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If you’re a basketball fan, this will surely be one of your favourite times of the year, as the NBA season gets underway on Tuesday night. 

It should be an exciting season, with a handful of teams with genuine chances of becoming the 2026-7 NBA champions after the New York Knicks' success last time out. Keep reading for insight into the main contenders, the major off-season trades and the best betting tip for the season. 

NBA Season Is a Big Deal

Basketball is one of the most important and popular sports across the planet, not just from a sporting perspective but also a betting one. It’s one of the sports that sees the most action - from US-based bookies to Asian and European ones as well. 

If basketball is one of the big sports, then the NBA is king among leagues around the world, as the undisputed pinnacle of the game; the league all fans want to watch and all the world’s best players want to play in. 

Unfortunately for European-based fans, most of the matches take place late at night or in the early hours of the morning due to the time difference with the United States, so only the most die-hard fans tend to stay up for it, though checking those overnight scores first thing in the morning is a must for NBA lovers the world over. 

On the plus side, some European bookies offer live streaming of selected games with HD pictures and live commentary, which is free to view as long as you have a funded account, meaning that if you do want to stay up and watch it, you can stream games without having to resort to expensive TV sports channel subscriptions. 

Best Bet: Philadelphia 76ers to Win the Eastern Conference

The Philadelphia 76ers have the firepower to win the Eastern Conference thanks to a blockbuster off-season that, as explained below, brought in Jaylen Brown and LeBron James. 

Brown adds elite scoring and two-way ability, while James brings championship experience, playmaking and leadership that you’d expect from one of the greatest players in history. 

They join former MVP Joel Embiid and All-NBA guard Tyrese Maxey, giving Philadelphia multiple scoring threats and options in crucial moments. Rookie VJ Edgecombe also offers athleticism and defensive potential. If James and Brown settle quickly, they’ll be the team to beat in the Eastern Conference, though the impressive Boston Celtics should push them all the way. 

Other Favourites 

Three of the four teams that made the Conference Finals last year are the betting favourites to go all the way. 

Oklahoma City Thunder narrowly lost 4-3 to the San Antonio Spurs at the last-four stage last season, but the bookies see them as the team to beat this time around, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander once again leading an excellent roster; they’re the 3.4 favourites. 

They’re also 2.38 to win the Eastern Conference, which is precisely what they did last year thanks to 64 regular season wins. 

Next in the betting are last year’s beaten finalists, San Antonio, who have their own superstar in Victor Wembanyama and will look back on last year’s 4-1 defeat in the NBA Finals as a huge missed opportunity, as they went into it as favourites.  They’re 3.75 to be the NBA champions for 2026-7 and just a little bit bigger than Oklahoma at 2.6 to win the Western Conference. 

You would have thought that the defending champions, the New York Knicks, would be a shorter price than 9.5 to do it all over again, but apparently not. 

Though Jalen Brunson remains at the heart of everything good they do and Karl Anthony Towns can be deadly from outside the paint, the loss of the multi-dimensional Mitchell Robinson to the Boston Celtics may leave them a bit short, especially in terms of his defensive contributions, while the feeling among many experts is that they can be overly reliant on Brunson and that any sort of long-term injury to him could seriously dampen their chances. 

The fourth team to have made those Conference Finals were Cleveland, but they’re down as eight-favourites at 23.0, with the likes of the Philadelphia 76ers (10.0), the Boston Celtics (14.0) and the Minnesota Timberwolves (21.0) all shorter than them 

Plenty of Outright markets 

If you like playing the Outright market, or futures as they’re called on the other side of the pond, now is the time to do so. 

All the major bookies will have dozens of different outright markets on offer before the action gets underway, including: the winner of the different Conferences, whether named teams will reach a certain number of regular season wins, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year,  Defensive Player of the Year and Regular Season MVP. 

Most of these markets will remain open throughout the season, with odds updated after each round of matches.

The Biggest Moves of the Off-Season

He may be 41 now, but few players can match what LeBron James has achieved in his career. And he’s not hanging up his trainers anytime soon, having left the LA Lakers as a free agent to sign for the Philadelphia 76ers, who are starting to look like a potentially championship-winning side, even more so after also signing  Jaylen Brown from the Celtics in a separate deal. 

