The Best Asian Bookies for Basketball Betting

Handicap (Point Spread)

Because in most basketball games one team is much better than the other, handicap betting is more common than home/away.

How this works is if the home team is favoured by 7.5 (shown as -7.5) and you bet them, they’ll need to win the match by at least 8 points for your bet to be a winner. If you bet the other team who is +7.5, you win this bet if they win the game, or if they lose by 7 or less points.

Home/Away (Moneyline)

This is a straight bet on which team will win the game. When betting big favourites the odds will be small, and when betting big underdogs the odds are large.

Again, so often favourites have such small odds that many recreational bettors avoid this option and look for close to even-money on the handicap.

Total Betting (Over/Under)

With this option the bookmaker predicts how many points will be scored in the game (both team’s points added to together) and punters make wagers on whether the total points scored will be over or under his predicted total.

Philippines Basketball

This history of basketball developing in Asia started with the Philippines dominance of the sport on the continent during the 1950s to early-1970s. The Asian Games is an Olympic-style multi-sport competition for Asia that started in 1951 and is held every four years. Basketball has always been a part of it.

The Philippines men’s national team won this competition the first four times it was held (1951, 1954, 1958, and 1962). In 1960, what’s now called the FIBA Asia Cup was started. This tournament is held every two years and acts as the Asian qualifying tournament for the FIBA World Championship and the Olympic basketball tournament.

The Philippines won a medal the first seven times this tournament was held (1960 to 1973), including four gold medals, two silver medals, and one bronze. During this period of dominance, at the 1954 Olympics Philippines became the first country outside the United States and Europe to earn an Olympic basketball medal when they took the bronze.

Philippines’ dominance in Asian basketball competitions came to an end in 1973, as this would mark the last year they’d compete in these competitions for almost two decades. What happened is the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) was started in 1975. This is the world’s second oldest professional basketball league; only the NBA is older. When it was started professional athletes were barred from the Olympics and FIBA events. This meant, from 1975 on, the best players from the Philippines were no longer eligible to play, and for several years they didn’t even field a team in some of the biggest Asian competitions.

Even after the rules were modified in 1992 to allow professionals, Philippines has been mostly a non-factor as a national team. They’ve been in numerous disputes with FIBA and were suspended from FIBA competitions for the 2001 season, and again for the 2005-2007 seasons. While they may not dominate on an international scale as a nation, their professional basketball is still well followed and popular for betting.

Today, PBA basketball is broken down into three segments. The Philippine Cup version allows no foreign players, which helps prepare them for Asian team competitions where imported players are not allowed. The other two segments, Governors Cup and Commissioners Cup, allow teams to import a limited number of foreign players.

Pretty much all European betting sites offer betting on PBA basketball. Some bookmakers even offer live streams for this league.

Chinese Basketball

After the Philippines’ dominance of Asian basketball ended due to ineligibility, shortly after China took over as the dominant nation for basketball in the region. Their men’s national team won the FIBA Asia Championship (now the FIBA Asia Cup) five consecutive times from 1987-1995, skipped a year finishing third in 1997, and then won four more consecutive times from 1999 to 2005. They were also runners-up in 2009 and won their sixteenth FIBA Asia Cup in 2015.

To put this in perspective, China has won the FIBA Asia Cup 16 times. The only other countries to ever win this tournament are Philippines (five times) Iran (three times), South Korea (two times), Japan (two times), and Australia (once). Also, at the Asian Games (held every four years) out of all eleven tournaments held from 1978 to 2018, China has won eight times.

With a country so dominant in Asian basketball it should come as no surprise there is a strong professional basketball league as part of their national setup. This league is the China Basketball Association (CBA). This is a highly competitive league that you can bet on with the best Asian bookies for basketball betting.

The season has a total of 560 games and draws an attendance of 1.29 million per season. Quite a few CBA players have also played in the NBA. This includes Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi, Yi Jianlian, Mengke Bateer, and Sun Yue. Each team can have a limited number of foreign import players. Such players have historically dominated the league in scoring. Notable CBA players include NBA All-Stars Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, and Kenyon Martin. Also, J.R. Smith and Aaron Brooks are former NBA players who have been CBA All-Stars.

