Dave Portnoy places $25K bet on Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever for WNBA debut

Dave Portnoy is all-in on the Indiana Fever in Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut Tuesday night. 

The Barstool Sports founder placed $25,000 on the Fever to cover as eight-point underdogs against the Connecticut Sun. 

He would win $23,148.14 if Indiana keeps the game within eight points or wins for a total payout of $48,148.14. 

Portnoy has been red-hot in the sports gambling realm in 2024.

Portnoy has won $5.4 million in 2024 on a handful of futures bets, including $1.5 million on New Year’s Day after the Michigan Wolverines and Washington Huskies made the national championship game and another half-million bucks when the Chiefs beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl, among other wagers.

In mid-April, Portnoy also placed a massive $150,000 bet on the Oilers to win the Stanley Cup at +700 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook, which would win him $1.2 million if Edmonton can win its first title of the Connor McDavid era. 

The big bet is yet another sign of the sports gambling public’s fascination with Clark. 

BetMGM Sportsbook reported three times as many bets on the game between the Fever and Sun than any other WNBA game Tuesday night. 

At 20.5 points, the over for Clark is the most bet player prop — in NBA or WNBA — for Tuesday’s slate at BetMGM. 

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Max Meyer of Fanatics Sportsbook said there are three times as many bets on Clark’s 3-point prop than all 3-point prop bets combined for the Knicks-Pacers game 5. 

The WNBA’s popularity among sports bettors as a whole is up more than twofold heading into the 2024 season, according to BetMGM’s Ryan Hannable, who reported that pre-season futures betting is up 106 percent by tickets and 175 percent by money this year.