The spotlight was on women’s college basketball more than ever during the regular season thanks to the excitement provided by Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, along with other stars such as UConn’s Paige Bueckers and Southern California’s JuJu Watkins, among others. But Clark, above all, was able to transcend her usual audience and put a much brighter spotlight on the sport.
All of that momentum enabled the tournament to capitalize on the hype and anticipation that had built over the past year and change in what could prove to be one of the most transformative years for women’s hoops.
FanDuel reported a 155 percent increase in the total betting handle and a 205 percent increase in ticket count compared to the 2023 national championship between Iowa and LSU, which was one of the biggest events in the sport’s history at the time.
BetMGM revealed that the national title game also produced a 34 percent increase in tickets compared to the Iowa-UConn matchup in the Final Four while also doubling the previous record for total handle.
“[The] Game was on the main screen with audio at Red Rock if that puts it into perspective,” Red Rock Las Vegas race and sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said in a text message. “Unbelievable interest from the viewing and betting public.”
Red Rock wasn’t the only place with the game front and center—according to numbers released by ESPN, the game topped out at 24 million viewers, an all-time high for women’s hoops and the most-watched basketball game since 2019.
“With a record-setting audience of 18.7 million [average] viewers, Sunday’s Iowa-South Carolina title game was a fitting finale to the most-viewed ever NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said. “These exceptional athletes, coaches and teams captured our attention in unprecedented ways and it’s incumbent on all of us to keep the incredible momentum going.”
