Euroleague Predictions 2024: Playoffs Odds and Second Round Overview

Even before the 2023-24 Euroleague season started, there was a lot of talk about Real Madrid being the most outstanding team of all. Last season’s champions didn’t lose any important players in the summer but added a long-awaited true point guard in Facundo Campazzo.

The Argentinian quickly became the team’s MVP, and Real started the season with 13 wins and only one loss. There is almost no intrigue about Real winning the regular season, with odds as low as 1.08 already.

This article presents our Euroleague predictions 2024, playoffs odds, and second-round overview.

The new Euroleague format has been a great success for years, with all teams playing each other twice, and this year, the new play-in format was introduced, which should add even more intrigue.

The first round is almost over, with three games left to play, and the most important Euroleague battles will start in the first week of January. Here’s a closer look.

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Which teams still have a chance to fight for the play-ins, which teams are already thinking about the Final Four, and which teams may soon run out of even theoretical chances to extend their season in the playoffs?

Key Highlights:

1. New Playoffs Format: The Euroleague introduces a play-in format, with six teams directly qualifying for the playoffs and teams ranked 7-10 competing in the play-ins.
2. Real Madrid Assured: Real Madrid is almost guaranteed a playoffs spot, not requiring play-ins.
3. FC Barcelona’s Uncertain Form: FC Barcelona, currently second, faces uncertainty due to recent form. The odds for their playoffs qualification are 1.20, but they lack value.
4. Bologna Virtus Surprise: Bologna Virtus, in third place, with odds of 1.60 to make the playoffs, presents potential as a notable surprise.
5. Tight Race for 4th-8th Places: Teams from fourth to eighth have similar records (8-6). AS Monaco is seen as having the most potential (odds 1.20). Baskonia faces uncertainty (odds of 2.10 to make the playoffs).
6. Partizan Belgrade’s Rise: Partizan Belgrade, in fourth place, has good playoffs chances (odds 1.69) due to solid home performances.
7. Challenges for Valencia and Maccabi: Injury issues for Valencia (odds 1.72 to miss playoffs) and Maccabi may affect their standings.
8. Middle-table Teams’ Potential: Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Fenerbahce, and Anadolu Efes have 7-7 records, with varying playoffs odds (Anadolu Efes at 2.00, Fenerbahce at 1.33, Panathinaikos at 1.50, and Olympiacos at 1.60).
9. Home-Court Advantage: Teams with solid home performances include Real, Fenerbahce, FC Barcelona, Virtus, and Partizan. Notable poor home records for Asvel.
10. Second-Round Considerations: Teams outside play-ins like Crvena Zvezda, Bayern, EA7 Emporio Armani, and Zalgiris need a strong start in the second round. Fenerbahce aims for improvement away, and Bayern Munich has potential with a new coach.
11. Injury Challenges for Milan and Anadolu Efes: Milan faces injuries, impacting their playoffs chances. Anadolu Efes, affected by injuries, remains a formidable team if players return.

Real Madrid is considered a clear favorite to win the Euroleague, with odds of 2.55 currently being offered by basketball bookies. Compared to the start of the season, the odds are down, not only because Real are dominating the league so far but also because their main rivals are not playing well.

FC Barcelona has the second lowest coefficient at 9.40, AS Monaco at 9.80, and Istanbul’s coefficient has dropped to 12.00 with Šarūnas Jasikević at the helm of Fenerbahce.

With the introduction of the new play-in format, six teams will qualify for the play-offs this year, while the teams ranked 7-10 will play in the play-offs.

Avoiding the play-ins is undoubtedly something to be avoided, as in such a competitive league, the tenth-placed team can beat the seventh-placed team. For example, Olympiacos is currently in tenth place, and Valencia is in seventh.

There is no doubt that Real Madrid already has a place in the play-offs – they odds for that are not even available. FC Barcelona are currently in second place, but Valencia and Maccabi, in 7th and 8th place, are only two defeats behind.

FC Barcelona have won six of their last ten games and lost four times. The form could be better, so it wouldn’t be surprising if FC Barcelona fell outside the top four and didn’t have the home-court advantage in the playoffs.

The odds of FC Barcelona making the playoffs are as low as 1.20, but this bet has very little value.

Moving on, we have one of the season’s biggest surprises in Bologna Virtus. The Italians are in third place with ten wins and four losses. Virtus is playing well at home with seven wins and one defeat, which came in the first round against Zalgiris.

The odds of 1.60 for the Italians to qualify for the playoffs are given by online betting sites. This is relatively high compared to FC Barcelona, even though both teams have the same record. This bet is worth paying attention to, as Virtus has much potential based on their current play.

The fourth to eighth-placed teams have the same record of 8 wins and six losses. This is where all the excitement starts, as a playoffs spot and a play-in spot can be separated by just one win.

