There are so many female athletes that have changed to course of just about every sport that it’s hard to pick just 10. However, here are just a few of the inspiring women who we can’t ignore for their exceptional contribution to sports and their immeasurable impact both on and off the field.

• Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph was the first American woman of color to win three gold medals for sprinting in a single Olympics. Rudolph had had polio since she was five years old, but she did not let that stop her – she turned her weakness into strength and became the fastest woman in the world at the 1960 Olympics.

She immediately gained international recognition for not only her performance, but also her exceptional courage. She is an iconic figure and a true inspiration for all  black and female athletes striving to make their mark on the sport.  

• Hilary Knight

A top star of women’s ice hockey, Hilary Knight is a nine-time world championship medalist and a three-time Olympic medalist. She also led the USA Team to a gold victory at the PyeongChang Games in 2018, the team’s first Olympic victory in 20 years. Since then, she has dedicated herself to creating a sustainable, unified, and professional women’s hockey league to encourage more women to get involved. 

• Emma Raducanu

Emma Raducanu is a British tennis player who was born in Toronto, Canada but went to school in London. She made her professional debut in this male-dominated sport in 2018. As a 16-year-old amateur player, but she managed to be selected for playing at Wimbledon where she defeated the great Leylah Fernandez and began her professional career. 

From this stellar start, her journey went from strength to strength. More recently, she entered the 2022 US Open as a qualifier and managed to make it all the way to the finals of the most-awaited tournament.

• Michelle Akers

One of the best athletes of all time, Michelle Akers is known for her resilience, faith, leadership, and perseverance. She was an athlete ahead of her time who dominated American female soccer with her strength and immaculate skills. She was a leading scorer in the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup, scoring 10 goals in only six matches.

• Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey is a professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. She is the only woman to win both WWE and UFC championships and headline a pay-per-view event. Rousey is also a proud writer of an autobiography, and she has starred in several popular films including “Mile 22” and “Furious 7”. 

• Nancy Lopez

The great golf player, Nancy Lopez, left college in her sophomore year to pursue her passion for golf and turned it into a successful career. She won nine tournaments during her first season as an amateur player and was named the LPGA Rookie of the Year and Payer of the Year. She also won the Vare Trophy that is awarded to skilled and seasoned players with the lowest scoring average for the season. She is the only female golfer to achieve all three prestigious awards in the same season.

• Lindsey Vonn

Lindsey Vonn is one of the only two female skiers in the world who has won four World Cup overall championships. She has three consecutive winning titles from 2008 to 2010 and then another in 2012. In 2010 she participated in the Winter Olympics and was crowned as the first American woman to win a gold medal in the downhill skiing category. Lindsay is one of the greatest skiers of all time and besides numerous victories and gold medals, she is an ultimate champion and open advocate of “Girl Power”! 

• Serena Williams

Everybody knows that Serena Williams the epitome of resilience and strength. She is regarded as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time and her unmatchable victories have turned her into an inspirational sports icon. In 2019, she made it to the Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid athletes as the only woman. Serena holds multiple accolades – she has more “Grand Slam” titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles combined than all other active players. 

• Maya Moore 

Maya Moore is a four-time winner of WNBA titles and the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award. The highlight of her career is her unbeatable streak of 90 games with the Huskies in a prestigious NCAA record across all men and women’s teams. She has also won numerous notable titles in the Euro League, Chinese League, and Spanish League. 

• Simone Biles

A four-time world all-round champion, Simone Biles is an American gymnast who has won a number of all-around, vault, and floor gold medals at the Olympics. She is one of the most decorated gymnasts who has set the US record for winning the most gold medals for gymnastics at a single Olympics.

Wrapping Up

Our favorite female athletes are physically strong, mentally powerful, and truly inspirational. These women fight hard and smash all barriers for equality and by shattering the glass ceiling, they have become cultural game-changers. 

So, you enjoy a flutter on the weekend football but you don’t seem to be very successful – like many of us. Whilst sports betting is rarely seen as income, but rather a hobby, there are some ways to improve your financial success. Here are some of the main tips on how to elevate your betting game, starting with some help from Match.Center.

Promotions + Having Multiple Accounts

So, we kick off with a double tip that marries together: have multiple betting accounts. The benefits of this are numerous, but first and foremost this is a way to make the most of promotions. As seen in the Match.Center page, almost every betting company has its own promotional offers and they often revolve around signing up. Given that there’s no downside to having multiple accounts, make use of all the promotional offers that you can for some free value/free bets.

