WNBA
The Women’s National Basketball Association, or the WNBA, is a 12 team professional basketball league played in the United States. The league was established on the 24th of April 1996 and the first league was played out in 1997. The regular season of the WNBA runs from May through to August and the finals of the WNBA season are held in September. The timing of the season means that basketball fans have something to follow all year round and there are many betting options available for WNBA.
Free WNBA Betting Tips
| Tipster | Tip-off | Home Team | Away Team | O/U | Odds | Free Tip | Sportsbook | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WNBA tip locked in at 22/08 22:45 (Spread Result: 89-91, Totals: 183) | ||||||||||
| giorgio | 23/08 23:00 |  | San Antonio StarsSAN |  | Minnesota LynxMIN | 156 | 1.85 | Over 156 | ||
| SPREAD | +3 | -3 | 1.93 | Minnesota LynxMIN |  Bet ► | |||||
| Tipster | Tip-off | Home Team | Away Team | O/U | Odds | Free Tip | Sportsbook | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WNBA tip locked in at 19/08 09:15 (Spread Result: 77.5-84, Totals: 172) | ||||||||||
| giorgio | 22/08 02:00 | | Minnesota LynxMIN |  | San Antonio StarsSAN | 158 | 1.91 | Over 158 | ||
| SPREAD | -10.5 | +10.5 | 1.91 | Minnesota LynxMIN | Bet ► | |||||
- Please have a look at our Basketball Betting Tips section for more free tips for betting on WNBA games.
There are a number of WNBA teams that are affiliated with a NBA team and many share an arena. In 2014, only the Chicago Sky, the Tulsa Shock, the Seattle Storm and the Connecticut Sun do not share an arena with a NBA team and of these four, only the Seattle Storm don’t share a market with a NBA team. These four teams, as well as the Los Angeles Sparks and the Atlanta Dream are all owned independently. Given that previously, all of the teams in the WNBA were owned by the WNBA, this is important progress being made by the league.
Some of the current records for the league that are worth pointing out include:
- Biggest margin of victory: 46 points in a 111-65 win for Seattle Storm over Tulsa Shock
- Biggest match attendance: 22,076 on September 16, 2007 at the Detroit Shock. This was Game 5 of the 2007 WNBA Finals
- Most points scored in a game: 51 points by Riquna Williams from the Tulsa Shock – September 2013
As you would expect, there are similarities between the WNBA and the NBA. There is a WNBA Draft, which takes place every spring and at the moment, it is held at the headquarters of ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut. There are three rounds in the draft with every one of the 12 teams having three picks, although some picks can be traded. The order of the draft sees the team with the highest record in the previous section picking last. With 8 teams qualifying for the process, the remaining 4 teams, the non-play-off qualifiers, have their order selected in a manner similar to the NBA Draft. As you can see, the WNBA and the NBA are not so different and the betting guides for both leagues are similar.
The training camps for each team begin in early May and this is when coaches and teams will select their 11 player roster for the campaign. When training camp is concluded, a number of pre-season exhibition games take place and then the regular WNBA season gets underway in May.
The regular season sees each team playing a total of 34 games, with 17 at home and 17 away. Every team will play against three in-conference teams four times (12 games) and against two of their in-conference teams five times (10 games). There are then two games against six teams from outside of their conference (12 games).
The teams in the Eastern Conference are:
| Logo | City | Team Name | Official Website |
|---|---|---|---|
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Atlanta | Dream | wnba.com/dream/ |
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Indiana | Fever | wnba.com/fever/ |
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Connecticut | Sun | wnba.com/sun/ |
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Chicago | Sky | wnba.com/sky/ |
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Washington | Mystics | wnba.com/mystics/ |
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New York | Liberty | wnba.com/liberty/ |
The teams in the Western Conference are:
| Logo | City | Team Name | Official Website |
|---|---|---|---|
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Minnesota | Lynx | wnba.com/lynx/ |
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Phoenix | Mercury | wnba.com/mercury/ |
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San Antonio | Stars | wnba.com/stars/ |
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Tulsa | Shock | wnba.com/shock/ |
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Seattle | Storm | wnba.com/storm/ |
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Los Angeles | Sparks | wnba.com/sparks/ |
The WNBA schedule is flexible
There is a pause to the regular season in July for the WNBA All-Star Game, which has grown into a week-long celebration and fans have the opportunity to vote for players they want to see involved in the game as players from the Western Conference square off to players from the Eastern Conference. The All-Star celebrations are followed by trading deadline, which is when teams must have their roster for the remainder of the season scheduled. When there is an Olympic year, the WNBA takes a month-long hiatus for the duration of the tournament.
The Play-offs take place near the end of September with four teams from each conference making it through. The format sees the top seed from a conference play the fourth seed while the second and third seeds play each other. These are a best of three series with the top ranked seed having games 1 and 3 at home while the lower ranked seed plays the second game at home.
The WNBA Finals are a best of five series and the pattern is a 2-2-1 pattern, which sees one team playing games 1,2 and 5 at home while the other team hosts games 3 and 4. These games are hotly anticipated and draw huge crowds at the arena and on live streaming around the world.