which sees Kelce getting an octopus with a touchdown and two-point conversion after the score at +3,000; “Mine,” which sees Kelce having over 87 receiving yards at +190; “Anti Hero,” which sees Brock Purdy throwing for 200+ yards and having 2+ passing touchdowns at +200; and “Red,” which sees the Chiefs scoring 22+ points in the first half at +1,000.
As Benzinga previously reported, 20% of bets for DraftKings for the first touchdown prop were on Kelce. The tight end was also a popular bet for Super Bowl MVP and scoring an anytime touchdown.
Robins said Kelce scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl was the most bet player prop. While this may have been a popular option among Swift fans and female bettors, Robins said Kelce scoring a touchdown was also the most-bet player prop in the previous Super Bowl, where the Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles.
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