A new sexist drift has fans jumping. On social networks, male bettors claim to be able to anticipate the performances of WNBA players… based on their menstrual cycles. A “humiliating” method by supporters and denounced by the American media.
We thought we had seen it all, but the summer of 2025 pushed the limits of disrespect towards WNBA players. On three occasions, matches were interrupted after sex toys were thrown onto the floor, in the middle of a match.
As if that were not enough, a much more worrying trend has spread on the networks: “Blood Money”, literally “blood money”. A method which consists of betting against a player assuming (without any reliable data) that she would be menstruating. Specialized accounts no longer hesitate to publish blood emojis, pseudo-analyses and “prognoses” on the players’ supposed cycle phase.
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At the heart of this trend, an anonymous tipster (sports betting specialist) named FadeMeBets, followed by nearly 30,000 subscribers on Instagram. The man openly encourages his community to bet on the unders, these downward bets, based on what he imagines to be the progress of the players’ cycle.
A pseudo-science that claims to predict performance
The idea is based on a stubborn prejudice: players perform less when they are on their period. From there, the tipster develops an in-house calculation method. For each athlete, he observes the shooting success percentage, the plus/minus ratio (a statistic measuring the impact on the game) as well as monthly trends over a cycle… which he assumes will last between 24 and 38 days.
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He then deduces “peaks” and “troughs” in performance to locate, according to him, the phases of ovulation or premenstrual periods.
In a video published in September about Breanna Stewart, player of the New York Liberty, for example, he encouraged his subscribers to bet on a total points + assists lower than 20.5. “She is in the late luteal phase,” he said. A period of the cycle corresponding to the days preceding the period, during which, according to him, “her strength decreases, so does her endurance. She will be too tired to run fast.”
Problem: none of this is scientifically validated. Questioned by Wired, the bettor himself admits that his method has no medical basis, and that he has never sought to directly know the players’ cycles.
Massive indignation on the networks
The affair, revealed by Wired then relayed by The Independent, caused a wave of disgust on the platforms. On Another user reacted: “They’re not men, they’re males. Ugh. Do you really have no shame?”
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On Reddit, reactions oscillate between shock and sarcasm. “Besides it being disgusting and degrading, how can they know something so personal?” asked one fan.
A new interest in the WNBA… but not the right one
The phenomenon is especially worrying as bets on the WNBA jumped by 67% in 2024. With the growth of the league, driven by figures like Caitlin Clark or Paige Bueckers, bettors began to track players on the networks or analyze their digital habits.
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For FadeMeBets, the method would have at least one merit: “It brings more people to watch the WNBA,” he assures. Before immediately admitting that “the downside is that they are mainly punters”.
Is the current growth of the WNBA, boosted by viewership, rising stars like Caitlin Clark, and increased media visibility, attracting the right audience? For many fans, the answer is clear. Seeing thousands of men analyzing the supposed cycles of female players to optimize their online bets is not only intrusive, but deeply degrading. This is one drift too many.