While Philippines might draw bigger crowds due to historical and longevity reasons, there is no doubt Chinese basketball is now tops in Asia. CBA is the most competitive and most profitable basketball league. If you live in China and want to bet on basketball, read our guide to betting online in China.

South Korean Basketball

South Korea, while a distant second, is China’s top competitor on the Asian basketball scene. Their men’s national team has finished top two in 10 of the past 13 Asian games, winning gold four times. They have also won the FIBA Asia Cup twice (1969, 1997), but 11 second-place finishes will live long in the memories of many Korean players.

South Korea’s professional basketball league is called the Korean Basketball League, almost always abbreviated KBL. While not quite at the level of Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) or Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), it is still one of the better financed basketball leagues in Asia. There are ten teams, each playing 54 games in a season (27 home games and 27 away games), and each team is allowed two foreign players (now with no height limit).

Not as many Asian bookies offer betting on this league, and live streams are even more difficult to find. If you’re from South Korea and want to bet on the KBL or even WKBL (the ladies version) online, be sure to read our guide to online betting in South Korea to discover the safest solutions to depositing, getting paid, and getting around ISP redirects to warning.or.kr.

Japanese Basketball

The final country worth discussing for Asian basketball is Japan, a 1936 founding member of FIBA Asia. Japan has one of Asia’s longest basketball traditions, and the men’s national team is one of the most successful basketball teams in Asia.

The Japan national basketball team have twice won gold at the FIBA Asia Cup (1965, 1971). They have also finished as runners-up five times (1969, 1975, 1979, 1983, 1997) and they have settled for bronze medals seven times to date (1960, 1967, 1977, 1981, 1987, 1991, 1995). Unfortunately, they have missed out on gold at the Asian Games, but they have won silver twice (1951, 1962) and took home bronze medals on six occasions (1954, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2014).

Japan’s professional men’s basketball league is known as the B.League. The league was formed as a result of a merger between the National Basketball League and the Japan Basketball Association. The 2016/17 season commenced on 24 September with a game between four-time JBL/NBL champions Alvark Tokyo against four-time bj league champions Ryukyu Golden Kings.

The league consists of three divisions, named B1, B2, and B3. The first division (B1) features 20 teams and the second division (B2) has 16 teams. These divisions are further divided into East and West conferences, and a system of promotion and relegation determines who moves up and who moves down. The promotion-relegation playoffs always present lucrative opportunities at the best Asian bookies for basketball betting, so follow the regular season action and take advantage of weak lines.

While not quite to the level of other leagues mentioned in this article, the B.League is growing and very popular with Japanese punters. If you live in Japan and want to bet on the league, read our guide to the best sports betting sites in Japan to discover the most reputable sites.

ASEAN Basketball League

The ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) is Asia’s first and only regional professional basketball league.

The competitive league was founded in 2009 and currently comprises nine teams: Formosa Dreamers (Taiwan), Hong Kong Eastern (Hong Kong), Kuala Lumpur Dragons (Malaysia), Macau Black Bears (Macau), Macau Wolf Warriors (Macau), Saigon Heat (China), San Miguel Alab Pilipinas (Philippines), Singapore Slingers (Singapore), and the Taipei Fubon Braves (Taipei). The top two teams compete in a best-of-five series to crown the champions.

FIBA Asia Cup

Formerly the FIBA Asia Championship, the FIBA Asia Cup is an international tournament contested by the men’s national teams of Asia and Oceania. The tournament was first played in 1960 and took place every two years until the 2015 edition, but it’s now a quadrennial event.

Following changes in 2017, the tournament was renamed to FIBA Asia Cup and teams from FIBA Oceania were added into the mix. The 2017 FIBA Asia Cup was also the first to be played without the event being part of the qualifying process for the World Cup or the Olympics.

FIBA Asia Champions Cup

Founded in 1981 and known as the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Champions Cup until 2002, the FIBA Asia Champions Cup is the Asian club championship for professional basketball.

The annual championship is contested by eight teams from across the continent, and the top Asian bookies for basketball betting always offer competitive outright and game odds. Expansion plans could mean champions from the Basketball Africa League (BAL), Australia’s NBL, and possibly the NBA, could be invited to compete in the future.