The Thunder (+110) remain large betting favorites to repeat as NBA champions, but the betting public also like the Spurs (+500) and Celtics (+550) to give Oklahoma City a run for their money.
Doug GreenbergApr 18, 2026, 10:48 AM ET
The Oklahoma City Thunder will head into the NBA Playoffs as large favorites to repeat as league champions, but the betting public will be more focused on the teams just below them on the odds board.
The Thunder are +110 to win the NBA Finals, followed by the San Antonio Spurs (+500) and Boston Celtics (+550) in the next tier, with the Denver Nuggets (+900) rounding out the group of favored teams, according to DraftKings odds. There is a sizable gap on the odds board before the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks check in at 17-1 and 18-1, respectively.
The top four all have considerable bets and handle across the sportsbook marketplace, but Oklahoma City and Denver are largely not liabilities due to their relatively short odds all season.
"Among the true contenders, OKC is the best result on the futures market," BetMGM sports trader Anthony Parenti said in an email release. "The sportsbook is in the enviable position of getting to cheer for the favorite to win it all."
The Thunder are not the top ranked team by handle at either DraftKings or BetMGM. Instead, San Antonio and Boston have become larger liabilities, namely because they started the season off as long shots and morphed into contenders, giving bettors the opportunity to grab them at big prices throughout the campaign.
The Spurs have been up-and-coming since drafting superstar Victor Wembanyama first overall in 2023, and with Wemby staying relatively healthy, 2025-26 proved to be their breakout season. Bookmakers were initially conservative on San Antonio, with DraftKings assigning them only 65-1 championship odds going into the campaign.
Bettors sensed the breakout and piled on early and often: The Spurs are the highest attractor of NBA Finals winner handle, as well as Western Conference winner tickets, at BetMGM and DraftKings. Even as many bookmakers tried to get ahead of the trend, the public kept lining up to back Wembanyama and company.
"I can't imagine what some other books' liability sheets look like on them because they were 50-to-1-plus for most of the year," Caesars Sportsbook lead NBA trader David Lieberman told ESPN. "We were super aggressive in lowering them because Wembanyama was playing so well, and we still have quite a bit of money on them. So I'm not sure what else we could have done, but it's one of those things where people are going to bet the Spurs based on how they looked no matter what."
Meanwhile, the Celtics were supposed to be in a soft rebuild with superstar Jayson Tatum sidelined most of the season due to an achilles injury, and with lots of roster turnover from the previous two seasons in which they were a perennial title contender. That led DraftKings to give them 60-1 odds going into the season, but Boston was able to stay competitive all year and are now the favorite to win the East (+155) with Tatum back in the fold.
"The Celtics were a team that didn't have a full squad, didn't look like they would have a full squad, and here they are at full strength going into the playoffs," DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello said. "They were bet at some really big numbers. We had them at maybe 75, 80-1 at one point."
"Those two teams are not great results for us," adds Lieberman.
There are other compelling betting storylines and liabilities to be found further down the odds board. The Minnesota Timberwolves, for example, were as short as 12-1 for the title and were 50-1 near the beginning of April, but they lengthened all the way to 100-1 after locking in a first-round matchup with Denver.
The Los Angeles Lakers also took a massive tumble down the odds board from a short price of 12-1 all the way to 150-1 following key injuries to Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Both before and after those injuries, though, the Lakers remained as popular with bettors as they are nearly every season, with Avello and Lieberman both noting strong action backing them, and BetMGM reporting them as its largest remaining future liability.
Lieberman also notes that many bettors are taking longer shots on East teams further down the board in the conference and championship markets, hoping they can provide similar value to the upstart Indiana Pacers last year. He specifically points to the Atlanta Hawks (130-1 at DraftKings) and Philadelphia 76ers (150-1) as teams attracting action.