The 2024 PWBA Tour begins this week with a six-game pre-tournament qualifier (PTQ) on Thursday. A field of 38 bowlers, highlighted by Jacksonville State University All-Americans Rebecca Hagerman, Crystal Elliott and Maranda Pattison, will compete to earn the last 13 spots in the first of nine PWBA events -- the PWBA GoBowling! Twin Cities Open.
With a new season comes new opportunities for these great bowlers and the fans.
Fans in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ontario will be able to bet on PWBA events at BetRivers Sportsbook. Unfortunately, PWBA bowling is not approved in other states where betting on the PBA has been popular -- such as Ohio, New Jersey, Michigan and Louisiana.
Meanwhile, if you're looking for fantasy women's bowling league options, you're not going to find anything on ESPN, Yahoo, Fantrax or any of your other go-to fantasy platforms. Maybe someday. But for now, as I did for the PBA, I've outlined the easiest way for the ambitious bowling fan to start up a fantasy PWBA league.
Establish Your League Rules
We recommend:
- # of teams: 8
- Player Pool: refer to the PWBA Members page on pwba.com
- Schedule: stats begin accumulating May 3rd with Twin Cities Open qualifying round and end on August 13th with the end of PWBA Tour Championship Week
- Rosters: 5 bowlers plus 1 IR spot
- Scoring: Entirely based on Tour points earned. Your goal is to draft the players that finish the season with the most combined Tour points. The commissioner should provide updated standings after each event.
- Lineups: all players are "starting" each week. No bench, but allow one "IR" spot so that if a player is not participating in a tournament for any reason, you can grab a replacement off waivers for that week.
- Transactions: trades and waiver wire pickups must be done before qualifying rounds start.
- Draft: Live auction style with a $100 budget.
You can certainly make modifications like adjusting the number of teams or the number of rostered bowlers. For a PBA fantasy league, we strongly discouraged having a snake draft because anyone with a top-three pick would have a significant advantage by having the opportunity to draft E.J. Tackett, Anthony Simonsen or Jason Belmonte. The PWBA is more balanced, so you could randomly select draft order and do a snake draft, but an auction draft is great because it gives everyone the same opportunity to add their favorite players.
Do Your Research and Build Your Cheat Sheet
To get you started, here are our auction values based entirely on 2023 Tour points and a $100 budget in an 8-team league with 5 bowlers rostered.
Use this as a guide to decide fair prices to pay. In my PBA fantasy league draft I spent $56 of my $100 budget on E.J. Tackett and would have considered going as high as $75 if one of my league mates would have decided to get into a bidding war with me. The PWBA tends to be more competitively-balanced, so you likely won't have to be quite that aggressive to get your top pick.
Note that star Shannon O'Keefe is not on the roster for the first three tournaments, and her availability throughout the season is in question after she withdrew from the 2023 U.S. Open in June citing her mental health.
Follow @RotowireBowling on X for sleepers, busts and more.
| Pos | Player | Points | Average | Auction Value |
| 1 | Jordan Richard | 110,162.50 | 219.69 | $48 |
| 2 | Diana Zavjalova | 94,250 | 215.23 | $41 |
| 3 | Lindsay Boomershine | 84,130.83 | 212.63 | $37 |
| 4 | Dasha Kovalova | 81,950 | 213.72 | $36 |
| 5 | Bryanna Coté | 81,225 | 216.04 | $35 |
| 6 | Maria José Rodriguez | 79,742.50 | 209.82 | $34 |
