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The 25th season of the WNBA left no stone unturned. Along with the regular 32-game season, fans witnessed an Olympic gold medal won by the American Women’s Team during the midseason break. The WNBA also introduced their inaugural Commissioner’s Cup, an in-season tournament with a $500,000 prize pool, to provide even competition in an already ultra-competitive 12 team league.
As a result of all the action and great basketball, people are finally beginning to take notice. According to ESPN, the WNBA averaged 306,000 viewers per game in the regular season. That is a 49% increase from what we saw during the COVID-interrupted 2020 season and a 24% increase from the 2019 season.
Will ya look at that pic.twitter.com/8wgeAJtpp8
— Annie Costabile (@AnnieCostabile) September 23, 2021
As the popularity grows, so does the number of bets at the sportsbook. Our Partners at PointsBet shared that "[WNBA] continues to attract more and more action” (via Sportshandle.com).
Furthermore, after an already exhilarating first round of the WNBA playoffs, we will likely see more money and more bets being placed in the upcoming rounds. Therefore, I put together all the numbers and betting trends of the regular season and some interesting championship trends to help new and experienced bettors succeed this postseason.
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2021 WNBA Betting Trends
The WNBA has four markets that you can wager on via PointsBet. You can wager on the MoneyLine, points spread, and Total of each game. You can also place wagers in the futures market to predict who will win the Championship.
Moneyline Trends
When it comes to selecting who will win straight-up, you’re safe to stick with the betting favorite, regardless of whether they are the home team or the away team. During the 2021 WNBA regular season, the favorites went 129-63, with a home record of 77-37 and an away record of 52-26.
Spread Trends
When it comes to betting against the spread (ATS), you have the options of placing your money on a team that you may not think is going to win. Often, you would expect the best teams to have the greatest record against the spread, but that is not always the case.
The MoneyLine favorite finished 91-101-3 against the spread this season, while the underdog was 101-91-3. The most profitable ATS wager this regular season was betting on the home underdogs. They covered 53.2% of the time. On the other hand, the least profitable ATS wager was the away favorites. They covered just 46.8% of the time.
Total Trends
When it comes to selecting the over/under on a game, it is a good idea to analyze each team’s offensive and defensive efficiency, as well as individual matchups. In the regular season, games reached the over 46.9% of the time and the under 53.1% of the time.
WNBA Championship Trends
As we approach round two of the playoffs, it is important to understand some historical trends that could help predict who will be crowned this year’s champion. I have listed some of those trends below.
Best Record
Teams who finish with the best regular-season record have won the Championship in seven of the last ten season, including winning the last four years.
MVP
The regular-season MVP represents the best player in the league. However, in the last ten years, the MVP has made it to the WNBA finals four times and has gone on to win the whole thing just once.
Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference
Teams in the Western Conference have won eight of the last ten titles. The Eastern Conference teams to win during that span were the Washington Mystics (2019) and the Indiana Fever (2012). Neither of those teams qualified for this year’s playoffs.
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