The Odds

The National Basketball League, currently sponsored by iiNet, is the pre-eminent men’s professional basketball league in Australasia and regarded as one of the strongest basketball leagues in the world.

A national league was introduced to improve the standard of players who would compete for Australia at events such as the Olympic Games and World Championships. The league commenced in 1979, playing a winter season (April-September). Since then, the NBL has grown from a small competition with just a few hundred fans to a league that attracts more than 750,000 spectators every season plus prime-time TV audiences for live games. The 1998/99 season was the first to shift to the current summer format (October-April), a change that was deemed necessary to avoid competing directly against Australia’s various football codes.

The league consists of 9 teams; Adelaide 36ers, New Zealand Breakers, Cairns Taipans, the Gold Coast Blaze, Melbourne Tigers, Perth Wildcats, Sydney Kings, Townsville Crocodiles and Wollongong Hawks. Wollongong are the only remaining team from the original nine who started the competition in 1979. The NBL became the first Australasian sporting league to field a team from Asia with the Singapore Slingers playing from 2006 through to 2008. However, they are now defunct along with fifteen other teams that have competed in the NBL since it began. The most recent were Sydney Spirit and South Dragons who withdrew in 2009.

The Perth Wildcats and the Adelaide 36ers have each won the championship four times, Adelaide’s most recent success coming in 2002. The Sydney Kings won the title for three consecutive seasons from 2003 to 2005 and returned to the Grand Final in 2006 only to be defeated by the Melbourne Tigers, who claimed their third championship. New Zealand took the tile for the first time in their history in 2010-11.

Most teams have historically included one or two American imports and teams are limited to having two non-Australasians at any one time. Former 36ers head coach Phil Smyth has won more NBL championships than any man in league history with a total of six, three as a player and three as a coach. Some of the NBL’sgreatest players include five-time Olympian Andrew Gaze who won the NBL’s coveted Most Valuable Player award on seven occasions. Gaze still remains the league’s all-time leading scorer with over 17,000 points having topped the scoring charts a remarkable 14 times during his career.

Other famous names to grace the sport include brilliant 21-season scoring-machine Leroy Loggins, five-time title winner Larry Sengstock, and veterans of more than 500 appearances, Ray Borner and James Crawford.

All-time great players, coaches and administrators are honoured in the NBL’s Hall of Fame, with at least two new names inducted each season. In order to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, a player or head coach must have been retired for at least four years.

NBL betting

There are plenty of opportunities to bet on the NBL. There are markets on head to head, line betting and total points for all the major league games. You can also bet on winning margin, quarter, half and full-time markets as well as individual players points tally. In the futures market you can bet on the championship outright and the MVP award (Most Valuable Player).

NBL odds

Most sportsbooks provide several betting markets for the NBL. There are markets on the winner, total points and spread betting for all league matches. You can also bet on winning margin, quarter, half and full-time markets as well as individual players points total.