In a complicated trade involving other players also being traded and three future first-round draft selections for the Milwaukee Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo was traded by the  Bucks to the Miami Heat alongside Bobby Portis, with no fewer than four players going the other way, so we’ll have to wait and see who ended up getting the better of that deal. 

Elsewhere, Kawhi Leonard returned to the Toronto Raptors in another somewhat complex deal that involved Leonard’s former team, the LA Clippers, getting Gradey Dick and Brandon Ingram in return, plus future draft picks and pick swaps. 

Mouth-Watering Games on the Opening Night

We won’t have to wait long to see LeBron in action for his new team, the 76ers, as they travel to New York to play the defending champions, the Knicks, on Tuesday night, the opening evening of the new season. 

The bookies reckon LeBron won’t get off to a winning start, with the Knicks 1.53 and the 76ers 2.5, while the points spread stands at New York -5.5. On the player prop markets, LeBron is also 3.0 to make 10+ assists, while Jalen Brunson is 2.5 to score 30+ points. 

A few hours later, it’s the two teams that contested that thrilling 4-3 Western Conference Final playoff last year in action as the Spurs (1.73) play hosts to the Thunder (2.1).

The bookies expect plenty of points contributions from the two teams’ respective stars, with Gilgeous-Alexander just 1.83 to score 30 or more points and Wembanyama 2.63 to do the same. 

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Ligue 1 has not been an interesting league to follow over the past few years if you’re a neutral, or a fan of anyone other than PSG, for that matter. 

The Parisians have won eight of the last nine editions of Ligue 1 and 10 of the last 12, with only two teams stopping their dominance: Lille in 2020-21 and Monaco in 2016-17.

Like every other European league, Ligue 1 has had a three-week break in action, so now is a good time to catch up on the results so far, the latest odds, and the big question: can PSG be beaten in 2026-7? 

One Team’s Domination

For the best part of a decade and a half, PSG teams have been a ‘who’s who’ of the world’s best players, with former PSG ‘alumni’ who have since left, including the likes of Leo Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Angel di Maria, Thiago Silva, Edison Cavani and Marco Verratti. 

Though Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules mean that PSG have to be a lot more careful with their expenditure on players and their sky-high wages for fear of getting fined or given transfer bans, they’ve still assembled a brilliant squad for this season. 

Their world-class talents are Ferran Torres, Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and skipper Marquinhos, plus the Portuguese trio Nuno Mendes, Vitinha and Joao Neves. 

PSG’s Slow Start to 2026-2027 Season

The good news for neutrals and fans of any team other than PSG is that the eternal favourites have made a surprisingly slow start to the season.

They failed to win any of their first three matches despite going off as hot favourites in all of them, drawing 2-2  with Rennes and Lille, and losing 2-1 at home to Monaco. 

But they finally won on their fourth try, beating Brest 1-0 and then securing a priceless 2-1 win over Marseille. 

Those two wins before the international break have seen them prop up the table to sixth with eight points from five matches, and after going off at odds of under 1.1 to win Ligue 1 yet again, they’re now available at a slightly higher price of 1.17, with the bookies rightly deciding their slow start may have consequences in the future. 

Why the slow start for PSG? Well, the obvious explanation is they had more players in action at the World Cup than any other team in Ligue 1, so there will have been some tired bodies out there back in August, with little or no pre-season done, and it will take some time for them to get up to full speed.

If Not PSG, Then Who?

Either way, PSG already have some catching up to do. 

Monaco are top on 13 points with four wins from five, including that crucial 2-1 win over PSG in Gameweek 3 and deserve some respect for their fast start, which is why they’re the 10,0 second favourites to go on and win the Championship. But they only finished seventh last year, so that would require some serious progress and improvement to actually be challenging for Ligue 1 under new coach Filipe Luis. 

Lyon and Lille are on 11 and 10 points respectively and are available at 21.0 and 19.0 to win the league. 

So based on those odds, it depends on which camp you’re in. 