| 7 | Verity Crawley | 72,420 | 212.49 | $31 |
| 8 | Birgit Noreiks | 72,005 | 214.03 | $31 |
| 9 | Erin McCarthy | 67,502.50 | 209.68 | $29 |
| 10 | Shannon Pluhowsky | 66,075 | 215.6 | $29 |
| 11 | Danielle McEwan | 65,095 | 211.5 | $28 |
| 12 | Lauren Russo (Pate) | 60,190 | 210.25 | $26 |
| 13 | Stephanie Zavala | 57,335 | 212.55 | $25 |
| 14 | Hope Gramly | 52,787.50 | 210.19 | $23 |
| 15 | Breanna Clemmer | 50,745 | 210.14 | $22 |
| 16 | Liz Johnson | 48,392.50 | 209.46 | $21 |
| 17 | Shannon O'Keefe | 47,550 | 212.56 | $21 |
| 18 | Cherie Tan | 45,450 | 221.76 | $20 |
| 19 | Julia Bond | 45,298.33 | 209.23 | $20 |
| 20 | Stefanie Johnson | 45,240 | 212.01 | $20 |
| 21 | Taylor Bulthuis | 45,115 | 205.86 | $19 |
| 22 | Ashly Galante | 40,595 | 209.32 | $18 |
| 23 | Clara Guerrero | 40,310 | 207.37 | $18 |
| 24 | Liz Kuhlkin | 38,665 | 210.68 | $17 |
| 25 | Josie Barnes | 38,595 | 204.76 | $17 |
| 26 | Sandra Gongora | 30,335 | 207.08 | $13 |
| 27 | Daria Pajak | 29,535 | 208.95 | $13 |
| 28 | Carlene Beyer | 28,885 | 202.25 | $12 |
| 29 | Correen Acuff | 26,290 | 199.81 | $11 |
| 30 | Kelly Kulick | 24,735 | 204.27 | $11 |
| 31 | Missy Parkin | 21,760 | 207.87 | $10 |
| 32 | Diandra Asbaty | 21,045 | 206.78 | $10 |
| 33 | Olivia Farwell | 20,767.50 | 201.26 | $9 |
| 34 | Giselle Poss | 19,950.00 | 203.53 | $9 |
| 35 | Peppi Konsteri | 19,515 | 200.41 | $9 |
| 36 | Kerry Smith | 18,900 | 207.23 | $8 |
| 37 | New Hui Fen | 18,305 | 214.09 | $8 |
| 38 | Estefania Cobo | 18,270 | 197.81 | $8 |
| 39 | Brianna Andrew | 18,190 | 195.64 | $8 |
| 40 | Sydney Brummett | 17,600 | 199.71 | $7 |
| 41 | Felicia Wong | 16,760 | 199.93 | $7 |
| 42 | Kayla Bandy | 16,722.50 | 201.32 | $7 |
| 43 | Bernice Lim | 16,320 | 210.67 | $7 |
| 44 | Melanie McDaniel | 15,930 | 204.01 | $7 |
| 45 | Kara Mangiola | 15,050 | 200.83 | $6 |
| 46 | Mallory Clark | 14,765 | 195.93 | $6 |
| 47 | Chelsey Klingler | 14,560 | 196.45 | $6 |
| 48 | Jen Higgins | 12,990 | 197.84 | $5 |
| 49 | Shayna Ng | 12,680 | 208.37 | $5 |
| 50 | Marissa Allison | 11,452.50 | 198.81 | $4 |
| 51 | Maria Kreke | 8,235 | 191.67 | $3 |
| 52 | Ani Juntunen | 8,100 | $3 | |
| 53 | Alexis Runk | 7,835 | 199.49 | $3 |
| 54 | Olivia Clark | 7,370 | 193.96 | $2 |
| 55 | Elysia Current | 6,940 | 196.35 | $2 |
| 56 | Sandra Toole | 6,890 | 186.04 | $2 |
| 57 | Kaylene Bishop | 6,480 | $1 | |
| 58 | Kayla Pashina | 5,990 | 202.21 | $1 |
| 59 | Eliisa Hiltunen | 5,890 | $1 | |
| 60 | Elise Bolton | 4,730 | 193.72 | $1 |
Recruit Other Owners and Conduct Your Draft
Invite your fellow PWBA fans to join your fantasy league. If you're a bowler yourself, a good place to start is with other members of your bowling league and conduct the draft after bowling one night. If that doesn't work, use RotoWire's draft date picker tool to find a date and time that works best for everyone.
Again, I recommend an auction draft, so team managers will take turns nominating PWBA players. Everyone has the opportunity to bid, and highest bidder wins that player. Track picks and spending in a spreadsheet, which you can also use for updating scores throughout the season.
Update Scoring and Keep Your League Engaged
Be sure to update total Tour points for each player throughout the season (referring again to the PWBA Player Stats page or individual tournament results on pwba.com). Your league mates will appreciate it.
For the most enjoyable experience, get together to watch the action on BowlTV and CBS Sports Network throughout the season, trash talk and make side bets.
You are ready to join an exclusive group of fantasy bowling commissioners!
