Fantasy PWBA: How to Play Season-Long Fantasy Women's Bowling

Fantasy PWBA: How to Play Season-Long Fantasy Women's Bowling

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.

PosPlayerPointsAverageAuction Value
1Jordan Richard110,162.50219.69$48
2Diana Zavjalova94,250215.23$41
3Lindsay Boomershine84,130.83212.63$37
4Dasha Kovalova81,950213.72$36
5Bryanna Coté81,225216.04$35
6Maria José Rodriguez79,742.50209.82$34
7Verity Crawley72,420212.49$31
8Birgit Noreiks72,005214.03$31
9Erin McCarthy67,502.50209.68$29
10Shannon Pluhowsky66,075215.6$29
11Danielle McEwan65,095211.5$28
12Lauren Russo (Pate)60,190210.25$26
13Stephanie Zavala57,335212.55$25
14Hope Gramly52,787.50210.19$23
15Breanna Clemmer50,745210.14$22
16Liz Johnson48,392.50209.46$21
17Shannon O'Keefe47,550212.56$21
18Cherie Tan45,450221.76$20
19Julia Bond45,298.33209.23$20
20Stefanie Johnson45,240212.01$20
21Taylor Bulthuis45,115205.86$19
22Ashly Galante40,595209.32$18
23Clara Guerrero40,310207.37$18
24Liz Kuhlkin38,665210.68$17
25Josie Barnes38,595204.76$17
26Sandra Gongora30,335207.08$13
27Daria Pajak29,535208.95$13
28Carlene Beyer28,885202.25$12
29Correen Acuff26,290199.81$11
30Kelly Kulick24,735204.27$11
31Missy Parkin21,760207.87$10
32Diandra Asbaty21,045206.78$10
33Olivia Farwell20,767.50201.26$9
34Giselle Poss19,950.00203.53$9
35Peppi Konsteri19,515200.41$9
36Kerry Smith18,900207.23$8
37New Hui Fen18,305214.09$8
38Estefania Cobo18,270197.81$8
39Brianna Andrew18,190195.64$8
40Sydney Brummett17,600199.71$7
41Felicia Wong16,760199.93$7
42Kayla Bandy16,722.50201.32$7
43Bernice Lim16,320210.67$7
44Melanie McDaniel15,930204.01$7
45Kara Mangiola15,050200.83$6
46Mallory Clark14,765195.93$6
47Chelsey Klingler14,560196.45$6
48Jen Higgins12,990197.84$5
49Shayna Ng12,680208.37$5
50Marissa Allison11,452.50198.81$4
51Maria Kreke8,235191.67$3
52Ani Juntunen8,100 $3
53Alexis Runk7,835199.49$3
54Olivia Clark7,370193.96$2
55Elysia Current6,940196.35$2
56Sandra Toole6,890186.04$2
57Kaylene Bishop6,480 $1
58Kayla Pashina5,990202.21$1
59Eliisa Hiltunen5,890 $1
60Elise Bolton4,730193.72$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!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve
Steve has served several roles with RotoWire, starting as an intern working on breaking news and analysis, moving to NBA beat writer and (years later) taking over as "marketing guy" and multi-sport contributor. He's also the undisputed best bowler at RotoWire, with multiple 800 series and 300 games. He will be thrilled when fantasy bowling becomes a thing someday.