2025 PLL Championship Series Golden Stick Picks
FanDuel is also offering future odds on which player will win the Golden Stick—the award given to the player who scores the most points during the series. In previous years, the award happened to go to a member of the team that lost in the final. This year, due to a format change, there’s a unique wrinkle to consider when betting this market.
The last two PLL Championship Series had all four teams make the playoff following the round robin portion, meaning the two teams in the final ended up playing the most games. As a result, the player who scored the most points was highly likely to come from one of the title game teams.
As mentioned earlier, only the top three teams will make the playoffs this year and as a result, players on the second and third-seeded teams will have the best shot at claiming the award since the top-seeded team will play one less game than their opponent. While it’s tough to predict which team will claim the top seed and bye, it’s important to consider this when betting this market.
As I touched on earlier, I like the Boston Cannons to repeat as champions. While I am still targeting one member of the Cannons, I have bet two players on both Archers and Whipsnakes—who I expect to make the playoffs as the second or third seed.
Starting with Archers, Mac O’Keefe has a great chance of leading the series in two-point goals, which will help him increase his point total. He also has experience playing a similar style of lacrosse having spent the past few seasons with the San Diego Seals in the NLL. Mac O’Keefe at +1000 is worth a 0.5 unit as my favorite of the five players with the shortest odds. A long shot from Utah is Ryan Aughavin at +10000. Like O’Keefe, Aughavin will likely have success scoring beyond the 13-yard, two-point arc. He broke onto the scene with the Archers in the 2023 PLL Championship Series, recording 17 points in four games, and was primed for more success before going down with an injury in Utah’s second game of the series last year. He’s worth a flyer of 0.05 unit at those odds.
As for Whipsnakes, TJ Malone is the obvious choice if you ignore the odds, but there is some value on other players further down the board. Ryan Conrad at +2500 is my favorite of the Maryland players. While he opened at +4500, I still think his odds are too long considering he finished fifth in points in the 2024 PLL Championship Series and his style of play translates perfectly to sixes. Bet 0.2 unit on him at those odds. As for a Whipsnakes longshot, look no further than Brad Smith, who is returning from an injury that sidelined him for the entire 2024 PLL regular season. Smith appears to be fully healthy and, despite the Whipsnakes’ little success in the 2023 PLL Championship Series, Smith finished the series fifth in points per game with 5.3. Although his odds have moved from +10000, Brad Smith at +4500 is also worth a 0.1-unit sprinkle.
As for the Boston Cannons, I think Holman and Campbell are both top candidates, but when looking at the odds, Asher Nolting at +1500 is the best bet. Nolting tied Holman with 31 points in last year’s championship series and led the series in one-point goals. He’s worth betting a 0.4 unit on in the event Boston doesn’t claim the top seed, but still makes the final.
New York’s Bryan Costabile and Myles Jones are certainly some players to consider for Atlas, but I don’t like either at their current odds and, as I said earlier, have rather low expectations for New York.
[…] by the New York Atlas and Utah Archers (unfortunately to the detriment of my first two bets). Our Golden Stick bets are all in good shape as all five players ranked in the top 10 in scoring points after the first […]