{"id":331891,"date":"2025-12-05T10:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T10:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/331891\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T10:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T10:56:08","slug":"increased-gambling-activity-has-affected-womens-basketball-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/331891\/","title":{"rendered":"Increased gambling activity has affected women’s basketball players"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up in a family of six in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., former Villanova women\u2019s basketball star Maddy Siegrist<\/a> said the closest thing she witnessed to a sports bet was when the Super Bowl<\/a> rolled around. And even then, it was friendly wagers. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt just wasn\u2019t a thing in our house,\u201d said Siegrist, who now plays for the WNBA\u2019s Dallas Wings. \u201cI didn\u2019t grow up with people who bet. Plus, there were no apps or anything. I knew people that did boxes on the Super Bowl. That was the extent of my knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Siegrist went pro in 2023, however, legalized sports betting has infiltrated virtually every corner of sports. Siegrist said the WNBA benefits from the sports gambling population laying bets on games. That translates to more eyes watching women\u2019s professional basketball, which generates a bigger fan base, which spurs continued growth of the sport and its brand.<\/p>\n

But Siegrist, 25, is quick to point out a darker side to the sports-gambling intersection, \u201cone of the rougher parts that people don\u2019t think about,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Philly isn\u2019t just a great sports town; it\u2019s a great women\u2019s sports town | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

Public vitriol directed at athletes is nothing new. But add the sports gambling component and a bettor\u2019s ability to wager on virtually any aspect of a game or performance at the click of an app, and the result can be toxic. Often, negative fan reaction is the result of a losing bet, and social media has exacerbated the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny pro athlete will kind of give you the same [story]: These are people betting from their house that you\u2019re going to go under [a projected stat total] or your team\u2019s going to win,\u201d Siegrist said. \u201cWith the world of social media, just how much hate people get is truly amazing. I\u2019m not a super controversial player. I don\u2019t have the spotlight like some of my other teammates. But if you have a bad game or a good game, you can get anywhere from 50 to 100 [direct messages] or comments on your social media that are crazy.\u201d <\/p>\n

Betting burden<\/p>\n

No longer are the WNBA and college women\u2019s basketball considered unattractive markets for sports gamblers. Players like Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers, Siegrist\u2019s teammate on the Wings, are among the stars generating buzz<\/a>, and, by extension, causing a spike in gambling activity on the sport.<\/p>\n

Female athletes, professional and amateur, shoulder many challenges beyond maintaining elite performance on the court or field. That includes playing in the age of the ever-growing legalized sports betting industry \u2014 especially the proliferation of multimillion-dollar business partnerships between pro sports leagues like the WNBA and gaming companies like BetMGM. <\/p>\n

And sports remain corrupted by the underworld of illegal gambling, where pro athletes can turn to a side hustle to try to score millions illicitly. The recent unsealing of the federal indictments that involve illegal gambling schemes, the NBA<\/a>, and purported organized crime members is one such example, and Siegrist said she had followed those recent announcements. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: As sports gambling explodes in popularity, squash star Amanda Sobhy hopes attention turns toward her sport<\/a><\/p>\n

While the WNBA and the players\u2019 union continue collective bargaining negotiations, there are developments regarding salary structure in the league\u2019s latest proposal. The changes could temper a longstanding gripe by professional women\u2019s basketball players: that their compensation is not commensurate with the gargantuan salaries made by male pro hoops players \u2014 as they shoulder the shared burden of scrutiny from bettors and fans alike.<\/p>\n

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the league\u2019s latest proposal includes language that defines a maximum salary structure with a guaranteed $1 million base for 2026 and projected revenue sharing pushing total earnings for max-salary players to more than $1.2 million<\/a>. This follows an agreement to extend the current labor agreement to Jan. 9<\/a> <\/p>\n

The average player\u2019s salary is projected to exceed $500,000 in 2026, while the minimum salary is projected to be more than $225,000 \u2014 up from approximately $102,000<\/a> and $66,000<\/a>, respectively, in 2025. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Gambling scandal will shake public confidence in NBA, experts say<\/a><\/p>\n

Institutional support<\/p>\n

Once the WNBA season starts, Siegrist said she drastically reduces her social media use to keep her mind clear of clutter and keep the focus on basketball. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to take it for what it is. Obviously, social media helps you build your brand, stay connected,\u201d she said. \u201cFrom that perspective, it\u2019s great. It\u2019s really allowed athletes to monetize off of themselves, and it gives fans a unique perspective into seeing these people\u2019s lives, which I think is great. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwitter [now known as X] is the worst. I definitely try to not go on at all during the season. … Sometimes I like to scroll on TikTok, take my mind off stuff. But I don\u2019t \u2018like\u2019 anything that has to do with the WNBA on TikTok. I think for me, it\u2019s definitely a balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Lucy Olsen is carving out a role in the WNBA. Former Villanova teammate Maddy Siegrist showed her how.<\/a><\/p>\n

