AP
This isn’t the WNBA Finals matchup many expected or probably even wanted, and the lack of betting interest is indicative of that.
But it’s also worth putting in perspective that the Atlanta-Golden State best-of-seven series that begins Saturday in San Francisco is attracting more betting action than a Finals matchup would have not that long ago.
“With the boom in WNBA really starting with kind of the Caitlin Clark thing, while it hasn´t continued to boom, that floor has risen significantly,” BetMGM Sportsbook trader Christian Cipollini said. “We are still taking a lot more bets today than we did in 2022. So there is still a lot of action here, still a lot of interest. But these were two teams that weren´t really expected from a bettor’s lens to be here.”
There almost certainly would have been more betting interest if Las Vegas and New York – which have combined to win the past four WNBA championships – had instead met. Both teams are filled with stars, including A’ja Wilson with the Aces and Breanna Stewart with the Liberty.
But both teams were swept in the semifinals, and now the Valkyries or Dream will win their first title. Atlanta has been close, reaching the Finals three times, most recently in 2013. Golden State is in just its second season, way ahead of what most observers would have predicted.
“I think there is virtually no interest with these two teams,” longtime handicapper Dana Lane said. “If Vegas was in it, New York was in, maybe, New York´s such a massive betting market.”
Sports betting is not legal in California or Georgia, so that limits much of the betting interest.
“I’ll have to look at where the numbers end up actually shaking out, but it´s pretty safe to say that if we would have gotten Vegas-New York, our handle would be much higher,” Cipollini said. “There´s two factors that go to that. Golden State is still a new team. It takes time to build a (national) fan base. And the Atlanta Dream are also a team that wasn´t expected to be here and another one I wouldn’t say has a huge, huge fan base.”