Basketball On The Internet.

BELIEVE it or not, most of the money being bet on the forthcoming NBL season is on the Adelaide 36ers to win their first championship since 2002.

The Sixers probably represent some value at $11 to reclaim the Dr John Raschke Trophy but with precious little to go on, Melbourne United has been installed as favourite by TABCorp.

Sydney is at $3.75 and Perth at $4.50 to retain the crown.

Sydney and Illawarra split two preseason games last week with the Kings victorious 79-64 at Sutherland Stadium, and the Hawks squaring the ledger 95-85 at the Snakepit in Wollongong.

If you go looking, you can find footage of the Snakepit game with some quality calling by Matt McQuade and Warren Rosen, and a fairly impressive list of quality dunks to boot.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Cairns also scored an 89-78 win over reigning champion Perth in Rockhampton, Mark Worthington (pictured above) leading the Taipans with 15 points.

The Wildcats suited seven of their main rotation, while Cairns was missing Nate Jawai.

The Taipans are on the last line of betting though, at $34 to win the title.

TAB customers have thrown their support behind the Adelaide 36ers with 45 per cent of the money on them to claim the 2016-17 NBL championship.

The 36ers are on the sixth line of betting, equal with the returning Brisbane Bullets.

“Sydney Kings ($3.75), under new coach Andrew Gaze, and Melbourne United ($3) are the two early favourites with both teams adding quality to their squads in the off-season,” said TAB’s Nick Quinn.

The Kings are in China for a series of games against CBA opponents while Adelaide will host Shandong from Friday in a three-game series.

2016-17 NBL Champion
$3.00     Melbourne United
$3.75     Sydney Kings
$4.50     Perth Wildcats
$8.00     New Zealand Breakers
$10         Illawarra Hawks
$11         Adelaide 36ers
$11         Brisbane Bullets
$34         Cairns Taipans 

In round one head-to-head markets, punters can’t split Brisbane ($1.90) and Perth ($1.90) in the Bullets’ first NBL match since 2008.

TAB.com.au prices
Round 1 Head to Head
$1.90     Brisbane Bullets (+1.5 $1.80)
$1.90     Perth Wildcats (-1.5 $2.00)
$2.25     NZ Breakers (+2.5 $1.90)
$1.65     Melbourne United (-2.5 $1.90)
$1.60     Illawarra Hawks (-3.5 $1.90)
$2.35     Adelaide 36ers (+3.5 $1.90)
$1.33     Sydney Kings (-6.5 $1.90)
$3.30     Brisbane Bullets (+6.5 $1.90)
$1.12     Perth Wildcats (-10.5 $1.90)
$6.25     Cairns Taipans (+10.5 $1.90)
$1.20     Melbourne United (-8.5 $1.90)
$4.50     Adelaide 36ers (+8.5 $1.90)

Personally, tipping form without seeing any form - until at least the Australian Basketball Challenge (formerly the Blitz) - to me is problematic. But if you can see some value bets there ...