For the first time this season, the Toronto Blue Jays are the favorites to win the World Series.
Key Takeaways
- The Blue Jays have gone from +7,500 to -250 to win the Fall Classic.
- The Dodgers were the futures market favorites for nearly all of 2025.
- Toronto can become a historic team from an odds standpoint with one more win.
It took until after Wednesday’s Game 5 of the best-of-seven series against the Los Angeles Dodgers to reach that feat, but the Blue Jays head back to the Rogers Centre with a 3-2 series lead after a 6-1 victory and looking to capture their third MLB championship.
On Thursday morning, Toronto was listed as the -250 favorite to win the World Series, setting up massive liability at Canadian sportsbooks, with the Dodgers’ odds at +200 to rally.
In World Series with a 2-2 tie, the winner of Game 5 has gone on to capture the title nearly 68% of the time. The odds go up to 74% when looking at the current 2-3-2 format for the team that wins Game 5 on the road with two chances at home to clinch.
All Dodger Blue until ...
While the Blue Jays spent no time during the regular season or the first three rounds of the playoffs as the favored team, the Dodgers have been atop the World Series winner futures market at BetMGM for much of the year.
Los Angeles opened as the -400 favorite at the end of last season and was at -240 to start the regular season in March. Despite pitching injuries, the Dodgers never dropped out of first in odds during the regular season, reaching as short as -210 at the end of August and as long as -450 in late September.
The Dodgers only lost their favorites status when the playoffs began, as the Phillies jumped up from +500 to +450 because they secured a bye while Los Angeles played in the wild-card round.
Facing tall odds
The Blue Jays, meanwhile, weren’t even among the top 20 teams in the preseason World Series winner odds. DraftKings had Toronto listed at +7,500 at the end of last season, right behind the Reds (+7,000) and in front of the Cardinals (+8,000).
The eventual AL champions started the season at +6,000 at BetMGM and stayed between +6,600 and +5,000 for the first two months of the season before finally getting hot. Toronto went from +4,000 in mid-June to +1,000 in August. ESPN BET had the 55-41 Blue Jays at +1,800 at the All-Star break.
The Blue Jays finally dropped to single-digit odds in early September, and by the playoffs, they were 8-to-1 to win it all. There were still four teams with shorter odds when the wild-card round began despite Toronto having a bye.
Staying alive
The Blue Jays’ odds were cut in half during the division series at BetMGM, reaching +475 heading into Game 1 against the Yankees, and they got as short as +300 at ESPN BET. After falling behind 2-0 against the Mariners in the ALCS, the odds shot up to +2,200, but Toronto rallied to knock off Seattle in seven games and entered the World Series at +185 to beat the Dodgers.
The Blue Jays are still +120 home underdogs for Game 6 at BetMGM. The Dodgers are -140 favorites to keep the series alive. Toronto sends starter Kevin Gausman to the mound against L.A.'s Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
If the Blue Jays take care of business, they’ll be one of the longest-odds teams to win the World Series since 1985. The Marlins did it in 2003 after getting as long as +7,500. The 1987 Twins won it all despite odds of +8,000.
