Cam Ward is new favorite to go No. 1 in the 2025 NFL Draft at sportsbooks
Miami (FL) Hurricanes QB becomes odds-on favorite to be selected first in April
The 2025 NFL draft is still several months away, but the market for a player to be drafted No. 1 overall has been live pretty much since Mr. Irrelevant was drafted last April.
At BetMGM, Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders opened as the favorite at +300 odds, followed by Miami (FL) QB Cam Ward at +350 and Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter at +750. Georgia QB Carson Beck and Texas QB Quinn Ewers also had better odds at other books, and Beck was even the favorite to go No. 1 at sportsbooks for a brief period of time this season.
Since late October, though, Sanders has been the favorite at sportsbooks and he was around -120 to go No. 1 at sportsbooks before this weekend’s NFL games. However, with the Tennessee Titans losing and the New England Patriots winning on Sunday, the Titans now hold the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft. And late Sunday night, Cam Ward (-125) moved into the role of favorite to be drafted No. 1 overall at multiple sportsbooks, with Sanders (+100) behind him. Hunter has the third-best odds at around 10-1, and then there isn’t a player with odds better than 50-1 to go No. 1 at sportsbooks.
Part of this move is likely due a 2025 NFL draft mock draft released by The Athletic that has Ward No. 1 and in the mock notes, “If Tennessee does want to bail on Levis, Ward has the QB1 edge at the moment over Shedeur Sanders.”
“One of the big things that moved us towards Ward is that it’s where the market was already going,” Christian Cipollini, a BetMGM trader, told me on Monday afternoon. “There are rumors out there about Sanders not playing for certain teams, with Tennessee being one of those, and word that the Titans might not want Sanders and may be leaning more towards Ward. With Tennessee at No. 1, unless they get a really good deal they won’t trade it and they need a QB, so that quickly narrows it to Ward and Sanders.”
Cipollini noted that the NFL draft is an information market, which makes it very unique and booking it requires “a combination of what we feel and what information is out there.”
Ward had the most total wagers and total dollars wagered to go No. 1 as of Monday afternoon at BetMGM — overtaking Sanders — with Cipollini noting that much of that handle was last night and on Monday. Ward is also the sportsbook’s biggest liability to be drafted first.
It should be a fascinating market to keep an eye on as NFL mock draft season comes into full focus.