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.

The 2025 Wimbledon Championships wrapped its second round on Thursday, with the grass court Grand Slam seeing just 15 of the tournament's 32 seeded players advance to the Friday and Saturday's third round.

A full half of the WTA's Top 10 players did not survive the week, with 2024 Wimbledon finalist and world No. 5 Jasmine Paolini joining four first-round star exits by falling to unseeded Kamilla Rakhimova in a three-set, second-round battle on Wednesday.

At the same time, unseeded fan favorites like Japan's No. 53 Naomi Osaka and England's own No. 40 Emma Raducanu secured third-round spots at the London Slam, joining top surviving contenders like No. 4 Iga Świątek and defending Wimbledon champion No. 16 Barbora Krejčíková.

Notably, a full five US players managed to move ahead, tied for the largest national contingent still standing at the tournament.

Led by 2025 Australian Open champion No. 8 Madison Keys, the US group also includes No. 10 Emma Navarro and No. 12 Amanda Anisimova, as well as unseeded players No. 54 Danielle Collins and No. 55 Hailey Baptiste.

With matches against Świątek and No. 7 Mirra Andreeva, respectively, Collins and Baptiste have a tough third round ahead — though Navarro's battle against the 2024 champ Krejčíková arguably headlines Saturday's slate.

How to watch Wimbledon this weekend

While world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is still holding strong in the dwindling field, this year's Wimbledon play is proving that the London Slam is anyone's to take, as the grass court humbles even the sport's top stars.

Expect the twists and turns to continue as tennis's best battle for spots in Sunday's Round of 16.

Round-of-32 Wimbledon play kicks off at 6 AM ET on Friday, with live continuous coverage of the tournament airing on ESPN.

The 2025 European Championship is officially underway, as Euro action kicked off with a group-stage upset on Wednesday.

Though the 2025 UEFA tournament's opener was a sweltering affair amid a European heat wave, world No. 26 Finland prevailed, earning a 1-0 upset win over No. 14 Iceland in Group A.

Finnish winger Katariina Kosola played hero, curling in the winning goal in the match's 70th minute — just 12 minutes after Iceland midfielder Hildur Antonsdóttir picked up the competition's first red card.

"The result is important for our confidence," Kosola said after Finland's first major tournament win since the 2009 Euro. "It was the kind of goal I have been practicing a lot."

"It's terrible to lose and we feel frustrated," said Iceland head coach Thorsteinn Halldórsson. "It is an even group and we knew Finland were good, but our first half wasn't good enough."

Elsewhere, No. 16 Norway closed out Wednesday's slate on top of Group A, taking three points by defeating host No. 23 Switzerland in day's second match.

Led by captain and 2018 Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg — who pulled the match even with a second-half strike — Norway battled to a 2-1 comeback win, despite the Swiss side outshooting and out-possessing the Norwegians.

How to watch this week's 2025 Euro action

Group B steals the 2025 Euro spotlight on Thursday.

While No. 13 Italy snagged a 1-0 opening win over No. 20 Belgium to kick off the day, 2023 World Cup champions and tournament favorite No. 2 Spain will face No. 22 Portugal at 3 PM ET.

Friday's Group C slate will pit No. 12 Denmark against No. 6 Sweden at 12 PM ET, before No. 3 Germany contends with No. 27 Poland at 3 PM ET.

Closing out the first group-stage matches will be arguably the toughest draw of the 2025 Euro pool.

Saturday's Group D slate features major tournament debutants No. 30 Wales against the No. 11 Netherlands at 12 PM ET, with No. 10 France taking on defending champions No. 5 England to cap the day at 3 PM ET.

Live coverage of 2025 Euro matches will air across Fox Sports platforms.

The world No. 1 USWNT ruled the pitch on Wednesday night, shutting out North American rivals No. 8 Canada 3-0 to finish the international window on a high note.

Catching the Canada backline sleeping, US midfielder Sam Coffey opened the scoring at the 17-minute mark before 19-year-old Claire Hutton claimed her first-ever USWNT goal by heading in a Rose Lavelle corner kick in the game's 36th minute.

Houston Dash forward Yazmeen Ryan then padded the US tally in the waning minutes of the match, finding the back of the net just eight minutes after subbing onto the field.

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Despite fielding a young roster, the US overpowered a veteran-heavy Canada side in almost every category, topping their Northern neighbors in shots, shots on target, possession, and — most notably — set pieces.

Canada ultimately couldn't match the game's mental pace or physical battle, as the USWNT scored all three goals off dead ball situations — a free kick, a corner kick, and a throw-in.

"It's not about the opponent," US head coach Emma Hayes said after the match. "It's about what we do, and I felt that was extremely dominant."

With Wednesday's contributions, the USWNT finishes the summer window with 11 goals scored across the three friendlies — and zero goals conceded.

The US now enters an extended break before reconvening for another as-yet-unannounced friendly series in October — but players will be expected to perform in the meantime.

"I said to the players in the end in the huddle, if you want to compete to win the biggest things, it's not what you do here that matters," said Hayes. "It's what you do when you go back to your club."

The 2025 WNBA regular season returns on Thursday night, with teams at the top of the league standings looking to prove their mettle against close competition across the long holiday weekend.

The No. 5 Seattle Storm have arguably the toughest weekend assignments, taking on the No. 4 Atlanta Dream on Friday before tackling the No. 3 New York Liberty on Sunday.

Four middle-of-the-pack teams will look to close in on a double-digit season win tally while the league's frontrunners strive to maintain their advantage in this weekend's slate:

• No. 7 Las Vegas Aces vs. No. 8 Indiana Fever, Thursday at 7 PM ET (Prime): Though still without star Caitlin Clark, the Fever hope to harness their 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup victory momentum against an Aces side tied with Indiana with an 8-8 season record.

• No. 5 Seattle Storm vs. No. 4 Atlanta Dream, Thursday at 7:30 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): Seattle will look to make strides against a strong Atlanta side while putting last Sunday's stinging 84-57 loss to up-and-comer Golden State in their rearview.

• No. 6 Golden State Valkyries vs. No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, Saturday at 8 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): The rising Valkyries must face a Lynx side hunting redemption, as the league-leaders look to bounce back from their stifling Tuesday Commissioner's Cup upset loss.

• No. 5 Seattle Storm vs. No. 3 New York Liberty, Sunday at 1 PM ET (CBS): With injured Liberty center Jonquel Jones still sidelined, the Seattle Storm will have a chance to steal a weekend game against the reigning champs, as New York struggles to re-find their footing.

With the 2025 WNBA All-Star break looming, early top performers must keep standards high if they want to hold the line when the season crosses the midway point.