A Short History of Womens' Basketball

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a professional basketball league for women. Headquartered in New York, the league exists in the United States and consists of 12 teams in two conferences. The Eastern Conference consists of the Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, New York Liberty and Washington Mystics. The Western Conference is home to the Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx, Phoenix Mercury, San Antonio Silver Stars, Seattle Storm and Tulsa Shock.

History of the League

The WNBA was founded on April 24, 1996. The founding eight teams are the Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets, New York Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury, Sacramento Monarchs and Utah Starzz. The teams in Charlotte, Cleveland, Houston and Sacramento later folded while the Utah Starzz relocated to San Antonio in 2003.

In total, there have been 18 WNBA franchise teams.

WNBA Season

The WNBA season begins with training camps in May, followed by a series of preseason exhibition games against other teams. Each team is allowed 11 women on the roster.

The regular season, which runs May to September, consists of 34 games, evenly divided between home and away. A team will play three teams from its conferences four times each for a total of 12 games and the two remaining conference teams five times each for 10 games. The remaining 12 games of the season come from playing six outside conference teams twice. Just like the NBA, each WNBA team will host and play away against every other team at least once over the course of the season.

The postseason begins in late September. Four teams in each conference qualify for the Playoffs. The teams in each conference play each other in a tournament format in a best of three series for the first two rounds of the Playoffs. Once the conference champions have been determined, the WNBA Finals begin. The Finals usually take place in October and is a best of five series.

Sponsorships

The WNBA has one league-wide sponsor, Boost Mobile, as of 2011.

Four teams currently have individual sponsorships:
Indiana Fever: Finish Line, Inc.
Seattle Storm: Bing
Tusla Shock: Osage Casino
Washington Mystics: Inova Health System

Top Teams

The Minnesota Lynx are in the WNBA Playoffs for the third straight year in September 2013 after two consecutive appearances in the WNBA finals. The Indiana Fever, the champions of the 2012 season, are also in the playoffs.

Look for the Phoenix Mercury as a team to watch in future years with the addition of college standout Brittney Griner. The Mercury are currently playing in the 2013 WNBA Playoffs.

Betting on the WNBA

While there are not as many people betting on the WNBA as other sports, there is still a market for it, as can be seen here at allpro. One big advantage to betting on the WNBA as opposed to the NBA is the size of the league.

With only 12 teams, it is easier for the bettor to watch the games or teams himself and be familiar with the match-ups and players before placing the bet.

About the author: 

Leslie writes on his own blog about business however his main passion is sports.