The Premier Lacrosse League returns in the form of the 2025 PLL Championship Series. A handful of books are offering game lines and future odds and I have several picks to make before the series starts. Let’s discuss some changes to the format and my best bets for the 2025 PLL Championship Series.
2025 PLL Championship Series Futures
I explained how bettors should consider the new rules and format of the this year’s series when betting in detail on Steven MacDonald’s podcast, but the two biggest changes are:
- Instead of all four teams advancing to the playoff round, only the top three teams will, with the team with the best record automatically advancing to the final.
- Instead of a sudden victory period, if teams are tied at the end of regulation, there will be a four-minute overtime period similar to basketball. If after those four minutes the teams are still tied, then it will be next goal wins.
I’ll touch on how the possibility overtime will be important to consider when betting totals later, but the playoff format has big implications on betting championship futures. In previous years, betting a team before the series didn’t provide a whole lot of betting value. Every team is around 3-1 odds and, with only four teams, there’s really not much of an edge as true probability goes and we saw the top teams after round-robin play (Atlas in 2023, Waterdogs in 2024) in previous years both fail to win it all.
This year, if you successfully bet a future on the team that ends up claiming the top seed, you’re going to end up with a nice ticket going into the final since that team won’t have to play in the semifinal, providing them with more rest and removing the risk of an early exit. I’d still recommend only betting one team before the series starts, but you could effectively make a case for any of the four.
Steven Brooks and Atlas had a ton of success in the 2023 PLL Championship Series despite falling short in the final. Goaltender Liam Entenmann will keep them competitive, but they’ll have to adopt a different strategy than what they used in 2023. Atlas was super effective from the two-point arc in 2023, but doesn’t have the same amount of deep threats as they did. Romar Dennis and Chris Gray now on California and Jake Carraway retired. Additionally, the loss of Connor Shellenberger is a significant blow. While Bryan Costabile is still on the roster, I expect to see a different style of play this time around and I’m not sure they’ll be able to have a similar run as in 2023.
Archers and Whipsnakes are teams that I think have a slightly better chance than Atlas. While neither has historically had much success in the PLL Championship Series, I think both are going to be more prepared this time around. Archers have a roster full of two-way players built for this format and players like Mac O’Keefe, Matt Moore, Cole Williams and Ryan Aughavin can all shoot from range. As for Maryland, Brendan Krebs played well in this format as a member of the Archers and former Syracuse goalie Will Mark helps make up arguably the best goalie duo in the series. Maryland will also have more offensive weapons this time around, with Ryan Conrad, Colin Heacock, TJ Malone and Matt Rambo headlining a unit that is full of talent, including new faces Tate Gallagher and Jacob Angelus.
That all said, I’m choosing to bet on the Boston Cannons to win their second-straight PLL Championship Series for a variety of reasons.
Colin Kirst is the best goalie in the series at defending the two-point shot and was a huge reason why Boston won last year. The Cannons also have the most players from their 2024 regular season roster playing in the series and most of their 2024 PLL Championship Series roster is back. Given their previous success, roster continuity and current odds, Boston Cannons to win the title at +270 on DraftKings is my best bet.
If you choose to bet one of the other three teams, be shop around as you can get Archers, Atlas or Whipsnakes as long as +300 on certain sportsbooks.
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