The betting public is putting its money behind the United States women’s national team to win the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
The USWNT enters the tournament as the favorite at +225, ahead of England at +450 and Spain at +500 at BetMGM. The two-time defending champions are getting over 75% of the money to win the World Cup as over half of BetMGM bettors in the U.S. are taking the home team.
“We expect this to be the most bet on Women’s World Cup of all time,” BetMGM’s Christian Cipollini said. “With the increasing popularity of women’s sports, the USA women’s national team will drive significant action for the sportsbook.”
The USWNT is an even bigger favorite to win its group. The U.S. is -400 to win Group E over the Netherlands (+250 to win the group), Portugal (+2800) and Vietnam (+35000). The U.S. opens the tournament Friday against Vietnam and should win handily.
The U.S. is a -50000 favorite to win straight up, meaning you have to wager $5 to win $0.01 on your bet. A tie is at +4000 and a Vietnam win is at +5500. We like hedging soccer bets on the draw at times, but this is not one of those times. It’s not worth betting the U.S. to win this game at all given the return.
The over/under is also staggeringly high. The goal total for Friday’s game is 6.5 goals with the over at -125 and the under at -110. We’re inclined to take the over as goal differential is a tiebreaker and there is little incentive for the USWNT to back off before the final minutes. No other game among the first round of group stage games has a goal total of more than 4.5 goals.
USWNT is +125 to make the final
If you’d prefer to bet on the USWNT to simply play in the final, the odds are +125. Both England and Spain are +225 to make the final while Germany is at +350 and France is at +400.
It’s also important to note that the knockout bracket for the Women’s World Cup is different from the format for the men’s tournament. In typical World Cup knockout brackets, the first- and second-place teams from each group go on opposite sides of the bracket and cannot meet again until the final game. In this Women’s World Cup, two teams from the same group could meet in the semifinals.
That means the U.S. is likely to be on the same side of the bracket as the Netherlands after the group stage and avoids a tougher side of the draw. The other side of the bracket features England, France, Germany and Australia (+450 to make the final) while only Spain and Sweden (+700 to make the final) are the other favorites on the USWNT’s side.