Out of these eight teams, AS Monaco is the one with the most potential. The odds for this team to make the playoffs are 1.20. It is not valuable, but AS Monaco can undoubtedly be counted with Real.

Between these teams is Baskonia, which is currently in sixth place and is reminiscent of last season, when it stayed in the top eight for a long time but dropped out at the end of the season after suffering a major defeat.

Baskonia’s place in the top six would be a big surprise, with odds of 1.66 to miss the playoffs and 2.10 to make it. Note that the team will not qualify.

Baskonia is one of the weaker teams away from home, although with a 4-1 record this season, this should change in the second round.

Partizan Belgrade could have had a better start to the season, but they were missing their top scorer, and Kevin Punter was also injured. Now, the team is starting to show its best basketball.

The team in fourth place has a good chance to qualify directly for the playoffs, and the main reason for that is their home court. Partizan hardly loses here, and the victories are expected not to be shared in the second round.

Baskonia is one of the weaker teams away from home, although with a 4-1 record this season, this should change in the second round.
Although Valencia and Maccabi are close to the top six, these teams should drop lower. First of all, Valencia has a lot of injury problems. Their game could have been better at the start of the season, and their poor away record should contribute to the lower results.

Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Fenerbahce, and Anadolu Efes should be noted among the teams in the middle of the table. All of them have a 7-7 record, and all have the potential not only for the playoffs but also for the Final Four.

Anadolu Efes is given odds of 2.00 to make the playoffs, Fenerbahce – 1.33, Panathinaikos – 1.50, and Olympiacos – 1.60.

The Euroleague takes place every week, and unless it’s a double week, there is plenty of time to prepare for betting. The pace is slower than the NBA, so you can be sure the teams will give their all on the court, especially when the second round starts.

Fourteen games played is already a good sample size for looking for value in various bets.

First of all, the home-court advantage needs to be taken into account. In the Euroleague, teams that play at home win very often, and the best teams in this aspect can be noted:

• Real – 7-0. The best team is currently undefeated at home and the most efficient in the league, scoring 89.1 points. However, the value in Real bets at home is often low, as the odds are also very low. Real may start to relax towards the end of the second round, when they will have already secured home-court advantage and possibly even first place in the regular season.
• Fenerbahce is 6-0, beating even Real Madrid. Fenerbahce is in second place at home, scoring with 89 points. This means that Fenerbahce not only wins at home but also performs well.
• FC Barcelona – 7-1. Although Barca has only lost once at home, there have been a lot of challenging games here. Maintaining this result in the second half of the season will take much work, as their game is slowly deteriorating. It is also worth noting that more and more games will be played away.
• Virtus – 7-1. Bologna is a big surprise in the Euroleague, but there are some outliers every year. Last season, Zalgiris had a 13-4 record at home; it wouldn’t be surprising if Virtus had something similar this year.
• Partizan is 6-1. Belgrade is the most challenging place to play; a team with such a backbone has an excellent record. It wouldn’t be surprising if Partizan had the best home win/loss ratio after the regular season.

Asvel can be noted. The French team has just two wins but has lost all seven home games. The team started playing in a new arena, which was less comfortable than it used to be.

The fans were much louder there, and playing was quite difficult for the teams. The visitors feel pretty comfortable in the new arena. Asvel should not be trusted at home.

If there are good teams playing well at home, even one of the best teams on the road can look very different:

• Crvena Zvezda – 0-7;
• Fenerbahce – 1-7;
• Partizan – 2-5;
• Virtus – 3-3;
• AS Monaco – 4-4;
• Valencia – 3-4;
• Panathinaikos – 2-4.

The second round of the Euroleague will start in just over two weeks, and there are a few key points to note. Crvena Zvezda, Bayern, EA7 Emporio Armani, and Zalgiris are the teams that are currently outside of the play-ins but only 1-2 wins behind.

A good start to the second round is a must for these teams, as after rounds 3-6, some teams may have almost no chance. It would not be surprising if these teams beat teams with a much better win-loss ratio at the start of the second round.

Fenerbahce changed their coach not because they have never lost at home but because they have never been able to win away from home. Istanbul has already played eight away games, which means it has more home games than away games.

Šarūnas Jasikevičius has shown FC Barcelona that the team can play as well away as at home, so we can expect Fenerbahce to play a much more solid game away from home.

At the same time, the team should be back in contention for a place in the top six – a place in the top four and home-court advantage in the quarter-finals would not be surprising.

Bayern Munich has the potential to surprise in the second round. The team currently has six wins and eight losses, but at home, Bayern looks solid at 4-1. Bayern have already played nine matches away from home, meaning they will play 12 more at home.

