Sports betting has taken the state of Arizona by storm.
Betting sites, mobile betting apps and retail sportsbooks in Arizona continue to flood the valley. Once sports wagering became legal in the Grand Canyon State, folks have wasted little time signing up and placing bets.
The world of sports has historically been a male-dominated field, and the same can be said for the world of sports betting.
However, at least one Arizona woman isn’t afraid to dip her toes into the sports betting waters. Kristi Eide is a working mom who has grown up around sports for most of her life. Now she’s adding sports betting to her list of hobbies.
And, she says, it has been a blast.
Let’s meet Kristi Eide, aka Arizona momfluencer
Kristi Eide is a resident of Gilbert, Arizona. Eide works for a tech company and spends most of her time trying to raise two young boys. Despite all the time spent between work and getting the kids to school and activities, sports has remained a consistent factor in her life.
Eide has spent time in the world of fitness modeling. She has shared some of those experiences on social media and has never been afraid to share stories from her personal life. Eide has been posting photos and videos with her family for a few years now. She says she always wants to be open about the successes and struggles of being a working parent.
“It’s evolved over time. It was fitness when I was competing because that was very interesting. And then I started talking about my kids, and people started seeing I have this love of football. It’s always my oldest son and I watching football and going to football games.”
Over time, Eide developed quite a following. With more than 49,000 followers on Instagram, she never expected so many people to be interested in her daily life. However, she says people are always trying to find someone they can relate to.
“People get invested the same way that I do with other people’s stories. It just keeps evolving. I keep sharing what my life is as it goes and I guess it’s interesting to some people.”
Once she started to get into sports betting, she wanted to share it with her followers. She says that she has been getting a lot of positive feedback. She says it has led to great interactions and even some advice about how she should handle placing her bets.
Kristi Eide: I can do that, too
Sports betting in Arizona is still relatively new to people in the state. But unlike some people, Eide had some experience with having a little extra skin in the game.
“I work in the technology sector; it’s a very male-dominated field. So, I’ve been able to talk sports for a long time with a lot of the guys, and it seems all office guys have pools for football going on. So, I’ve always been a part of those.”
Not too long after legal AZ sports betting launched, a friend of Eide introduced her to some sportsbooks. She’s always been interested in sports, so Eide eventually said, “I can do that, too.”
“It’s numbers and data and probabilities and that’s what I work with. I do a lot of web coding and website operations systems so it kind of goes hand and hand.”
Eide says she grew up loving football, thanks mainly to her dad because they would watch games together.
Once she started betting, she used her gridiron knowledge to score some early wins. However, Kristi Eide says things changed once basketball season rolled around. She had previously never followed the NBA very closely, so there was a bit of a learning curve.
“I don’t know who plays on what teams. I don’t know who these people are, and I just see people as data points. So, I just look at the stats, try to figure out averages, over/unders. I like to do a lot of live game betting.”
Eide says she is still learning the ins and outs of sports betting, so she sticks to placing small bets. She says she is learning quickly that small and safe bets are the way to go.
“Try to be responsible about it. If you don’t set your limits at the beginning, you can go off the deep end fast.”
Bring more women into sports betting
Eide says she has a long history of taking down gender norms. No matter if it is working in the tech industry, getting into bodybuilding or talking about sports. She says that none of them are exclusive to men.
“They are like, ‘Girls can’t do this.’ And it’s like, ‘Yeah, I can. Why can’t I?’ People are like, ‘Girls shouldn’t be in the gym.’ And it’s like, ‘Says who? Why can’t I do this?’ And it’s the exact same thing with sports. I don’t understand why people limit themselves.”
Eide says she thinks society creates unnecessary restrictions with imaginary rules, adding that there is no rule that states women can’t talk about sports or sports betting. She says unlike going to the gym where some people can feel exposed, sports betting in Arizona is easily accessible to women.
“This is low-key. No one even has to know that you’re doing it if you want to do it. I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought myself from Square 1.”
Kristi admitted that she didn’t know what a “double-double” was in basketball. She also learned that the total score in a college basketball game rarely reaches 200. However, her willingness to be open about her learning experience with sports betting that she hopes inspires other women to get involved.
“You don’t have to know everything. You can just start. I think women, in general, have a lot of knowledge to bring to the table, and everybody thinks women are just emotional and it’s not true. We can lead companies and bet on sports, too. There is no rule that says women can’t belong.”
Learn more about Kristi
If you’d like to follow Kristi on her journey as a sports betting mom in Arizona, there are links to her social media below. We also link to her Nacho Baby Mama podcast, where she talks about various real-life topics:
