{"id":935055,"date":"2026-10-16T10:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/935055\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T10:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:14:17","slug":"no-las-vegas-no-new-york-yet-the-wnba-finals-handle-still-beats-2022-wtop-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/935055\/","title":{"rendered":"No Las Vegas, no New York, yet the WNBA Finals handle still beats 2022 \u2013 WTOP News"},"content":{"rendered":"

This isn\u2019t the WNBA Finals<\/a> matchup many expected or probably even wanted, and the lack of betting interest is indicative of that.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the boom in WNBA really starting with kind of the Caitlin Clark thing, while it hasn\u2019t continued to boom, that floor has risen significantly,\u201d BetMGM Sportsbook trader Christian Cipollini said. \u201cWe 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\u2019t really expected from a bettor\u2019s lens to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

There almost certainly would have been more betting interest if Las Vegas and New York \u2014 which have combined to win the past four WNBA championships \u2014 had instead met. Both teams are filled with stars, including A\u2019ja Wilson with the Aces and Breanna Stewart with the Liberty.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is virtually no interest with these two teams,\u201d longtime handicapper Dana Lane said. \u201cIf Vegas was in it, New York was in, maybe, New York\u2019s such a massive betting market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports betting is not legal in California or Georgia, so that limits much of the betting interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have to look at where the numbers end up actually shaking out, but it\u2019s pretty safe to say that if we would have gotten Vegas-New York, our handle would be much higher,\u201d Cipollini said. \u201cThere\u2019s 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\u2019t expected to be here and another one I wouldn\u2019t say has a huge, huge fan base.\u201d<\/p>\n

Series is close to a tossup<\/p>\n

The Valkyries are -115 favorites to win the series, but the Dream are behind at -105.<\/p>\n

A Golden State victory would be a \u201cvery small winner\u201d for BetMGM.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see over the course of the next week if we keep getting bets, that turns to essentially a break even,\u201d Cipollini said. \u201cAtlanta Dream would be the one that we would want to win right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valkyries favored for a reason<\/p>\n

Lane said he has a hard time seeing the Valkyries lose because of their depth and home-court advantage. Golden State possesses perhaps the league\u2019s most intimidating atmosphere at \u201cBallhalla\u201d, and Lane said he could see this going six games or even fewer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that Golden State looked at Vegas as a much bigger threat than anything that was going to come out of the East,\u201d Lane said. \u201cSo it\u2019s going to be interesting how they refocus. Certainly, they\u2019ve had plenty of time. If they win Game One, I think this series is maybe even five.\u201d <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t expect a lot of points<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an adage that life is too short to bet the under, but professionals often find more value in that.<\/p>\n

And given this is a series between the league\u2019s two best teams in defensive scoring efficiency, the total of 154 1\/2 at BetMGM for the opener reflects that. They\u2019re the only teams to allow less than a point per possession.<\/p>\n

But Lane said be careful about assuming the under is going to come in.<\/p>\n

\u201cGolden State is certainly going to want to push tempo,\u201d Lane said. \u201cBut defensively, they\u2019re both obviously outstanding teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plenty of time to rest<\/p>\n

Both teams last played a week ago, so the layoff could affect their momentum from advancing to the Finals, but it\u2019s a problem each shares.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a plus for both teams,\u201d Lane said. \u201cThey can get healthy and really hone in on what they want to do against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\n See AP\u2019s full WNBA coverage here<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This isn\u2019t the WNBA Finals matchup many expected or probably even wanted, and the lack of betting interest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-935055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}