- Sportsbooks have identified an untapped audience and are pouring resources into campaigns built around familiar female faces.
- Rather than pushing the rush of competition, the new messaging wraps itself around connection and shared experience.
- With hundreds of millions in tax revenue generated, operators have clear financial motivation to expand their audience.
RALEIGH, N.C. – Sports betting companies are pouring millions into a new advertising push, and women have emerged as their most pursued demographic yet.
This March Madness, major sportsbooks have adopted a new strategy by producing advertising centered around identifiable female faces. Fanatics Sportsbook is led by Kendall Jenner, DraftKings is represented by WNBA star Lisa Leslie, and former LSU gymnast and social media celebrity Livvy Dunne is featured in a Fanatics commercial about rewards for NCAA tournaments.
These advertisements read considerably differently from the typical sports betting advertisements, according to experts on gambling behavior. Instead of emphasizing competition and high-stakes excitement, the messaging targeted for women places an emphasis on empowerment, unity, and shared experiences. This is a conscious change in strategy for a field that has traditionally communicated almost exclusively to men.
A History of Different Habits
Gambling preferences have always been shaped by upbringing – girls grew up learning mahjong and dominoes from the women in their families, while boys learned poker from fathers and uncles around a card table. These early tendencies naturally persisted into adulthood, with men drawn to the excitement and competition of high-stakes gambling while women preferred low-pressure games like bingo and slot machines as a way to relax.
Influencer marketing strategies that were successful for male bettors are being used by sportsbooks through legal sports betting promos, according to retired University of Massachusetts professor Rachel Volberg, who spent decades researching gambling behavior.
Industry Growth Fuels the Push
The financial motivation behind the shift is hard to ignore. In just the first year following legalization in March 2024, college basketball betting sites in North Carolina logged wagers totaling over $6.6 billion. The state received about $128 million in taxes from operators’ gross revenue of over $713 million.
Since then, North Carolina sportsbooks have kept expanding, generating more than $262 million in tax revenue in just two years. Operators are actively seeking to broaden their consumer base beyond their typical audience with such numbers.
According to East Carolina University criminology professor Michelle Malkin, sportsbooks are now actively pursuing women as a mostly unexplored market through targeted advertising on social media, mobile, and television platforms.