But, it’s also important beyond just the promotions. Having multiple accounts means that you can opt for the company that is offering the best odds for the bet you want to make. Make sure to double-check your bet across multiple sites.

Single bets and underdogs

Generally, the more bets we make, the more we are relying on luck and randomness. Yet, as we know, this is where the bookies have an edge over us. Where we can gain our edge is with very specific knowledge in certain situations. For example, most people who bet on UFC when Conor McGregor are likely to be casuals who only watch the sports when Conor is on. This can sway the odds in his favour because of his popularity.

This is a situation where you may find the underdog on a single bet to be great value. Because it’s just one bet, there’s less randomness involved, and more chance that your better-than-average knowledge is going to pay dividends.

Live bets and timing

Live bets are another way that the previous point can be capitalised on. For example, watching a game of football in which a team is winning, but clearly looks like they’re struggling to keep hold of the lead, may be a situation where the odds on a draw are favourable. Live betting opens up a tonne of new betting scenarios.

The opposite of live betting would be to bet way in advance of an event. This is where things get interesting. If we go back to the Conor McGregor example, it’s common that the fan-favourite will begin trading at more rational odds, until floods of people begin placing bets on that fan-favourite. This will change the odds, making them shorter, and in turn making the underdog odds more profitable over time. So, if you want to bet on the fan-favourite, you may want to get in there as early as possible, whilst the underdog may become better odds over time.

Know when to stop

Knowing when to stop isn’t just about managing your losses, but it’s also about managing your wins. If you can cash out for €2000 on your €10 bet, waiting around for the full payout of €5000 may be reckless. Generally, cashing out is worse value and a way for the bookies to reduce your winnings, but it can often be worth it in the event of large winnings from a small bet – it would make less sense for a large, single bet on the fan-favourite, though.

One of the main things you notice when looking to sign up for a betting company is all the betting sites offers. It’s no exaggeration to say that almost every betting company will have its own promotional offers, meaning that we often have multiple accounts set up at various companies.

But, are the bonuses all that? Let’s take a look at some of the common terms we find.

New Customer Sign Up Bonus

The most common one we see is betting sites with welcome bonus, so we will focus on that. So, often it will be if you bet $/£/€ 10, you will receive $/£/€ 30 in free bets – or something along those lines.

These are great bonuses that should be used, because why not? Even though they usually have caveats, you’re still ending up in a better position than if you do not use them.

The common caveats are often that the €10 bet you place must be over 2.0 (evens) in odds. So, you cannot bet on an ultra-favourite who is 1/4, for example. An evens bet of 1/1 means there’s roughly half a chance of winning, half a chance of losing.

Another caveat that is often involved is that it must be a single bet, not 10x bets of €1 each. Besides some time restrictions, that’s roughly it for restrictions for the initial bet. However, there are some caveats for the free bet that you receive – which also often apply for the deposit -> free bet bonuses too.

Generally, the free bet is a single bet that must be placed and cannot be divided up. It’s rare that there are minimum odds applied to this one, but it is possible. You will likely not receive the stake back in this bet, meaning an evens (1/1) bet with a €30 stake would mean you get back €30 instead of the usual €60 – so you only get the winnings.

Finally, although it’s not always the case at sports betting companies, with casino companies its very common for signup bonus money (i.e. deposit €10 to receive €30) to be required to be bet a certain amount of times over before you can withdraw it. For example, if it requires you to bet 3 times the total amount, it would mean €90 worth of bets must be made within this account in order to access the money for withdrawal. Thankfully, these bets can usually be fragmented and divided up, with the betting platform keeping track.

Random free bets

When you are already signed up to a betting account and they offer a free bet, it’s often no-strings-attached. SkyBet was common for handing out small, free bets that didn’t require a deposit, nor did it require you to bet the winnings. However, you have to ultimately check the terms and conditions laid out for each and every bet.

Stick with companies with clear T&Cs

Many of us skip past T&Cs when signing up to services, apps, and websites – it’s normal. However, betting bonuses are the one platform where they know that the customer is more likely to read them, because it’s highly relevant to the reason why you’re signing up, and many companies go out their way to make them clear and larger font. So, there are no excuses for not reading them, and it would be considered a major red flag if the platform in question is using verbose, overly long, difficult to read T&Cs!