Baylor center Kalani Brown (21) looks for a shot between Oregon forwards Ruthy Hebard (24) and Erin Boley, left, during a Final Four semifinal of the NCAA women’s college basketball tournament on April 5, 2019.John Raoux | Associated Press

Newsletter: Baylor’s win good for betting on women’s hoops - Bettors Insider, Vol. 1, No. 41 (April 8, 2019)

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Baylor’s win good for betting on women’s hoops

There were 20,000 people in Tampa last night to watch Women's NCAA Basketball Championship game and although it was possible to get a wager down on the outcome, it's not like sports books were actively promoting their lines.

Little by little, however, that might be changing, and in part, it's thanks to UConn.

UConn not winning.

Interest in betting on the women's game is a fraction of the men's game . . . for now . . . and it was even less when it was a) hard to place a bet unless you had a bookie and b) one team was so dominant. No one wants to bet a 1-to-9 horse race.

But there have now been four different NCAA winners since UConn last won in 2016 and six different teams in the title game. That may not be the best thing for Geno Auriemma and his Huskies, but it's good for the sport and it's good for the rise of sports betting on the sport.

Sports line betting service Kambi, which provides lines to many U.S. books, told usbets.com that it provided lines for more than 500 women's games this season. As sports betting starts expanding around the country, that number is likely to go higher.

It's probably awhile before office pools are also offering women's brackets, but the games this year were just as exciting as the men's - this year's title game was a 1-point win and last year's game was won on a buzzer beater (ironically made by the same Notre Dame player -- Arike Ogunbowale -- who missed a last-second foul shot this year).

But be forewarned that the oddsmakers aren't taking the women's game lightly when they're setting lines: William Hill's Final Four futures lines were Baylor (-130), Notre Dame (+260), UConn (+460), Oregon (+1000).

At the Final Four, Baylor beat Oregon and Notre Dame beat UConn, and then Baylor beat Notre Dame for the title.

Because you can bet on anything . . .

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Bettor Bits

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MLB Fantasy Stars of the night

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Today's Schedule

Overnight - How we fared this past weekend.
10 am - Mick McMudder's Monday picks for Parx.
10 am - RTs Monday picks for Mahoning Valley.
10 am - Robert Mims on eSports.
10 am - Andrew Albert's baseball picks.
10 am - Boop Single Digits (BoopStats for the digital attention span) (Single Digits will also give you an early peek at Boop's Quickie Quiz, which posts at noon on Twitter @BoopStats.)
Noon - Alan Mitchell's harness racing picks for Yonkers.
1 pm - 5 pm - Not much - we await the NHL and NBA Playoffs and the next round of tennis matches.
6 pm - Boop's Philly Props.

Weekend Results

A lot of .500 action over the weekend, but Craig Dietel geared up for the NHL playoffs by going 3-1 on the last regular season day of hockey, Mark Eckel picked the winner at the Food City 500, Chris Garrity had the winner of the Bluegrass Stakes, while RT had the winner at the Santa Anita Derby. Alan Mitchell had four winners Saturday night at the harness tracks including a 15-1 shot. And Boop Vetrone won his Staurday Philly Prop bets.

Slow day today, but we'll try to do even better...

Good luck at the tables, windows, kiosks and apps.

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