Turkish Airlines Euroleague Betting

Olympiakos-Anadolu Efes

Olympiakos currently 4th in the group with 3W2L is hosting Anadolu Efes Istanbul currently 6th at the table with 2W3L. Obviously Olympiakos is much stronger than its opponent but they have to take the game very seriously as Efes is also at great form. They have shown this with 2 consecutive wins at Euroleague. Especially the away win against Caja Labarol was a very important victory for the Istanbul Representative. Still it is very hard to play against Olympiakos not only for Efes but for all the other Euroleague teams. Last week against Unicaja Malaga all 12 players of Olympiakos managed to score points. When Spanoulis is stopped by the opponents, other players of the team take responsibility and contribute as much as possible to the team’s performance. It will be a big surprise if they loose against Efes at Thursday Evening’s Euroleague game. Despite the increasing form of Kostas Vasileiadis, Zoran Planinic and Milko Bjelica of Efes the night will probably be dominated by Olympiakos. We are expecting an easy victory for the hosting side.

Prediction: Olympiakos to WIN (handicap -9,5 points)
Highest Odds: William Hill @ 1,91 – bet365 @ 1,90 – BetVictor @ 1,90

Unicaja Malaga-Panathinaikos

This is a very important game for both teams at the 6th week of Top 16 2014. Panathinaikos lost 2 games in a row after 3 consecutive Wins at Top 16. This game is very critical for them in order to get a good position in the group for the next stage. At last week’s game they lost against Barcelona in Athens and this loose put question marks on the basketball authorities’ minds. Dimitris Diamantidis (13 points,4 rebounds and 5 assists)and Stephane Lasme (13 points,8 rebounds and 1 assist) played effectively but the rest of the team were not able to follow them.
Unicaja Malaga lost against Olympiakos last week with 73-55 in Athens. The defending problems of the team is still a big problem for them especially at the away games. The team is performing definitely better at home games, however Top 16 is a hard challenge. If they want to win against Panathinaikos they have to show a big team character and every player should take part necessarily.
Comparing two teams, Panathinaikos is heavier on our scales and they will get a victory at this tough away game in Spain.

Prediction: Panathinaikos to WIN
Highest Odds: William Hill @ 1,73 – bet365 @ 1,67 – BetVictor @ 1,67

Fenerbahce Ulker-Caja Laboral

Obradovic is trying to teach effective defending to his players since the beginning of the season but it seems like he is not able to do it up to now. Although Fenerbahce has scored an average of 79 points at top 16, defending problems of the team caused them lose 4 games out of 5 at this stage. Moreover 3 players (Kenan Sipahi, Luka Zoric and Gasper Vidmar) are injured at the Istanbul Representative and the new transfer Sekulic will not be able to play at this game. Bojan Bogdanovic (the top scorer of the regular season) and Bo Maccalebb’s tasks are really tough to push their team for a win at this difficult game against the Spanish opponent.
Caja Laboral had 4 loses in a row after the fantastic away Win against Unicaja Malaga at the 1st week of top 16. Andres Nocioni, Lamont Hamilton and Thomas Huertel of the Spanish representative should be more effective in scoring in order to get a Win in Istanbul. But this seems very difficult as Fenerbahce won 5 games out of 7 at Euroleague in front of their supporters. Only advantage of Caja can be using the absence of its opponent’s injured players.
According to us Fenerbahce Ulker will fight and do everything to get a victory and eventually they will manage it with a certain point difference.

Prediction: Fenerbahce Ulker to WIN (handicap -7,5 points)
Highest Odds: bet365 @ 1,90 – BetVictor @ 1,90 – Paddy Power @ 1,83

 Galatasaray Liv Hospital-CSKA Moscow

Galatasaray Liv Hospital with 2W3L is hosting CSKA Moscow with 4W1L in Istanbul. CSKA has a remarkable performance at Top 16 in the leadership of point guard Milos Teodosic. The only lose of the team at this stage was against Partizan at the away game with one point difference (73-72). Well actually for big teams like CSKA it is a tradition to perform much better at top 16 than the regular Euroleague season. However this week they might be shocked in Istanbul by the creative game strategies of Galatasaray Coach Ergin Ataman. Carlos Arroyo and his team mates might turn the night into a nightmare for CSKA players. Zoran Erceg, Mensah-Bonsu and Malik Hairston are in top form and shape for the hosting side. More important is the fact that Galatasaray Liv Hospital play the critical games very successfully and this is one of them for the team. Although Cska seems to be the favourite of the game, we are expecting a spectacular result from Istanbul’s Representative Galatasaray. 

Prediction: Galatasaray Liv Hospital to WIN
Highest Odds: bet365 @ 3,60 – BetVictor @ 3,50 – Ladbrokes @ 3,50