The Handle is a regular newsletter dedicated to providing the best insights in gaming news. To get The Handle delivered to your inbox, subscribe here.
Sports Betting Demographics
According to a July Sportico piece by Emily Caron, the state of the market indicates that around one-third of bettors in the U.S. are female. For Gen-Z (our area of expertise), this honestly feels a WAY high based on our experience. If we had to posit a guess, we’d say that for every ten men we know making an account in a new state, we may know one woman.
Among our generation, 1/3 of sports bettors being female just simply does NOT pass the smell test. Does this mean that there are less sports fans that are women as well? Well, not quite.
In a study published on Statista in June 2021, the percentage of casual sports fans that are female is actually 4% higher than that of males. The true discrepancy lies within the extremist positions; 39% of females are not a fan at all compared to 17% of males, 12% of females are avid fans compared to a whopping 39% of males.
 |
Assuming this study is representative of the larger U.S. female population, 60% of females are sports fans in some capacity, so why are only one-third of bettors female? The current model for sportsbook product offerings is tailored toward activating and retaining the existing male audience.
The Current Model’s Problem
Among the highest propensity gamblers we know, the majority got their start with PPH (pay per head) betting. These are the credit books that are settled weekly, usually with payouts on from an agent.
Now, we aren’t here to pass judgement on backers of PPH books at all. Conditional on a PPH book taking a bet from a member of Gen-Z who was underage at the time, the probability of that book being backed by a fraternity is close to 100%.
Through existing networks, young bettors who funneled by friends of friends to PPH books. Naturally, fraternity centric networks will skew predominantly male, meaning men had a far easier on ramp into sports betting than women did. Again, that doesn’t mean that anyone should be betting on a PPH book before they are 18 years old. This is just merely an explanation for the existing gender discrepancy among Gen-Z bettors.
After this, legal operators have to confront the historical stereotypes that come with gambling and sports betting. For starters, sports betting has been illegal for decades which has been a major friction to starting betting. It has a negative connotation and is deemed a masculine “degenerate” activity associated with high levels of risk taking. Whether that’s through movies or tv shows, you can just picture the male actor running into trouble with his bookie because he couldn’t fork over the money. You typically see men angrily wasting away money meant for the family. The negative portrayal of gambling, especially by men, is off putting.
Or you see someone hit a lottery ticket, a +10000000 (not sure there’s enough zeros, but you get the point) parlay, which is also irresponsible. You never see someone responsibly gamble in the mainstream media. Set aside a certain amount of money, and regardless of result only use the agreed upon amount, treating that sum the same way they treat out a night out with friends.
In order to attract more females, the narrative around sports betting needs to change. If it is viewed as a form of entertainment rather than degeneracy, the difference between a $50 bet and a few cocktails at the bar becomes blurred. They both bring pleasure and cost roughly the same amount. Each can be a respectable use of time and money, with some risk of irresponsible behavior but the majority finding it to be a healthy, recreational activity.
Instead, we see what FanDuel CEO Amy Howe describes as incredibly “male-centric” marketing, typically with advertising focused on the traditional male consumer. When there is little to no relatability in the messaging towards women, it creates additional friction toward making the first crucial deposit. Howe acknowledged there hasn’t been an effort to appeal to a female audience but moving forward sees a large opportunity for females in the space and wants to make it a priority for FanDuel.
Another company that has fed into the current negative model is Barstool Sports. They have found ways to incorporate females into their gambling personalities, although often in unequal roles as their male personalities. On their “Barstool Sports Advisors” show featuring El Pres, Big Cat, and “The Source” Stu Feiner, they have incorporated weather girl, Hannah Cook. While we find Hannah to be lovely and a great presence on the show, she does perpetuate multiple stereotypes.
The dynamic is pretty much three (older) dudes making the picks with a young, attractive woman just telling them the weather. All the men wear suits, and Hannah wears a tight dress. How could this ever make a female want to watch the show, or feel inclined to bet (let alone at Barstool Sportsbook)? The implicit message is that picking the bets are for men, while the women are there as an appealing sideshow. More colloquially, it feels like a booth at a Hooters.
Barstool has followed a similar model in choosing female gambling personalities. In August of 2021 they announced the hiring of well known sports “handicapper” Angelina on their show picks central. While the attempt at finding female pickers is commendable, the route they took raises some red flags. Angelina isn’t some Vegas sharp with 10-20 years of experience handicapping. No, instead she is a Tik-Toker with two months of experience.
