Gaming Society, On Her Turf Form New Collaboration

For Jaymee Messler, co-founder of the sports betting education platform Gaming Society, the age-old question of progress in the women’s sports space — part excitement over growth, part frustration over how much longer there is to go — holds especially true in the realm of wagering.

But Messler and Gaming Society continue to take steps to change that, forming a new partnership with NBC’s women’s sports vertical On Her Turf that will deliver Gaming Society content to what both sides see as a growing audience for it.

Even so, Messler knows the work is just beginning.

“Not enough,” she said via email when asked about the progress in this space. “Point blank. Studies have shown that up to 50% of total sports viewers are female, yet only 20% are actively betting on games (that includes both women’s and men’s sports). The number of female bettors continues to rise YoY, which is a great start, but there’s still more we can do, especially to close the gap of equitable odds in the space.”

Accordingly, On Her Turf will become the exclusive distributor of “See You In The Lobby”, the entertaining collaboration between WNBA journalist Matt Ellentuck and former WNBA All Star Marissa Coleman. On Her Turf will also feature regularly in Gaming Society’s Bet On Women newsletter.

For On Her Turf, an outlet that suffered the self-inflicted loss of Alex Azzi last year — whose layoff raised questions about NBC’s commitment to it — this represents a chance to add new voices to the mix.

While NBC declined to comment on what other ways the platform planned to add to personnel or content to make up for the massive loss of Azzi, NBC Senior Vice President of Consumer Engagement Lyndsay Signor did provide a statement on the new partnership.

“On Her Turf is focused on celebrating major milestones for women in the sports world,” Signor said. “Watching sports is a multi-screen experience, so during the biggest live events, we shine a spotlight on exceptional women athletes with video highlights, photography and fan reaction. With the continued growing interest in women’s sports and availability of sports betting, we see this new content as additive and helping to increase overall engagement.”

From Messler’s perspective, the collaboration comes from a set of shared values.

“We share the same ethos with the On Her Turf team with the belief that in order to bet on women, fans need to know who they are,” Messler said. “Together, we will continue to find unique ways to tell the incredible stories of women athletes and highlight them on and off the court, while also creating both gamification opportunities and educational resources for prospective bettors.”

It also reflects the varied ways Gaming Society is approaching its mission. This time, it’s working with a legacy media outlet. Last year, it was a gamified predictor collab with the WNBA itself.

It’s all in service of the long-term goal: that it’s as easy to bet on women’s sports as men’s sports. That, Messler says, will be the measure of success — how much closer the industry gets to that goal.

“There is still a lot of work to do,” she said. “Despite the massive viewership for the women’s college basketball tournament, the first player props were not available until Final Four. Even then, the number of player props available on the men’s games far outweighed women’s.

“Last year, the first bet of the entire NWSL season was made available just days before the Championship game, and it was just for the 3 major betting markets. We know that the need and motivation to bet on women’s sports is there and are optimistic that the upcoming slate of women’s sports, NWSL, WNBA, the World Cup and beyond, will be further proof.”