The WNBA has taken steps to combat hate and negative fan behavior directed at the league\u2019s players and personnel. Earlier this year, the league launched the \u201cNo Space for Hate\u201d initiative<\/a>, a \u201cmultidimensional platform designed to combat hate and promote respect across all WNBA spaces \u2014 from online discourse to in-arena behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the campaign\u2019s goals is the use of artificial intelligence to safeguard the players\u2019 and teams\u2019 social media pages and to automatically detect, report, and delete hate speech and harassment. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs interest in sports betting grows around the WNBA, we are taking clear, concrete steps to protect players and safeguard the integrity of the game. Player safety remains our highest priority,\u201d the WNBA said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019ve enhanced security, expanded monitoring of online threats, and increased fan education. We are also working closely with our gaming partners to monitor betting activity and ensure our systems protect the game. These safeguards are constantly being reviewed and strengthened to ensure we keep the players safe and our game secure.\u201d <\/p>\n

Around the time the WNBA launched \u201cNo Space for Hate,\u201d sportsbook behemoth BetMGM announced its partnership with the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces. BetMGM also is an authorized gaming partner with the league. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe NBA and WNBA are very different in terms of scale and seasonality \u2014 the NBA is a much bigger league, but both have shown strong year-over-year growth,\u201d said BetMGM trading manager Christian Cipollini. \u201cThe WNBA benefits from its summer schedule when there\u2019s less competition for attention, and star power like Caitlin Clark has driven a major uptick in engagement. Even after Clark\u2019s injury this [2025] season, handle remained well above pre-Clark levels, which speaks to the league\u2019s momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cipollini said BetMGM \u2014 and the gaming industry as a whole \u2014 is committed to sports integrity. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat includes athlete harassment, and we\u2019re working with the leagues on this issue from several angles,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Women\u2019s soccer teaches the WNBA a history lesson about when CBA talks go wrong<\/a><\/p>\n

Historical perspective<\/p>\n

During his 42 years (1978-2020) as head coach of the Villanova women\u2019s basketball team, Harry Perretta<\/a> said gambling on women\u2019s college basketball was never an issue for him and his players, simply because the interest wasn\u2019t there. Of course, the bulk of Perretta\u2019s Villanova coaching career unfolded before the 2018 Supreme Court ruling<\/a> that legalized sports betting state to state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess you always might have bookies on campus. But I used to tell [players], \u2018You really don\u2019t want to get involved,\u2019\u201d said Perretta, 70. \u201cPeople who get themselves in trouble are people who make bets without putting money down. Next thing you know, they\u2019re behind the eight ball.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Harry Perretta, suddenly retired, won\u2019t retire from being Harry Perretta | Mike Jensen<\/a><\/p>\n

There was that 1998 \u2019Nova-UConn women\u2019s game<\/a>, though. Nykesha Sales<\/a> was on the cusp of becoming Connecticut\u2019s career scoring leader before she sustained a devastating Achilles injury. But before UConn\u2019s game against Villanova<\/a>, Perretta and longtime UConn women\u2019s coach Geno Auriemma<\/a> agreed to let Sales score an uncontested basket after tipoff to reach the milestone. Villanova then was allowed to score its uncontested basket, before the \u201creal\u201d game began. Then-Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese also had agreed to the gesture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe let Sales score a basket, and I checked to see if there was an over\/under on that game,\u201d Perretta said. \u201cI checked out of curiosity. When we let her score the two [points], and then Connecticut let us score two, I didn\u2019t want anybody saying something crazy. There was no betting on that game, but I checked. That did go through my mind when that whole sequence occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the final two years of Perretta\u2019s Villanova<\/a> tenure \u2014 during which he coached Siegrist, Perretta said he started to see a lot more betting lines on women\u2019s college basketball games, particularly around the start of the NCAA Tournament<\/a>. The dual salvos of legalized sports betting and amateur athletes securing name, image, and likeness deals had reshaped the sports landscape. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Geno Auriemma used to tell the rest of women\u2019s college hoops to catch up to UConn. Now it has.<\/a><\/p>\n

Siegrist \u2014 who married Perretta\u2019s son Stephen, a Drexel<\/a> assistant women\u2019s basketball coach, in late October \u2014 said that going back to her \u2019Nova playing days, players were consistently educated on the dangers of associating with any illegal gambling operation or people within that culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have it ingrained from college and the NCAA, \u2018No gambling ever, or else you\u2019re not going to be able to play.\u2019 I\u2019ve tried to keep that mentality,\u201d Siegrist said.<\/p>\n

The bigger challenge, she said, is now balancing her career in the online sports wagering fishbowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are crazy. They\u2019ll post something from five years ago and comment a hundred times, \u2018You suck.\u2019 It\u2019s a pain to go through and delete it all,\u201d Siegrist said. \u201cThe Wings pay a company to manage social media, the outside comments, and take them down right away if they\u2019re threatening or hate[-related]. We\u2019re going to see more and more of that, which I think is great.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese leagues and organizations are just trying to protect their players. At the end of the day, everyone is just trying to play the game they love to the best of their abilities. When you try and focus on that, these are all ways to keep the main thing the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up in a family of six in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., former Villanova women\u2019s basketball star Maddy Siegrist said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,168067,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-331891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-sports-betting-womens-basketball-growth-nba-scandal","10":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}