BBL Betting: Friday 1st February
Who’d bet that British basketball would get a U-turn on its funding? Well I don’t think anybody did with a bookie because there weren’t any odds available – but in the BBL tonight we have plenty going on to increase your personal funds!
As per usual, just the BBL Championship betting we have to tickle your fancy, but after having done a little bit of delving around a site from Lithuania (BetTopSport – who are sponsors of the former European champions BC Žalgiris from Lithuania)…I am happy to announce there ARE odds on the BBL Trophy.
So if you want to have a quick peek at Keith Firmin’s preview of the game at Surrey Sports Park – and if you want to take up the odds on a Leicester Riders win to set up the prospect of an Eagles-Riders rematch in the semi-finals of the Trophy, then BetTopSport give out 9/10. Exemplary odds if you ask me.
Moving swiftly on to Sheffield entertaining Durham Wildcats, and here we have Dave Bell’s preview – then for me, after having seen Durham in the flesh of late, I think this could spark them off on a run right now, and Sheffield need to dig deep, but I can see Durham going for this just as they did against Cheshire. And William Hill gave a silly price on them last week to win with a -3.5pt handicap, but the handicap doesn’t really give you much value, however it’s the safe bet.
So for me, I’d go big on the -4.5pt given to Durham with William Hill at 10/3
Next up we look in for the televised game of the week, Glasgow Rocks against Cheshire Phoenix.
This is the first full game that Cheshire Phoenix under their new guise will have been featured on Sky Sports television, so it is a real big occasion; that together with needing to bounce back from a tough loss at home to the in-form Durham side, they will be hungry for the win.
The only problem could be their strength in numbers, and that has been a problem of late. Glasgow may make them pay for that in the second half, so I’m looking at a tidy HT/FT bet.
Cheshire Phoenix/Glasgow Rocks (HT/FT) – 9/2 @ William Hill
Mersey, Mersey, Mersey…
To be honest, they didn’t lose catastrophically by their own terms against Plymouth, so I should go easy on them here. However, London Lions have lost their last SEVEN games, and they still somehow have been put out as 1/200 for the win.
That shows you what the bookies feel about all this.
I’m now going to say something that I think needs saying. Chris Bigley is a monster. Fact.
He is the glue of that team in my eyes, and his stats don’t lie a lot of the time.
Last week ahead of Newcastle, knowing the lad wouldn’t be there – I turned to my missus and said “They will get beat by 60+ because Bigley’s not there, and I’m taking William Hill right now at 10/3 for -49.5” – my missus just looked at me and nodding said “Oh, ok then.”
He’s not there again tonight, and after him bagging 15 points the last time out away to Lions, together with seven rebounds, they need to all step up to cover those numbers he posts, otherwise we are looking at another bad night.
Finally, another North West in action tonight sees Manchester Giants face Worcester Wolves, and I think this could be deemed as an upset tonight.
Not sure what others think about this, but I feel like Wolves have gotten themselves into a bit of a rut at the moment? They could prove me wrong yes, and so I hope I am proved, because there is a lot of talent in that team that belies where they stand in the table.
Manchester have had just shy of two weeks off, and with the movement going on around that 7th-11th region in the table, a single basket right now can change the whole face of the table, but for Giants, they need to come out fast and hard from the start, and to beat Worcester could boost them right up.
