If you’ve followed our WNBA coverage over the last eight months, you know we’ve added betting analysis as one way to help grow the game. We kicked it off with our primer heading into last year’s playoffs, which is a great place to start if you’re new to the betting scene.

This year, for the first time, we’ll be rolling out betting coverage right from the beginning of the season.

We aren’t likely to have game lines until the regular season tips off on Friday, but we do have championship futures and trends from last year. So, let’s go ahead and break those down as we count down the hours until the season openers.

Futures

Championship

Several books have had these posted for months, and they have been continuously adjusting throughout the offseason as league news has affected the landscape.

For example, the Mystics were listed at around +3000 in most places before the draft lottery, but after they landed the No. 1 pick (which they later traded), those odds dropped to +2000 or even +1800 at some books.

Likewise, teams like the Sparks and the Mercury, who added big names such as Liz Cambage and Tina Charles during free agency, saw their odds move. Kudos to you if you were able to snag any of those bets at the previous odds.

At this point, the next event to affect the odds will probably be the games themselves. For now, here are where the odds stand at a few of the biggest books.

There should be more value in a couple of weeks (more on that later), but as it stands, the Liberty at +3000 on FanDuel and the Sun at +400 on DraftKings may be solid bets.

In New York’s case, the roster didn’t change a whole lot from last season’s playoff team, but the coaching staff did. Sandy Brondello is a proven winner who should know how to get the most out of the talent on this team.

The one big change was the Liberty’s addition of Stefanie Dolson. It may not have been as splashy as the Cambage or Charles signings, but Dolson is a two-time All-Star in the prime of her career who brings championship experience at the college, WNBA and EuroLeague levels. Her screening ability was one key reason Courtney Vandersloot was able to do so much damage in the pick-and-roll over the last several seasons. Sabrina Ionescu could see similar success in that department.

Connecticut, meanwhile, upgraded its roster by virtue of health. Yes, Alyssa Thomas returned at the end of last season, but having her back from the start will make a huge difference next to Jonquel Jones and DeWanna Bonner. This will be the first year that those three will get to play together all season, despite it being the third season that they are all under contract for the Sun.

And we can’t forget about the return of Courtney Williams. Bringing her back into the mix means the only difference between this year’s starting lineup and the one that pushed the Mystics to the brink in the 2019 Finals will be Bonner (in place of Shekinna Stricklen).

Not only is Williams an upgrade, but the absences of Jones and Thomas over the last couple of years have allowed players like Brionna Jones to step in and gain valuable experience, which should make this team deeper than that 2019 squad was.

MVP

FanDuel is the only book with MVP odds at the moment, but more and more should pop up in the next week or two. Here are FanDuel’s MVP odds.

There is a pretty clear “big three” this year, although a few others have a path to that top tier at some point. If Tina Charles or Sylvia Fowles can carry their respective teams in the absence of Brittner Griner and Napheesa Collier, their stock could rise. Elena Delle Donne’s could as well if she can stay healthy for the first time since 2019.

As far as the current top tier, Breanna Stewart seems like the best bet. Jonquel Jones is coming off of a remarkable season, but she’ll lose a little bit of scoring volume to Alyssa Thomas, and voter fatigue generally makes it tough to repeat for any award in any sport.

A’ja Wilson should take off in Becky Hammon’s new system without Liz Cambage stealing paint touches, so she deserves to be the favorite. The gap between her odds and Stewart’s is enough that the latter may be a slightly better value though.

Trends to watch out for

Early breakouts

Last year, the first few weeks of the season provided tons of value in terms of futures betting. Both championship odds and MVP odds stayed relatively stagnant while we started to gain information about teams and players through the first handful of games.

There was a window of time to bet on breakout stars like Betnijah Laney for MVP or upstart teams like the Sun (whose odds were in the middle of the pack early on as everyone overestimated the impact of losing Alyssa Thomas to injury). While Laney didn’t win the MVP and the Sun didn’t win the title, both looked much more likely to do so a month into the season than they did on opening day. Naturally, those bets had good value, and at sportsbooks that allow midseason cashouts, it was possible to still profit from that value.

Keep an eye on the odds during May: If there’s a 2022 version of Laney or a Connecticut to bet on this year, those who pay the closest attention will have a leg up on beating the books to those bets.

Special unders

For a lot of people, betting unders isn’t as fun as betting overs. The average fan doesn’t usually enjoy a game filled with bricks.

If you want to take advantage of a couple of areas that have been misjudged by sportsbooks, however, consider back-to-back unders and fourth-quarter unders.