While she may be famous on Tik-Tok, I think most serious bettors would agree they had not heard of her / don’t use Tik-Tok to get their picks. Similar to Hannah, this is Barstool’s way of appealing to men who enjoy eye candy while also “diversifying” the company with females. They promote the idea that it’s more important to be pretty than a good picker, which is evidently problematic in trying to level the gender landscape around sports betting.
Representation is more than just including women who are there to serve the male gaze. Even the most prominent Barstool supporters would agree that these efforts are not meant to reach out to potential female bettors, but rather entrench their existing male audience.
Need For Diversification
As the market matures, players aiming to increase their market share will need to shift their primary focus away from younger, male sports fans and toward female sports fans. This shift in branding, strategy, and product innovation cannot and will not happen overnight – but is ESSENTIAL for the long-term growth potential of the gaming industry.
Yaniv Sherman, head of U.S. and SVP at 888 Holdings said in the aforementioned Sportico piece: “Most of the operators out there are chasing market share, which means the lowest-hanging fruit, or mostly the more sophisticated male bettors. […] The thing is, this isn’t a car switch. You can’t just paint everything purple and run a TV campaign and expect to get women to bet with you. That’s just science fiction.”
Sherman is just right. Operators need to be thoughtful and innovative in their approach in order to make real traction in this area. We have seen books willing to pay absolutely crazy amounts for customer acquisition, even in incredibly saturated markets. Even if radically changing marketing strategies to target female bettors is risky, the potential payoff should result in an attractive risk adjusted return on dollars spent.
With that, let’s explore a few ways they can improve.
How Can We Progress the Space
To convert casual female fans and attract female sports bettors, there are a few aspects of product innovation we’d like to see improved.
-
Social Functionality
- Companies need to tap into the fun, communal connectivity of both social media and sports while combining that with a top-tier user experience to attract more female bettors.
- Some Companies Innovating Here:
-
Branding
- As an industry, we need to trend away from hyper-masculine marketing and branding efforts and instead begin to diversify and implement brand strategy. With a move toward more gender-neutral branding, female appetite for sports betting ads and experiences will increase. Generally, there should be less of an emphasis on extreme risk taking and advertisements shouldn’t feel like either two guys on talk radio or the inside of a Hooters.
-
Athlete/Team Partnerships
- In recent months, we’ve seen high-profile athletes such as Shaq, Drew Brees, Marshawn Lynch and many others sign brand ambassador deals with U.S. sportsbooks. What’s missing? An influx of high-profile female athletes. Let’s close the gap here and see sportsbooks reach the millions of females that make up portions of women athlete fanbases. We hope this trend extends past solely female athletes and we see WNBA, NWSL, and other female teams sign partnerships with operators in the coming months.
One example of a success stemmed from FanDuel encouraging more females to play fantasy football. Most people view fantasy football as a heavily male centric sport. Fantasy drafts have resembled a glorified bachelor party and losing a league can result in any manner of publicly embarrassing punishments. There is a sense of masculine energy and pride that comes with fantasy football that was lacking for females. It is an easier transition for any sports fans into the world of sports betting as usually it is one down payment at the start of the season instead of a wager on every matchup. Lower risk, lower reward, which is obviously good for beginners looking to wet their beak.
So back to the main point, instead of using ESPN or Yahoo Sports for fantasy, FanDuel hosted a fantasy football league with the Gist, a female-focused sports media outlet. They promoted FanDuel’s league in their newsletter and in social media posts signaling their goal of female inclusion. One of the three founders of Gist said, “We’re a safe space for people who have felt under-served and left out of sports media”.
The buy in was a modest $2 with the winner receiving $2,000 but the money wasn’t even the main goal. The point was to introduce females to fantasy sports, betting, and the FanDuel website. Make them comfortable with the ideas, terminology and break down the typical barriers restricting women from entering a space like this. It is meant to be a safe and relatable space to welcome in more females. This is just one example of a successful initiative to make gambling more diversified.
Moving forward, including more women in the betting landscape should be both a normative and economic goal. Increasing the uptake of betting across 50% of the population will drive TAMs higher in any good model. Let’s see it happen.
