As we near the start of the new year and most teams get set for conference play, DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, and others have begun offering futures odds on who will win the 2022 NCAA D1 women’s basketball title.
Since sportsbooks are notoriously slow at updating these lines as the Division I landscape continues to shift, there may be value to be found on some teams when placing bets at certain times. Let’s take a look at where those odds currently stand at those two books.
Creating a shortlist of the favorites
As expected, South Carolina leads the pack with odds of +200 and +225 at FanDuel and DraftKings, respectively, although at FanDuel those odds place them in a tie with UConn. The Huskies sit at +250 on DraftKings.
Not far behind is Stanford, which has spent most of the season in the top five of the AP poll. The Cardinal have been given +500 odds at FanDuel and +550 at DraftKings.
A look at the second tier
After the big three, we see a drop-off before the next group of teams with odds in the thousands. DraftKings lists 18 teams on their board, and the remaining 15 all have odds between +1000 and +6000. That group is led by Maryland at +1000 and NC State at +1500.
FanDuel goes much deeper, listing nearly 80 teams, but the odds for the next 15 teams are each exactly the same. That includes a +2000 line for Baylor, odds of +2500 for Indiana, and +3000 for both Arizona and Louisville.
Which teams seem to be the long shots right now?
Although DraftKings’ list stops after the top 18, FanDuel offers plenty of options for those wanting to get a little crazy. With 79 teams to choose from, several of them won’t even make the NCAA Tournament, so those towards the bottom of the list definitely qualify as long shots.
Over half of those teams – 43 of them – round out the list with +50000 odds. Some stand almost no chance of even making the tournament, let alone paying out this bet, such as Wisconsin or Virginia.
Others, while still highly unlikely to win the championship, are near locks to make the field of 68 and thus may be worth sprinkling some lunch money on. Some schools in that category are FGCU and Oklahoma, which are receiving votes in the AP poll, and BYU and LSU, which have already cracked the top 25.
Eventually, more US-regulated sportsbooks should add their own odds for the title, and each book should start to adjust as the picture becomes more clear. For now, these odds at these books are likely to remain stagnant for the coming weeks, so go get some action in if you see a line you like.