Back-to-back unders come into play during the second of consecutive matchups between the same two teams. Last season, this happened 47 times, and the under hit in 26 of those (55.3 percent). Since you only need to win around 53 percent of your over/under bets to be profitable, you would have come out ahead simply by betting the under in every single second leg of a back-to-back.

Part of this is simply a matter of rest. Almost all of those back-to-backs were played with just one off day in between, leaving players a little more tired and less likely to push the pace in the second game.

Of course, that would be true of any game in which the teams were playing on short rest, but there’s an added component at work when the short-rest games are between teams that just met two days prior: scouting report familiarity. Put those two factors together, and you have a recipe for a game that was lower-scoring than the first matchup.

The other type of under bet that’s worth monitoring was even more profitable last season. Fourth-quarter unders went 119-72 with one push in 2021, cashing out well over 60 percent of the time.

Basketball games at almost any level tend to slow down a little bit as the game goes on — legs aren’t as fresh 35 minutes in as they were at the tip. This leads to lower-average scores in each successive quarter. While free throws at the end of close games do sometimes drive the fourth quarter scores up, the effect isn’t large enough to buck the overall trend; fourth quarters have still been historically the slowest and lowest-scoring quarters of the game.

For whatever reason, sportsbooks haven’t seemed to figure that out yet. These lines vary, but often you can find a fourth-quarter over/under that’s at one-fourth of the game over/under or even slightly higher. For instance, in a game that has an over/under set at 160, a fourth-quarter line of 40 or 41 may be worth taking the under on.

The more people bet on a sport, the more people watch the sport, and the more the sport grows. As part of our efforts to grow the WNBA, we’ll be keeping you updated on the betting trends and futures odds with regular analysis throughout the year, so stay tuned all season long.

Calvin Wetzel is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering basketball and betting. He also contributes to Her Hoop Stats, CBS SportsLine and FiveThirtyEight. Follow him on Twitter at @cwetzel31.

In this week's episode of The Late Sub, host Claire Watkins breaks down the 2025 resurgence of the San Diego Wave, a team currently sitting in third on the NWSL table following a disastrous 2024 season.

First, Watkins chats through the Wave's 2024 on- and off-pitch losses, from the abrupt firing of head coach Casey Stoney to the midseason retirement of superstar Alex Morgan to the transfers of franchise players Abby Dahlkemper and Naomi Girma — moves that left the 2023 Shield-winners below the 2024 postseason cutoff line.

Given the 2024 upheaval, "San Diego was set up to surprise," says Watkins. "They not only look better this year than they did last year, but right now they look better than a lot of the other teams in the league despite that talent loss."

There are two reasons for the Wave's 2025 rise, argues Watkins, starting with roster construction. San Diego has a bevy of young talent, including 17-year-olds Kimmi Ascanio, Trinity Armstrong, and Melanie Barcenas, as well as notable NCAA signings in Quincy McMahon and Trinity Byars — proving the Wave is flourishing in the NWSL's post-draft era.

"This is the new era of NWSL where teams, if they can sell young players on the future, they don't have to give up assets to sign those players," explains Watkins. "The best pitch wins. And San Diego, for all of their troubles last year, seems to still have a pretty compelling pitch to get these players to sign for them."

Along with the ability to identify and sign top young talent, explains Watkins, the Wave is also putting together a fast, creative style of play that is allowing San Diego to dominate possession and snag wins.

Could San Diego be in its "dynasty build" era?

Looking forward, while San Diego is clearly on the upswing, Watkins outlines the possible final components the club still needs to push them to the top of the league.

Noting that a young core is likely to struggle with consistency, Watkins says that some midseason pickups to either "let that offense go supernova or [to secure] a veteran stabilizing midfield force would be really useful for them."

Ultimately, Watkins questions San Diego's future in the context of the club's 2024 exodus and 2025 success, asking "Is this a setup for a five-year dynasty build, or is this a team that is always going to be stuck in this cycle of strong talent ID, good development —but then those players move on?"

About 'The Late Sub' with Claire Watkins

The Late Sub with Claire Watkins brings you the latest news and freshest takes on the USWNT, NWSL, and all things women's soccer. Special guest appearances featuring the biggest names in women’s sports make TLS a must-listen for every soccer fan.

Follow Claire on X/Twitter @ScoutRipley and subscribe to the Just Women's Sports newsletter for more.

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Duke women's basketball head coach Kara Lawson will lead a different team this NCAA offseason, taking on sideline duties for Team USA at this summer's 2025 FIBA Women's AmeriCup in Chile, USA Basketball announced on Tuesday.

Likely one of the last coaching decisions handled by committee, Lawson — alongside assistants DeLisha Milton-Jones and Jennie Baranczyk, the head coaches of Old Dominion and Oklahoma, respectively — will aim to return the four-time champions to the top of the biannual tournament's podium, after falling short to Brazil in the 2023 gold medal game.

