Odds favor China to retain crown

MANILA, Philippines - Sports betting sites have placed defending champion China as the clear favorites to win the Fiba-Asia Championship in Manila even as host Philippines stands somewhere between third and fourth favored bets.

According to the tablog of online gaming pioneer Calvin Ayre, the Chinese are the odds-on favorites to rule the cagefest, a qualifying event for the Fiba World Cup, with Iran (11/5), South Korea (7/1) and the Filipinos (8/1) looming as serious contenders.

“As the defending champion, the tournament goes through China. That much everybody knows, including sportsbooks, which put the Chinese national team as even-odd favorites to defend its title and continue on its reign as Asia’s dominant basketball team,” the site wrote.

As of Wednesday morning, Chinese carries odds of 2 in Titanbet.com, 1.9 in Cuotas10.com, 1/1 in Sports.winner.co.uk, 1.90 in Valuechecker.com, and 11/10 (best odds) in Oddscomparison.com, among others.

Former Asian champ Iran follows at second in the said betting sites while Korea and the Philippines alternate at third and fourth.

“Iran poses a serious challenge to the favorites and its 11/5 odds figures to be reasonable to put some money on. After all, Iran recently scored back-to-back FIBA-Asia titles in 2007 and 2009 so the team knows what it takes to win the tournament and in the latter’s case, beat China on its way to the title,” calvinayre.com wrote.

Don’t leave out the Koreans and the Filipino dribblers, it stressed.

“Both teams are still considered as two of the most storied basketball programs in the region and even with recent success eluding these one-time powerhouses, don’t sleep on both countries making an impression on the tournament and possibly even unseating China as tourney champions,” the website said.

Represented by Gilas Pilipinas, the host nation has best odds of 9 in the books of Sportstitanbet.com, Valuechecker.com, and WilliamHill; 10 in cuotas10.com and 8/1 in sports.winner.com to win the qualifier. Phl five, though, is favored to top Group A (4/7 in comeon!) against Jordan (5/2), Chinese Taipei (8), and Saudi Arabia (40).

Tagged as dark horse are Jordan (14/1), Japan (22/1), Qatar (25/1), and Chinese Taipei (50/1).

“Four other teams are slotted in the middle, all receiving decent dark horse odds to shock and awe at the 2013 FIBA-Asia Championships. Jordan’s the front-runner of this group at 14/1 odds, a number that could potentially be a gold mine if it can replicate its performance in the 2011 championships when it lost by a single point to China in the finals. 

“Meanwhile, Japan (22/1), Qatar (25/1), and Chinese-Taipei (50/1) all have long shot odds which we believe doesn’t reflect on the strength of their teams,” calvinayre.com said.

Considered to be long-shot bets are Kazakhstan (100/1), Saudi Arabia (200/1), India (400/1), Thailand (500/1) as well as Bahrain (750/1), Hong Kong (750/1) and Malaysia (1,000/1).