Important Matches Coming up After the International Break

When we return to Ligue 1 after this week’s Nations League matches, a couple of important matches stand out.  

Lens, last year’s surprise runners-up, haven’t started too well, with just four points from five games, but deserve respect when they host Lyon, currently in second place and undefeated so far. The bookies are finding the two teams hard to split, with Lens at 2.4, Lyon at 2.7, and the draw at 3.9 ahead of Friday night’s game. 

Then on Saturday, Monaco have a good chance to pick up another three points when at home to Toulouse, who have won just once in five, with odds of 1.6 on Monaco suggesting  a home win is on the cards. 

As for PSG, odds of 1.06 to beat Le Mans, also on Saturday night, paint their own picture. 

If you’re looking for higher prices, PSG to score over 3.5 goals is 1.85, and over 4.5 PSG goals is 3.0. It’s 3.6 that Ferran Torres scores two or more by himself, and 3.75 that Dembele does.

Football’s biggest club competition gets underway on Tuesday afternoon, and there are some great matches to look forward to straight away, while last year's runners-up Arsenal look at a very reasonable price to go on and win the whole thing for the first time in their history. 

Best Champions League Betting Tips

• Arsenal to win the Champions League
• Porto on the Double Chance market against Manchester City
• Liverpool to beat Atletico Madrid + Over 2.5 goals

Champions League Winner Odds 

PSG, who have won it in the last two seasons, are 6.0 favourites for a three-peat. The team they beat in last season’s final, Arsenal, are the next shortest in the betting at 7.0, the same price as last year’s La Liga winners Barcelona, who exited the Champions League last year at the quarter-final stage. 

At a slightly bigger 7.5, you can take your pick from Real Madrid or another side who know what it takes to win this: six-time winners (to go with a further five finals) Bayern Munich, whose main man Harry Kane was our pick for top scorer. 

English trio Manchester City (10.00), Liverpool (13) and Manchester United (21) are next, with Atletico at 34.0.

Winner market tip 

Arsenal (7.0) came as close as you can without winning it last year- losing on penalties to PSG- will have learnt from the experience, strengthened their squad in key areas and have won all their four matches so far, including beating Manchester City in the Community Shield and Chelsea in the league on Sunday.   

The extra numbers in their squad will mean they’ll be able to rotate better and have arguably the best defence in Europe, so they have all the tools to go one better this year. 

The Best Matches of Week 1

One of the nice things about the change in format to a one-group preliminary phase is that every week throws up some truly intriguing matches, and that’s certainly the case in the opening week. 

The Pick of Tuesday’s Games 

On Tuesday, record 15-time winners (including wins in the European Cup in the pre-Champions League era) Real Madrid start as 1.62 favourites against Inter Milan in Madrid, who have won the competition three times themselves. To add to the intrigue, when they last won it in 2010, it was under Jose Mourinho, who is now Real's manager. Inter are 5.0 and the draw 4.4. 

Mourinho’s influence is everywhere because another intriguing tie on Tuesday – Porto v Manchester City – features two sides who have both won the trophy in the Champions League era. And who managed Porto when they won it in 2004? Yes, Mourinho. Porto are 4.6 to beat a City side who won it in 2023, while City are 1.7, and the draw is 4.1. 

Two Big Games on Wednesday 

On Wednesday, it’s Liverpool v Atletico Madrid. Liverpool are no strangers to success in this competition themselves, with six wins in it, and though Atletico have never won it, they’ve made three finals, so they know what it takes to go deep in this tournament. There may be some business for Atletico on the Double Chance market at 2.1 while over 2.5 goals looks to be on the cards, albeit at just 1.6. 

At the same time as that one, there’s Napoli v Arsenal where the Gunners are short 1.75 favourites away from home, but then again, they made the final last year and have a 100% domestic winning record so far this season, so you can see why they’re that sort of price.  

Best Bets for Week 1 of Champions League 

Porto started the season very strongly with five wins in the Superliga, four of them without conceding. While City have also been winning over in the Premier League, it hasn’t been easy, and they’ve either conceded or had keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to thank for some fine saves to allow them to keep on winning. At home and remembering this fixture ended 0-0 a couple of years ago, Porto look a good price at 2.1 on the Double Chance market. 

