During the 2025 season, the Indiana Fever finished third in the Eastern Conference, won a playoff series and captured the franchise’s first Commissioner’s Cup, a respectable haul for any team. But what made that run all the more impressive was that Indiana accomplished it with its franchise player, Caitlin Clark, injured for a majority of the campaign.
Indiana to win the WNBA Finals has been likely the hottest future ticket each season since Clark made her landmark debut in 2024: That year, the Fever were 20-1 to win the title and improved to +300 going into the 2025 campaign, per SportsOddsHistory. Ahead of the 2026 season, the Fever are +450, according to DraftKings odds, and continue to be the gem of the WNBA betting world, with BetMGM reporting 26.6% of its wagers and 34.8% of its handle backing them for the championship.
Seemingly regardless of where bookmakers set the line for Clark and her team, bettors flock to them.
“We’re not trying to undercut everyone on it and take the least amount of money possible, but obviously we have that in mind when we’re setting the future odds,” Caesars Sportsbook pro basketball lead David Lieberman told ESPN. “It’s always going to be a factor just because you don’t want liability to get away from you and you know where the money’s going to go.
“People will bet it regardless of what the price is. They just want to have a piece of the Caitlin Clark action.”
Even with the potential liability, Indiana has only seen its odds lengthen from a short point around +375. That’s because bookmakers feel strongly that the New York Liberty and reigning champion Las Vegas Aces are the WNBA’s elite teams, with DraftKings anointing them with +220 and +390 title odds, respectively, and Lieberman calling them “the best teams on paper.”
All the same, between the shorter odds and lack of Clark-fueled buzz, neither New York nor Las Vegas has attracted the type of handle that would make them any kind of liability for sportsbooks: The Liberty do not crack BetMGM’s top three for ticket share, while DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello notes that both teams, but particularly the Aces, are “not taking the handle you would expect.”
The same goes for the Atlanta Dream, who had arguably the splashiest offseason of any team in the league when they traded for two-time WNBA All-Star Angel Reese and re-signed several key free agents in April, shortening them from 18-1 to +900, and then further to +650. Still, bettors are largely not flocking to the new-look Dream.
“The Angel Reese addition was a plus,” BetMGM trader Tyler Groth said via email. “The Dream have a lot of skilled players, but we want to see how the team comes together before moving their odds further.”
Ironically, Lieberman said Caesars received a flood of futures on Reese’s former team, the Chicago Sky, following the trade. Chicago remains a distant 100-1 for the title at DraftKings but has apparently been a popular pick in the win total and to make the playoffs markets.
“Their odds cratered to make the playoffs and their total season wins, and then it got bet pretty heavy back up,” Lieberman said. “That was one that stood out where maybe they thought the odds were overcompensated for a bit.”
Another popular futures long shot among public bettors is the Dallas Wings, who were 70-1 for the WNBA title earlier in the offseason and have made their way down to 30-1, according to DraftKings odds. BetMGM lists Dallas as one of its largest championship liabilities.
Other teams attracting action across a variety of futures markets include the Golden State Valkyries, Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm.
“It’s a really good book that we’ve got here,” Avello said. “There’s money on just about every team, and if any of those long shots have a good season, bettors will continue to bet them throughout the season, so the liability could even become stronger.”
Most valuable player
As with the WNBA Finals market, the Clark effect is predictably having huge repercussions on the MVP market. In this case, though, Clark is the favorite to win the league’s highest individual honor, showing +245 odds at DraftKings. Four-time and reigning MVP A’ja Wilson comes in next at +265, while Napheesa Collier is third at +750 despite an ankle injury that is expected to keep her sidelined until at least June.
Unsurprisingly, Clark is attracting the majority of public action with 29.5% of the tickets at BetMGM. Bettors have been much less inclined to bet Wilson or Collier, especially as sportsbooks are not lengthening Collier too much out of an abundance of caution: Bookmakers say that they’re very aware of her MVP potential and would likely handicap her closer to Clark and Wilson if she was completely healthy.
