The Philadelphia Union have been out of sight and out of mind since they embarrassed themselves and failed to make the MLS playoffs in 2024.

They’re back on Saturday with the start of the 2025 MLS regular season and there’s plenty of change to talk about.

First off, they have a new head coach in Bradley Carnell.

They also brought in a bunch of guys in their early 20s that are supposed to make the team look fresher and improve on the flaws that we saw in 2024.

Entering Saturday’s season opener against Orlando City, the Union sit at +3000 to win MLS Cup at DraftKings and +2900 at FanDuel.


Honestly, it’s surprising to see the Union in the middle of the pack on the futures board given how little credit the so-called MLS experts are giving them in preseason predictions. A majority of the picks shared on social media have the Union somewhere around 7th to 9th in the Eastern Conference. That’s good enough to make the playoffs in MLS, but nothing more.

Unsurprisingly, Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are the clear-cut favorites to win MLS Cup. DraftKings has Miami all the way down at +200.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about MLS it’s that preseason predictions mean absolutely nothing, especially when compared to other leagues.

There hasn’t been a repeat MLS Cup winner in over a decade and no team has won consecutive Supporters’ Shields (most regular-season points) in more than 10 years as well.

That’s not to say the Union are going to shock the world and win anything this year, but if they pop up in fourth or fifth place in the East and host a playoff game, it’s not an out-of-this-world possibility given how much variance there is from year to year in MLS.

Messi (surprise, surprise) is the overwhelming favorite to win the Golden Boot (most goals) and Luis Suarez, his buddy and Miami teammate, is the second favorite.

The Union’s Daniel Gazdag is at +4400, Mikael Uhre is anywhere from +10000 to +12000 and last year’s Union revelation, Tai Baribo is +6500 at DK and +12000 at FD to score the most goals in MLS. The Union also signed 23-year-old Bruno Damiani, who might end up as their top scorer, but his odds aren’t listed yet.

Uhre’s scored 32 goals in three seasons, Gazdag has three straight 14+ goal seasons and Baribo netted nine goals in 21 games last season.

So, yeah, it’s worth a long shot bet on one of the Union scorers, most likely Gazdag, to win the Golden Boot. It’s unlikely, but they have at least been consistent in front of net, and Gazdag has more than 20 converted PKs in four Union seasons, so you know you’ll get a double-digit-goal-caliber season.

I wish single player season props were available for MLS, like they are in the other major sports, because that would’ve been a much easier market to attack, but from the league-wide perspective, I’d take some pizza money and throw it on Gazdag and see if he continues at his typical scoring pace.

Kinkead: MLS is difficult to bet because there’s a lot of parity in the league. But the nice thing is that if you’re feeling good about a certain team or player, you can regularly find a lot of value across PA sports betting and New Jersey sports betting apps. You’ll never see huge numbers like -400, -500, -600, which might be common for Real Madrid vs. some bottom feeder. But you will find evenly-matched games where you can get either team to win at plus odds and a tie around even money.