The new coach, Pablo Laso, has championship experience, and it usually takes time with such coaches for the players to get used to the systems and to start fulfilling the coach’s wishes on the pitch.

When Jasikevicius coached Zalgiris, the second half of the season was often much more solid, which is what you can expect from Bayern.

Apart from Zalgiris Kaunas, these teams suffer the most from injuries, especially Milan. The Italians currently have five wins and nine losses.

However, they will have to play without Nikola Mirotic for a long time. Maodo Lo is recovering from an injury, and Billy Baron has not played a single game yet.

It is unclear whether the club will be able to replenish its roster before the start of the second round, so it looks like we won’t see the talented Milan team in the playoffs again.

With an entire squad, the club has the potential, but a poor start to the season still leaves the play-in door open.

Anadolu Efes fell apart severely a few weeks ago. Rodrigue Beaubois, Elijah Bryant, Will Clyburn, Derek Willis, Ante Zizic, and Tibor Pleiss were injured.

The team did not prepare for the Laidot season. It quickly replenished itself with lower-level players with whom it won two victories against Panathinaikos and Alba and suffered a defeat against Maccabi.

With the returning players, Anadolu Efes has one of the most talented lineups and could be one of the strongest teams in the second half of the season. They should not be written off. Head coach Erdem Can will likely leave the club if the team fails to achieve the desired results.

As you know, the Euroleague has a unique format – the Final Four is hard to predict, as we can see different surprises every year.

Last year, for example, nobody expected Real Madrid to win the title, while this year, they are the overwhelming favorites. However unpredictable the Final Four may be, let’s look at the main favorites for the Euroleague title.

Real Madrid, the reigning Euroleague champions, are considered the clear favorites to defend the Champions Trophy.

The team has mostly stayed the same compared to last season, with Adam Hanga leaving for Olympiacos, Nigel Williams-Goss leaving for Olympiacos, and Petr Cornelie going to AS Monaco.

Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Llull, and Sergio Rodriguez are probably in the last year of their careers. However, the main reason the team is considered the favourite is Facundo Campazzo.

When the Argentine left Real for the NBA, Madrid had no high-level point guard. There have been problems in this position, and although there have been some great results, with Campazzo, the team should be playing at a much higher level.

A team that maintains its core and key players should finish first in the regular season, potentially providing an easier path to the Final Four.

Monaco’s growth can be traced back to the last few seasons. Last year, Olympiacos of Piraeus won the quarter-final series in only the fifth match, while last year, AS Monaco was already in the Final Four, only to lose to the same Olympiacos in the second half of the second match. In the third-place match, they won against FC Barcelona.

During the summer, the team kept all its key players and strengthened the roster with solid players like Terry Tarpey, Petr Cornelie, and Mam Jaiteh. On top of that, Kemba Walker, who played in the NBA All-Star game, arrived in Monaco.

The American is not expected to do much, and even without him, the team has a good chance of making it back to the Final Four, but if this signing proves to be a success, it will strengthen the Monegasque team even more.

Olympiacos Piraeus lost two key players in the summer, Sasha Vezenkov to the NBA and Kostas Sloukas to Panathinaikos Athens.

However, Olympiacos strengthened its front line with Nikola Milutinov’s return and Luke Sikma’s arrival from Alba. Nigel Williams-Goss was the only new defender, while Olympiacos bought Ignas Brazdeikis from Zalgiris just before the season started.

A team that has maintained its core may look weakened but it should not be written off. The club may look weaker than Real Madrid or AS Monaco on paper, but Georgios Bartzokas has proved that team play can lead to resounding victories.

Olympiacos started the season with two wins against Panathinaikos, which confirms the team’s strength.

There are a lot of questions not only about which teams will make it to the Final Four but also about who will be in the Final Eight. Firstly, there are more than eight teams of a similar level, and secondly, the play-ins open up many more possibilities.

It is hard to believe that a team like FC Barcelona might not be in the top 8 or EA7 Emporio Armani Milan will fail for the second season in a row. But if you look deeper, the chances of not seeing these teams are certainly there. Let’s look closer at their chances of reaching the top eight.

Anadolu Efes Istanbul should undoubtedly return to the top 8 after last year’s fiasco, as they are one of the favorites to play in the Final Four.

The summer saw a lot of changes in the team, with Ergin Ataman’s departure and Vasilije Micic’s move to the NBA. The remaining players of last season are Shane Larkin, Will Clyburn, Elijah Bryant, Ante Zizic, and Tibor Pleiss. Eight new players have joined the team.

It is worth noting that Edem Can, a high-level professional, has taken over the team, which reached the final of the European Cup last season with Ankara Turk Telekom, where it lost to Cran Canaria.