“The narrative runs a lot of the awards voting. So I think in terms of Clark, that’s obvious with her popularity, and if she stays healthy and has a big season, she’s always going to be in the mix,” Lieberman said, “With Collier, it might hurt her less to miss a good chunk of games if she comes back and puts up big numbers. Maybe [the Lynx] struggle for a bit without her and then go on a run with her, then that kind of shifts the narrative of, ‘Yeah, she is the most valuable and the team performs so much better with her than without her.'”
Even with Clark attracting lots of the action, she’s not much of a problem for sportsbooks given her short favorite odds. The books get into more trouble with some big names further down the board.
“Clark is writing up tickets, but we’re not in a huge liability with Clark right now, as well as Wilson or Collier,” Avello said. “I’ll tell you where they’re going, they’re betting Paige Bueckers. She’s the public’s most popular choice.”
At BetMGM, Bueckers has garnered 24.6% of the wagers and an astounding 85.0% of the handle, likely owing to one or two very large wagers, making her easily the book’s biggest liability. At DraftKings, Bueckers is a fifth-best 14-1 to win MVP.
Sabrina Ionescu (30-1) and Clark’s teammate Aliyah Boston (100-1) have also racked up wagers to be liabilities at BetMGM. Avello notes that Dominique Malonga (60-1) and Rickea Jackson (250-1) have also received some attention at longer odds.
Rookie of the Year
According to the preseason odds, the WNBA is in for the most intriguing Rookie of the Year race it’s had in several seasons. Since 2023, all of the preseason ROTY favorites have been odds-on, were selected first in the WNBA draft and ultimately won the award: Boston (-250), Clark (-750) and Bueckers (-225).
Not so in 2026, when Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 pick, will begin the season as the favorite at +280, per DraftKings odds. After her, there are four other players shorter than +800: Olivia Miles (+320), Awa Fam (+425), Lauren Betts (+700) and Flau’jae Johnson (+750).
“This is a wide-open race, this is the way I like them,” Avello said. “There is not one clear-cut short favorite that everybody pounds the whole year.”
In the previous three seasons, there was only one conceivable winner from the get-go that bettors either backed with limited return, or they didn’t bet the market at all. This season, though, bettors are engaging at a much higher level and taking shots on players across the board.
For starters, Fudd is not receiving anywhere near the attention one would expect from an awards favorite. Instead, bettors are gravitating toward the second choice in Miles, who has garnered a leading 36.8% of the handle at BetMGM. Within the top five, Betts and especially Johnson have proven to be popular public choices, with the latter attracting a leading 38.1% of tickets at the sportsbook; Betts is second in both wagers and money at BetMGM.
Johnson’s heavy public action forced sportsbooks to shorten her odds from the opener at 10-1. Because of the perceived complete openness of the market, bettors are also taking shots on longer picks such as Georgia Amoore (12-1), Ta’Niya Latson (90-1) and Raven Johnson (90-1). Bookmakers are also expecting it to be a volatile market throughout the season based on playing time and results.
“This is a market that we expect could swing game to game based on player performance,” Groth said.
Expansion teams
During the 2025 season, the expansion Valkyries defied expectations by making the playoffs. The strong debut caught bookmakers flat-footed, as they left the Valkyries with plus-money odds to make the postseason for much of the campaign and had assigned them a league-low preseason win total of 8.5 … a number they surpassed less than halfway through the season.
Sportsbooks are learning their lesson this year with two expansion teams on the board. At DraftKings, the Portland Fire have a preseason win total of 9.5 — lowest in the league — while the Toronto Tempo show a very respectable 15.5, more than three other teams.
“With the Valkyries last year, obviously anyone who got in early on some of the season win numbers that were put up and stuff like that came ahead nicely,” Lieberman said. “So obviously right after that happens, we’re more cognizant of it.”
Bettors expecting a repeat of Golden State’s magic are flocking toward the expansion teams, particularly Toronto, which made a splash by hiring two-time WNBA Finals-winning coach Sandy Brondello. Caesars and DraftKings confirmed extensive action on the Tempo to exceed their win total and make the playoffs, while BetMGM notes them as one of its largest championship liabilities, largely owing to some marginal action at long odds (200-1 at DraftKings).
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