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FIVB Volleyball Nations League Betting Guide

What is the FIVB?

The Federation Internationale de Volleyball, commonly known as the FIVB, is the organiser of all of the larger volleyball events in the world. It organises many well known competitions such as the Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, Challenger Cup, and many more. In addition to global volleyball events, the organisation also hosts confederation tournaments, in Africa, Asia and Oceania, Europe, North America and South America. The FIVB also hosts the major beach volleyball events such as the tournament in the Olympic Games, the World Championships and the World Tours.

The FIVB has a world rankings system, where teams belonging to nations are ranked on how well they have performed in their continental confederations as well as at global competitions.

Introduction to the FIVB Volleyball Nations League

The Volleyball Nations League, organised by the FIVB, is a tournament that is held every year for both men and women, between the 16 member teams of the FIVB. The FIVB founded the Nations League in 2017. The tournament is played over two group rounds and one knockout round. The first round is the Preliminary round and it is contested by 16 teams comprising of 12 core teams who compete each year and 4 challenger teams that qualified for the tournament. All teams compete in a robin-round tournament where the teams are divided into four groups of four each week and play all the teams in their groups. The teams are then redrawn into new groups for the following week. This happens five times, and after all 120 games have been played in this round, the top five teams in the competition qualify for the Final round alongside the host nation.

In the Final round, the six teams are placed in 2 pools of 3 teams and play in a robin round against the other teams in their pools. The winners and runners up of the pools qualify for the knockout semi-finals, where the winners of one group play the runners up from the other. The winner of the semi-finals then proceeds to the finals, and the winner of that game wins the Nations League.

How to bet on the FIVB Volleyball Nations League

Outright Winner

The outright bets allow you to bet on which nations will win the men’s and women’s Nations Leagues. For both tournaments, there will be bets offered on all the individual nations that take part. The bet can be placed at any point during the tournament, but the odds will usually be longer before the action begins.

Full Time Result

For each individual game, the simplest bet you can place is on which team will win. The odds on either team will indicate how likely they are to win. For example, in a game between Brazil and the USA, the two teams may have almost the same odds as they are evenly matched. This can be contrasted with a game between Brazil and Serbia, where the odds on Brazil may be quite short whilst the odds on Serbia will be far longer.

Handicap of Sets

Handicaps can be used to lengthen the odds on the favourites, making the bet more attractive. They can also be used to shorten the odds on the underdogs and make the bet less risky.

In a game between Brazil and Serbia, if you want to bet on Brazil to win, you could do so with a handicap of -1.5 or -2.5 sets. To win the bet, Brazil must win the match by 2 sets in the case of a -1.5 handicap and in straight sets (3-0) in the case of -2.5 handicap.

Alternatively, if you want to bet on Serbia to win, you could do so with a handicap of +1.5 or +2.5. To win the bet, Serbia does not necessarily need to win a game. The bet will win if Serbia loses by just 1 set in the case of a +1.5 handicap or by 2 sets in the case of a +2.5 handicap..

Total Points

These are bets on how many points will be scored by both teams. There will be bets for both the match as a whole and also bets for individual sets. All of these bets use the over/under system. There will be a choice of betting lines such as 93.5, 94.5, and 95.5. You need to choose a line and bet on whether there will be over or under that number of points scored in a set.

Set Betting

There may be bets for which team or teams will win the first two sets. These are the most important sets as if one team wins them both, then they have a massive chance of winning the match.

Game Props

In addition to all the bets mentioned above, there may be a handful of game props. These can be bets on a certain scenario, such as a team winning in straight sets, will a team make a comeback from 2 sets down, and more. It is also possible to bet on the exact set score at the end of the match or even exact point scores for each set.

Live Bets

Live betting markets allow you to bet on the match as it is taking place. You will find most of markets explained above, but the odds will be continually adjusted to reflect the live action. As such, by keeping a careful eye on the odds and the match, you may spot some excellent betting opportunities.