The coach is known for finding a common language with his players, so there is likely no problem with the team’s stars, who have a good chance of taking Anadolu Efes further than the top eight.

After a solid season last year, Tel Aviv is ready to play in the playoffs again this year and fight for home-court advantage. The duo of Wade Baldwin and Lorenzo Brown, criticized last season, seems to be working, and the defensemen can lead the team to victory.

The summer saw the departure of several players who didn’t fit in, and Jasiel Rivero, James Webb III, Antonio Cleveland, and Tamir Blatt strengthened the team.

Maccabi suffered only one defeat at home last season, and a similar result this year would not be surprising, which is already a big statement for a place in the top 8.

Partizan had a disastrous end to last season – the team had done almost everything possible to play in the Final Four, where it had a good chance of challenging for the title. Mathias Lessort was the most significant loss of the summer.

Dante Exum has also said goodbye and been replaced by PJ Dozier, while Lessort’s replacement is still pending. Ognjen Jaramaz, Mateusz Ponitka, and Frank Kaminsky also joined Partizan.

Partizan is expected to be further strengthened, and a high scorer with a similar style to Lessort would give the team a big boost. The club, which has been playing well at home, kept Kevin Punter in the summer, so we should see this team in the top 8 again.

The other Belgrade team had a very busy summer. The roster looks impressive, but at the same time, the question is whether the team has too many players. Crvena Zvezda currently has 20 players, which could almost make two separate teams.

Miloš Teodosic, Shabazz Napier, Yago dos Santos, Adam Hanga, Rokas Giedraitis, Dejan Davidovac, Nemanja Bjelica, Marko Simonovic, Joel Bolomboy and Mike Tobey arrived in Belgrade in the summer.

The advantage and the disadvantage of Crvena Zvezda at the same time is the wide rotation. There will be someone to play when players get injured, but when everyone is healthy, you have to find time for everyone.

If Dusko Ivanovic can distribute the minutes to everyone, the teams have the potential to play not only in the top eight but also to fight for a place in the top four.

If last season nothing much was expected from the team, fans are already looking at Zalgiris as a top 8 team this year. A big plus for the Kaunas team was that the core was maintained.

At the end of last season, Rolands Šmits, Kevarrius Hayes, and Tomas Dimša had their contracts extended. Only three new players arrived in the summer – Danielius Lavrinovicius, Brady Manek, and Naz Mitrou-Long.

However, Ignas Brazdeikis’s buyout before the season’s start was a setback. Although Zalgiris has a lot of money to spend now, there needs to be a suitable player on the market. If the team cannot find a replacement for Brazdeikis soon, it may show itself on the court.

If Zalgiris finishes the regular season in the top 8, it will be no less of a surprise than last year. The other teams are also strengthened, not forgetting Anadolu Efes, Milan, and a strengthened Crvena Zvezda, who will be looking to return to the top eight.

However, Zalgiris is visible in the play-ins. The team can make the top 10, so we must look forward to Keenan Evans, who has already scored 25 points in his first game against Virtus Bologna, showing great form.

Euroleague betting is prevalent in Europe, so we want to draw your attention to the best betting sites. When choosing a company, you need to pay attention to the odds and other aspects that ensure a high-level betting experience.

We have highlighted three of the best companies for Euroleague betting, which you can look closely at.

888starz allows players to bet not only on the main outcomes but also on players’ statistics. There is a wide range of Asian Handicap or total over/under bets. The mobile app is a big plus for 888starz, but you can also place bets without additional downloads.

You can top up your account here not only with classic payment methods but also with cryptocurrencies. With a minimum deposit of just €1, players won’t have any problems.

Withdrawals to e-wallets are made instantly. Undoubtedly, bets can also be placed here in the live betting category.

A betting company that has been operating since 2019, it focuses on cryptocurrencies – offering special bonuses and fast and secure transfers. Many other payment methods are available, so you should be OK with payments at Paripesa.

Regarding the betting offer, Paripesa has a large selection for Euroleague matches. You can bet on players’ stats, handicaps, over/under totals, and many other options.

Paripesa also has a mobile app, which gives players an even better opportunity to place their bets anywhere, anytime. Of course, if you don’t want to download anything, you can place your bets by simply logging into your account using your mobile phone browser.

William Hill was founded almost 100 years ago, in 1934. Of course, it started to operate online much later, but there is no need to doubt the company’s safety and integrity.

What is immediately noticeable is that William Hill has solid odds on offer for the Euroleague. Although the betting offer is smaller than other well-known companies, placing bets on players’ statistics and all the main outcomes is also possible.

William Hill has a mobile app that makes placing bets even more convenient. Android and iOS users can download and access the Euroleague offer anytime, anywhere.

Of course, you can also place bets without any downloads simply by logging into your account using your computer or mobile phone browser.