The 2005 WNBA champion boasts a long history of success with USA Basketball, earning 2008 Olympic gold amid multiple medals as a player before beginning her coaching career.

Since then, the 44-year-old helped lead various USA Basketball teams to an astounding 75-5 competition record, picking up nine gold medals along the way.

Most recently, Lawson added 2024 Olympic gold as an assistant coach to her inaugural 3x3 Olympic championship as a head coach at the 2021 Tokyo Games.

"I'm incredibly honored," said Lawson in a USA Basketball statement. "It's such a gift. It's a gift that has given me so much over the years as a player, as a committee member, and as a coach. I've always tried to compete and give my best.... That won't change this summer."

Taking place in the middle of the 2025 WNBA season, the Team USA roster could feature NCAA talent.

"The goal is to put together a competitive team, one that represents all the standards that we hold dear to us," added Lawson.

The 2025 FIBA AmeriCup team that Lawson will lead will be announced after next month's trials, shortly before the tournament tips off on June 28th.

FIFA announced the eight cities that will host matches at the 2027 World Cup in Brazil on Wednesday, primarily selecting sites on the South American country's East Coast over tropical regions that require more extensive travel.

In addition to Rio de Janeiro's iconic Maracanã Stadium, the tournament's 64 games will take place across Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and São Paulo.

"The selection of the host cities represents the moment where the dream begins to take shape," said Brazil’s minister of sport André Fufuca. "Each of the selected host cities represents Brazil — a diverse and vibrant Brazil, with people who are passionate about football, and places that already live and breathe the sport and that will now have the opportunity to leave a transformative legacy for their communities and for generations to come."

The 32 teams battling for the 2027 World Cup will begin their hunt on June 24th of that year, with the final taking place on July 25th.

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Marta, Formiga help announce 2027 World Cup cities

To bolster the news, FIFA tapped famous Brazilians for its announcement video, including star futsal player Amandinha and two-time NWSL champion Debinha.

Also helping drop the eight cities were the country’s most iconic women's soccer legends, Marta — the World Cup's all-time leading scorer — and Formiga, the only athlete to compete in seven editions of the tournament.

"I won't be on the pitch in 2027, but I'm always ready to represent Brazilian football – even more so at a special moment like this," said the retired Formiga.

"I know every corner of our country, and I can tell you: Each of these cities is full of women's football talents who need support and inspiration," she continued. "The Women's World Cup will be an opportunity for them to see the greatest up close and think, 'If they can be there, so can I.' That's the impact that only an event of this size can have."

Using the 2027 World Cup — the first ever hosted in South America — to grow the women's game is top-of-mind for former player Mariléia "Michael Jackson" dos Santos, who now serves as the country's director of women's football promotion.

"We want to create a solid network that will last well beyond 2027," said dos Santos. "The idea is to decentralise the impact so that women's football flourishes in every corner of the country."

"It's a unique opportunity to change the game, and we're going to make the most of it because Brazilian women's football deserves it, and so do the girls in our country."

WNBA teams continued to trim their 2025 rosters this week, as preseason matchups set the stage for the league's May 16th regular-season tip-off.

After wrapping their 2025 preseason slate on Tuesday, Wednesday saw the Las Vegas Aces waive Harvard alum Harmoni Turner — drafted 35th overall last month — and fourth-year veteran center Queen Egbo.

Turner was the Aces’ third-round pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft. pic.twitter.com/buxEKqdVVe

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) May 7, 2025

Other standouts recently shown the door include Indiana Fever recruit Bree Hall (20th overall pick from South Carolina), the Seattle Storm's Madison Conner (29th overall pick from TCU), and Minnesota Lynx rookie Diamond Johnson (undrafted from Norfolk State).

While teams can sign up to 18 athletes to training camp rosters, they must whittle their lineups down to the league's regular-season max of 12 players, a system that sparks lots of movement — both in cuts and additions — in the days leading to tip off.

To that end, after the Golden State Valkyries cut their 17th overall draft pick Shyanne Sellers on Saturday, the Atlanta Dream snatched up the Maryland grad on waivers on Monday — just in time for their final preseason showdown with Indiana on Saturday.

Also receiving good news this week was Dallas's Maddy Siegrist, as the third-year forward saw the Wings exercise her fourth-year rookie option on Tuesday.

Alongside Indiana's 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston, Villanova grad Siegrist and the former South Carolina standout are the only 2023 draftees officially on rosters before the 2025 season's start.

Flush with talent and low on roster spots, the WNBA has long been one of the hardest sports leagues to secure a place in — and even more fan favorites are likely to land on the chopping block in the coming days.