Well, it is finally upon us after watching an incredible 30 game regular season the playoffs will commence on April 18th and the first matchup will see last years champion CSKA Mocow at home taking on Baskonia Vitoria.

Other matchups will be Panathinaikos against Fenerbahce where the Greeks outlasted the Turks to hold on to home court advantage.The city of Athens will be filled with basketball that week because Olympiakos was not to be outshined by Pana and also have home court for their five game playoff against Anadolu Efes. The final series of course is the regular season champs Real Madrid facing Darussafaka who had to fight until the 30th round to seal their ticket into the playoffs.

There you have it, the four playoff rounds that we have been waiting for and now I want to take a look here at the odds that 888sport.com is giving to each team to take home the trophy this May in Istanbul.

Real Madrid has taken over as the favorite paying 2.50 to win this competition in 888sport.com. The constant favorite has been CSKA Moscow throughout the season but suddenly find themselves paying 2.75. The change no doubt was slight but very justified as I see Real Madrid being the more complete team right now as the regular season has come to an end. These future bets can be fun and give us something to look forward to as the Final Four approaches but when I look to these types of bets I like to look for value.

I will analyze later each matchup to see where the money can be made but right now let me explain what I mean by looking for value. Here is a look at the top five favorites and what they pay as of Monday April 10th;

2pt">REAL MADRID                     2.50

2pt">CSKA MOSCOW                   2.75

2pt">OLYMPIAKOS                       7.50

2pt">FENERBAHCE                      9.00

2pt">PANATHINAIKOS                9.00

To be honest, I will not waste your time with the other three, although they pay extremely well I do not see much of a chance of them arriving to the Final Four in May so we will stick with the top five.

I will immediately drop Fenerbahce from this list, even though they would be playing in Turkey and they have decent value as last year's runner up, they have finished the regular season in a free fall and are just not the team they were last season so I do not give them many options to win. We are looking for value so I will also drop Real Madrid and CSKA from my list because they pay little and I think we can profit from them on a game by game basis.

So with three of the five scratched off our list we are left with the two Greek teams. Olympiakos paying 7.50 and Panathinaikos at 9.00. Both teams have home court advantage for the 5 game series but I give the advantage here to Pana against Fenerbahce strictly based on their defensive strength versus a Turkish team who has had trouble scoring. Both Greek teams will almost certainly be in the final four which should make Istanbul a fun place to be but who are we going with?

If Panathinaikos moves on they will face Real Madrid in the Semi Finals and Olympiakos would most likely face CSKA Moscow. Both of these matchups do not sit well for the top teams because the Greek style is to win with strong defense and a physical presence, both Madrid and CSKA like to score. The Finals are usually a slower paced more defensive game which makes me think we can actually see the distant possibility of an all Greek final.

Looking for where to make money I would say that any play here on the two Greek teams would be a good play but in an all Greek final I would go for the bigger money winner and the hotter team down the stretch.

PANATHINAIKOS @ 9.00