The 2027 WNBA Draft Lottery will take place on Sunday, Nov. 15, the league announced Wednesday, and will air at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN after the UConn vs. Louisville women's basketball game.
With that announcement, the WNBA revealed the official odds for the new seven-team lottery, headlined by the new edition of the Houston Comets (formerly Connecticut Sun) and the Toronto Tempo, who will split the best odds for the No. 1 overall pick. The WNBA uses two-season aggregate records to determine lottery odds, but for the two expansion teams, the Tempo and Portland Fire, only their 2026 record will be considered. The Comets (as the Sun) went 22-66 over the last two seasons, while the Tempo were 11-33 in their inaugural campaign.
Because the two teams went 11-33 and had identical .250 winning percentages, the league combined each team's lottery combinations and divided them evenly. There was an even number of combinations, which means the teams will have identical odds for the No. 1 overall pick. If there had been an odd number of combinations, the Comets would have received the extra combination by virtue of losing the tiebreaker last season.
In addition to the Comets and Tempo, this year's lottery crew includes the Chicago Sky, Seattle Storm, Phoenix Mercury and Los Angeles Sparks. However, those will not be the seven teams drafting in the lottery. The Sky owe the Washington Mystics a first-round pick swap, while the Mercury traded their first-round pick to the Sparks, who will have two lottery selections as a result.
It is important to note, however, that lottery odds are based on the team that originally owned the pick. Here's how the lottery process works, via the league: In the drawing, 14 balls numbered 1-14 will be placed in a lottery machine and mixed. Four balls will be drawn to determine a four-digit combination.
The team assigned that four-ball combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The four balls will then be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated to determine the second pick. Of the five Lottery teams not selected in the drawings, the team with the worst cumulative winning percentage shall select third; the team with the next worst records will, in order, select fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh.
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