Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers were caught on video agreeing to a friendly $400 wager on the next Atlanta Dream-Dallas Wings game. That’s problematic because Bueckers is an All-Star guard for the Wings, and Reese is an All-Star forward for the Dream. So, by itself, it was a head-scratcher. Add in that the WNBA posted, and clumsily deleted, the video of Bueckers and Reese betting on a WNBA game, and it’s an all-time blunder.
“What the f*ck happened here?” Katie Nolan posed to her producers on her Casuals with Katie Nolan on SiriusXM.
It’s a good question.
“The WNBA posted that, which is gambling sports, which is, I’ll reiterate, not allowed,” said Nolan, who does not allow sports gambling ads on Casuals. “Very much not allowed for athletes to bet on sports. Certainly not allowed to bet on your own sport, your own team. Do you think it’s like a disconnect because gambling now is on your phone? So, they think if it doesn’t go through a gambling site — if it’s just a friendly wager between friends — that it doesn’t count?”
The WNBA’s official account posted and deleted a video of Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers betting on each other. pic.twitter.com/tfrIYFqkXX
— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) July 30, 2026
Nolan’s Casuals producers chimed in that that’s probably what happened, but even so, Nolan stated the obvious: “You literally shouldn’t do it, and not only should you not do it, but you should certainly not promote it.”
When reading parts of the WNBA’s official statement issued after deleting the video, Nolan said, “They said, ‘LOL JK, guys! Our bad! We took it down, Okay? Bad look. We understand.’ It was pretty bad.”
Worse, however, was Reese quipping that she’d be “requesting my Apple Pay” in her postgame presser following the Dream’s victory over the Bueckers and the Wings on July 29.
“I’m, like, baffled by it!” Nolan said. “I’m baffled that this happened. At a time when so many people are looking for a reason to be upset with the WNBA, what are you doing? Why would you post this? Why would you encourage this?”
“Don’t gamble on sports if you’re an athlete. I don’t care if it’s your friend. I don’t care if it’s online. I don’t care if you go to a casino. It’s in your best interest [to] keep money and sports away from each other in that way. Don’t risk your money on your game. Is the entire fabric of society unraveling?”
Brady, one of the producers, offered an even stronger condemnation of WNBA leadership.
“If you allow it once, in any way, you are risking the competitive integrity of your league,” he said, later adding, “We can’t treat it as a joke or treat it as a whoopsie. They need to be suspended for this, or else you set a precedent for the next time this happens. The next time you have a bigger gambling scandal, they can be like, ‘You didn’t suspend Paige. You didn’t suspend Angel.'”
Nolan agreed: “It’s unfortunate, like Brady said, that it’s two stars. It’s unfortunate that the W is who brought it to all of our attention. All of that is crazy. Something has gotta happen here to show that, no, in the W, it isn’t OK for you to gamble on your own team or any team or exchange money as an athlete who is currently playing in the WNBA.”
“I would say this falls on the list before the thing that everybody else wants you to talk about wit the W,” Nolan concluded, referencing the transgender athlete debate enveloping the league. “Issues in the W that need to be fixed? I would say this one goes right up to the top. Let’s fix that because what the f*ck was that?”
The statement is a week old, the video is even older, and the WNBA managed to dodge major, widespread outrage. Much to the Casuals crew’s dismay, the WNBA did not use this as an opportunity to set a precedent. Bueckers and Reese were not punished.
“While the social media post was intended to be lighthearted, WNBA players are well aware of the league’s policies prohibiting betting on WNBA games and receive training every year reinforcing those policies,” an unnamed WNBA spokesperson said, per Madeline Kenney. “We recognized that the post missed the mark, removed it shortly after it was published, and addressed the matter internally.”
“We will also use this as an opportunity to reemphasize with the players involved that conversations about wagering on WNBA games, even when intended as a joke, can have negative consequences.”
About Megan Armstrong
Since first getting published as a student by the Kansas City Star in 2013, Megan Armstrong has gone wherever curiosity and stories have taken her, specializing in sports, media, music, and culture coverage. She also has an extensive background in interviewing and profiling public figures. Her work has appeared in Billboard, Boardroom, Bleacher Report, Esquire, GQ, GRAMMY.com, NYLON, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, UPROXX, and elsewhere.