The WNBA is seeing a lot of growth with the increase in funding, which has helped the league provide more advertising to bring more viewership to its games.
At BetMGM, online sports betting for the WNBA is at an all-time high, as their pre-season futures basketball betting was up 106% by tickets and 175% by money in 2024.
With significantly more funding, advertising, and wagering interest, alongside the popularity of the league’s youngest stars, let’s examine how much revenue the WNBA generates and where it’s coming from.
How Much Does the WNBA Make Per Year?
The WNBA generates about $300 million per year, according to David Berri, an economics professor at Southern Utah. The league could make at least $500 million in revenue in 2026.
The league struck a new media rights deal for $2.2 billion over 11 years from 2025 to 2036. The deal is with NBC, ESPN, and Amazon Prime Video.
The WNBA also relies on the NBA, which brings in about $10 billion annually, for over $15 million in funding. The NBA owns 50% of the WNBA, and the 12 WNBA teams collectively own the other half.
A big reason for the increase in popularity is the arrival of Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, whose WNBA odds of winning an MVP award will be short for many years to come.
Clark and other WNBA superstars could earn up to $1.1 million annually, though the players’ union and the league are still negotiating.
Clark helped the WNBA make history in just her third game as a professional, as the Fever’s matchup against the New York Liberty at Barclays Center generated more than $2 million in ticket revenue for the first time in league history.
The WNBA also generated $75 million in 2022 from an investor group that included Nike, Condoleezza Rice, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Michael Dell.
That funding has gone into marketing, ad campaigns, influencer marketing, and live events, helping the league attract an average of 627,000 viewers per game to its ABC broadcasts during the 2023 season, the most in more than a decade.
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