Can Basketball Champions League become the second basketball league?
The 2020–21 Basketball Champions League is the fifth season of the Basketball Champions League (BCL), a European-wide professional basketball competition for clubs launched and managed by FIBA.
The Basketball Champions League is a professional basketball competition for clubs from across Europe. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their performance in their national leagues and cup competitions.
Although exceptional, some teams can be wildcarded. 44 teams will play in the 2020–21 Basketball Champions League (28 teams directly qualify for the group competition, while 16 teams play 2 qualifying rounds for the remaining 4 places in the group stage).
Tournament
The tournament proper begins with a regular season of 32 teams, divided into four groups. Seeding is used in the draw for this stage, and teams from the same country may not be drawn into groups together. Each team meets the others in its group in home and away games, in a round-robin format. The top four teams from each group then progress to the play-offs. The fifth and sixth-placed teams can choose to enter the FIBA Europe Cup playoffs in the same season.
The regular season is played from October to January, and the playoffs start in February. In the round of 16 and quarter-finals, ties are played in a ‘home and away’ format, based on aggregate scores.
For the round of 16, the winning team from one group plays against the fourth-placed team from another group and the runner-up from one group plays against the third-placed team from another group.
Quarter finals
For the quarter-finals, the winners of games between the group winners and fourth-placed teams play against the winners from the runners-up and third-placed teams.
The Final Four is typically held in the final week of April or the first week of May.
Matches are generally staged in midweek. Matches generally become available for Basketball Champions league tips 72 hours prior to tip-off. However, most tips are posted closer to the start time as tipsters will want to check injuries and starting line ups for teams before posting their tips.
There are also live tips for Basketball Champions League games posted while matches are in progress. These tips need to be acted on quickly as odds can fluctuate rapidly during a game. There are many betting markets available for tips. These include the standard team to win markets and points markets, along with European and Asian handicaps to give a better edge for matches where there are strong favourites.
Champions League Final Betting | Man City vs Chelsea
All great Champions League finals have it in spades, and this year is no different.
First up, are we entering a new era of English dominance?
It’s probably a little too early to say that just yet, but this is the second all-Premier League final in the space of three seasons, with Liverpool edging out Spurs 2-0 in Madrid back in 2019.
Secondly, Man City’s quest to finally claim the trophy Pep Guardiola has been spying since his arrival at the club back in 2016.
After a succession of quarter-final exits, his charges look to have come of age in this tournament in 2020/21 courtesy of some inspired tactical tweaks and the impenetrable centre-back pairing of John Stones and Rúben Dias.
Thirdly, Chelsea and their incredible knack for changing managers mid-stream.
Thomas Tuchel’s January arrival looks to have had a transformative effect on the Blues, and from his early duels with the German boss, Guardiola will be aware City face no easy ride if they are going to seal the biggest prize of them all.
While it’s perhaps not always been the case in previous years, 2020/21 looks to have the delivered the right pair of finalists, with both English clubs reasonably comfortable in outgunning their respective opponents in the last four.
Prediction: MAN CITY 2-1 CHELSEA (A.E.T)
Here are our three big picks for the 2021 Champions League Final.
UNDER 0.5 GOALS IN THE 1ST HALF
CHELSEA TO SCORE LAST, 2ND HALF
Champions League Outright Betting
Check the latest Champions League odds with Marathonbet as Man City and Chelsea battle it out to be named kings of Europe in Porto.
Man City start as 11/25 favourites having set a new English record for consecutive wins in this tournament, while Chelsea are 179/100 after calmly navigating their way through the knockouts under the guidance of Tuchel.
The recent Basketball Champions League Final Four turned heads around Europe and opened up the debate again about the ranking of the continental competitions.
While there’s no comparison with the EuroLeague the Basketball Champions League can make a case, compared to the EuroLeague.
The EuroLeague has long established itself as the benchmark for basketball outside the NBA. It is the top professional club competition in Europe with growing attendance and college basketball-like atmospheres, with increased sponsorship and television revenues. The league is so financially stable that approximately 100 players are making as much or more money than the bottom 100 players in the NBA.
Moreover, while ultimately the Euroleague should be considered the second tier competition, Basketball Champions League is a close third and both the improvement of the competition and the spectacular image of the Final Four can’t be denied.
Different leagues
Furthermore, considering the fact that FIBA is inviting teams according to their domestic league standings, the average ranking of the teams from major basketball countries, who were part at least of two continental competitions, is the 4th position for the Basketball Champions League and the 5th for the EuroLeague.
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