Basketball: WNBA Betting for Beginners

How to Transition from NBA Betting to WNBA Betting

The NBA season is wrapping up this week and basketball bettors are likely looking for something to help pass the time until the 2022-23 season begins in the fall. Well, look no further than the WNBA. With the WNBA season taking place over the summer months, transitioning to WNBA betting offers the perfect solution.

The Same but Different

WNBA betting is extremely similar to the NBA, except there are fewer options to choose from. Books don’t offer player props to bet on the WNBA in the same way they do for the NBA, nor do they offer second, third, or fourth quarter lines. Along with the spread, total, and Moneyline, betting options typically include first quarter and first half lines, as well as team props such as team totals. While it may seem like a disadvantage to not have as many options, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Betting on sports with a slightly smaller following, like the WNBA, can be a bit easier to exploit because the lines are not usually as sharp as they are for the NBA, NFL, or NHL.

When it comes to WNBA betting, the strategies handicappers use are very similar to the ones they would use when capping the NBA or college basketball. It’s important to look at how a team has performed recently. How they have looked over the last week could tell a completely different story than how they performed early in the season. Pace, offensive rating, and defensive rating are also stats that will tell you a lot about how teams match up with one another and what to expect when it comes to betting the total.

Travel spots in the WNBA are especially important to pay attention to because unlike the NBA, WNBA teams do not charter planes. They fly commercial airlines, which means they are subject to flight delays and long hours in an airport that can impact the amount of rest and recovery time they have between games.

Important Storylines to Follow

The WNBA season is already a month in. So for those just starting their WNBA handicapping, here are a few important storylines to pay attention to.

Becky Hammon, former Spurs assistant coach under the legendary Gregg Popovich, took over as the Las Vegas Aces as head coach this season. Signing a $1-million contract. Hammon is the highest-paid coach in the WNBA and so far, has looked worthy of every penny. The Aces opened the season as the co-favorite, alongside the Connecticut Sun, to win the WNBA Championship. Yet midway through June, Hammon already has them positioned as the lone heavy favorite.

The New York Liberty got off to a terrible 1-7 start to the season, yet the team has turned things around with a 4-2 record in the month of June. Former Phoenix Mercury head coach Sandy Brondello took over at the helm for the Liberty this season and it is looking as if the players are starting to find their footing in her new system. Guard Sabrina Ionescu and centers Han Xu and Stefanie Dolson have stepped up lately and the team is beginning to gel.

After a decade of success, this season did not look that promising for the Minnesota Lynx from the start, and it only seems to be getting worse. They have struggled with injuries early on including veteran Sylvia Fowles who recently suffered cartilage damage in her right knee and has been ruled out indefinitely. The Lynx started the season 3-11 with losses to several of the league’s other bottom-tier teams.

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