WNBA - Week Two

 The WNBA is doing record numbers in attendance and television ratings. This is largely due to Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. The Fever have played 7 games so far this season. While there record is 1-6,they have 5 losses to teams that were in the WNBA Finals and the Semifinals.  This has propeled the league to having chartered flights for all of the teams. There are now endorsement deals including Gatorade,CarMax and Wilson. Expansion is next with a franchise being awarded to Toronto and Golden State. Golden State will debut next year while Toronto will become the 14th team in the league in 2026.

The top teams so far are the Connecticutt Sun,Minnesota Lynx,Las Vegas Aces,New York Liberty and Dallas Wings.  

The marquee matchups this week are the Aces against the Lynx on Wednesday and the Wings versus the Sun on Saturday. The Aces game is on NBA TV and the Sun game is on ION.

The top scorers in the league are:

Kahleah Copper: Phoenix Mercury- 29.2

Arike Ogunbowale: Dallas Wings- 28.8

A'ja Wilson: Las Vegas Aces- 25.5

The leading rebounder is the Los Angeles Sparks,Dearica Hamby who is averaging 13.2 per game.

The league leaders in assist are:

Natasha Cloud: Mercury - 8.8

Alyssa Thomas :Sun & Jackie Young:Aces - 7.8

Caitlin Clark - 6.8 

Diana Taurasi,guard for the Mercury, leads the league in Three Pointers made with 19. Caitlin Clark is 2nd with 18.

Follow me for more WNBA! I plan ro tweet during the marquee games on Twitter. Look on my YouTube and TikTok for WNBA Weekend Selections.

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Resposible Gaming in 2024

Many of the top gaming operators are adding responsible gaming to their agendas.This is a different approach to a long standing issue. For decades,responsible gaming was looked at as an afterthought. The patrons,gamblers and bettors were pretty much on their own regarding the problems that irresponsible gaming presents. The warnings at the end of gamimg advertisements along with the pamplets at the pit podium were the extent of the operators involvement.

On March 24th,7 operators formed the Respocible Online Gaming Association.This is the firts time that companies will share information about customers excluded due to problem gambling.The 7 operators include FanDuel,DraftKings,Fanatics Betting,BetMGM,Hard Rock  Digital ,Penn Entertainment and Bet365. This group comprises of over 85% of the online wagering market.

How this association plans to work in terms of sharing information is still to be determined. They are still competitors, with two of them having the lion's share.There have been commercials and responsible gaming paraphernalia on apps to endorse the commitment.

There is more work to be done. Some operators have created  high level positions that will oversee the reponsible gaming aspects of the organization. There should be a concerted effort, not marketing to problem gamblers and to protect groups that have shown a higher propensity to engage in wagering. Since sports betting is socially acceptable now,operators should be mindful to insulate youths from becoming vulnerable customers.  

Here is my latest responsible gaming tip of the weeK.

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