Aces favorites to win 3rd WNBA title; A'ja Wilson leads MVP ESPN

The two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces are even money to make it three in a row ahead of what sportsbooks say will be the most heavily bet WNBA season ever.

The Aces are even-money title favorites at ESPN BET and sportsbooks around the nation. They're followed by the New York Liberty (+245), and the Seattle Storm (+900) have the third-shortest championship odds.

The Aces' A'ja Wilson (+110) is the betting favorite to win the regular-season MVP, followed by the Liberty's Breanna Stewart (+650) and Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark (+900).

The arrival of Clark has fueled lopsided betting on the long-shot Fever and a significant year-over-year spike of interest on the WNBA overall at sportsbooks. Caesars Sportsbook reported a 385% year-over-year increase in the number of preseason bets placed on the WNBA. A lot of those bets have Clark and the Fever. Only the Aces have attracted more bets to win the title than the Fever at Caesars.

At ESPN BET, Clark has attracted more bets -- and more money -- to win the MVP than any other player. There were 15 times as many MVP bets on Clark than there were on Wilson, the favorite, entering the season at ESPN BET.

DraftKings said it had 26 preseason betting markets on the WNBA this year, and BetMGM said it expects this to be the most-bet WNBA season ever.

"With the rise of Caitlin Clark and her arrival onto the professional scene, we have already seen a substantial increase in WNBA futures and awards betting," BetMGM sports trader Cameron Drucker told ESPN. "Clark for MVP along with the Fever to win it all have been the most popular picks by far."

Betting interest on women's college basketball over the past two years, with Clark playing at Iowa, also increased significantly. Optimove, a market firm specializing in iGaming, released an analysis that found a "substantial boost" in betting on women's basketball in March, especially games involving Clark and the Hawkeyes, which attracted 540% more bets than other NCAA tournament games.

Clark and the Fever were 6.5-point underdogs in their opener at Connecticut on Tuesday.