Atletico Madrid have had a mixed start to their season with two wins, a draw and a loss and may find Liverpool at home too hot to handle in a match that promises to have goals. Liverpool beat Atleti in each of the last three, 3-2, 2-0 and 3-2, so another win with over 2.5 goals in it looks a good prospect at 2.4. 

UEFA Champions League 2026/7 Overview

The 2026-7 Champions League season starts on Tuesday, September 8, with six matches, followed by another six on Wednesday and the last six of the round on Thursday, an innovation whereby every week’s matches are now played across three days rather than two. 

In total, each of the 32 teams plays eight Group Stage matches, four at home, four away. 

At the end of the Group Stage, the Top 8 progress automatically to the Last 16, while those finishing between ninth and 24th contest a play-off round, with those progressing from the Play-Off Round joining the Top 8 in the Last 16. 

After that, it’s the usual knock-out system all the way to the final; teams dropping out of the Champions League no longer ‘fall’ into the Europa League as a consolation prize. 

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A week after the return of the Champions League, it’s now time for the Europa League to start. There are some great matches in Week 1 already.

Here’s the lowdown on the latest odds on the winner market, the best outright bet, and why, in one way, this is the biggest European trophy!

Best Bet: Back Bournemouth to Make the Final

English teams have been regularly present in European Cup finals of late, of which 2025-6 was a good example. Villa won the competition, with Crystal Palace taking the Conference League and Arsenal losing the Champions League final on penalties to PSG.

So step forward Bournemouth, who, despite being in Europe for the first time, look like a team in good shape. Their experience of high-tempo football in the Premier League should leave them well-prepared for the challenges in this competition.

With relegation as unlikely as a Top 4 finish, it would be no surprise if they made this competition their priority for the season under new manager Marco Rose. And, with some quality players like Evanilson, Ryan, Marcus Tavernier, Alex Scott and Antono Silva in the side, they could go pretty deep. A huge final against a big side may eventually prove too much for them, if they get that far, so the 6.5 that they make the final is good enough for us.

Europa League Outright Odds

The winner market is dominated by two grand old names of Italian and European football. Juventus (8.0) and AC Milan (8.5) are the favourites, despite not being the force of old and neither of them winning Serie A in years.

Then there are Bayer Leverkusen, Bournemouth (making their European debut), Marseille and Real Sociedad at around the 13.0 mark, followed by Premier League duo Sunderland and Crystal Palace at 17. Palace, it should be remembered, won last year’s Conference League, though this looks like a step up in class, and it would be a huge upset if they managed to do it all over again.

Benfica, who are normally in the Champions League, are 19.0, the same price as Hoffenheim.

In the ‘To Reach the Final’ market, Milan and Juventus are 4.5, Leverkusen 5.5 and Bournemouth 6.5.

The Standout Matches of Week 1

AC Milan v Benfica looks the pick of them, with Milan, managed by Portuguese ex-Manchester United boss Rúben Amorim, favourites at 2.1 to beat Benfica, with the draw 3.5 and the Benfica win 3.6. Odds on both teams to score are 1.53.

In another Portuguese connection, current Portugal international and former PSG man Goncalo Ramos is 2.5 to score, while prolific Benfica striker Vangelis Pavlidis is 2.8 to get a goal of his own.

Elsewhere, Besiktas - Marseille could be a fiery, competitive encounter, with the hosts at 1.8, the draw at 4.9 and a Marseille win at 3.9.

Another close game could be Real Sociedad v Bournemouth, with Sociedad at 2.63, the Cherries marginally favourites at 2.5 and the draw looking a lively runner at 3.5.

Fun Fact

It’s no secret that the Europa League sits behind the Champions League in terms of prestige, media attention and prize money, but in one way the Europa League is a bigger trophy. In this case - literally!

The trophy weighs 15kg, making it the heaviest piece of UEFA silverware. That's quite a trophy to be lifting in Frankfurt, so let’s hope the winning captain has strong enough arms to be able to hold it aloft!