The Liga ACB, known at the time of writing for sponsorship reasons as the Liga Endesa, was first formed in 1957, although it was then known as the Liga Nacional. Basketball is huge in Spain and the ACB, which stands for Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto, is the top tier of Spanish men’s basketball. Here we offer a general overview of the league, including its history, information about its biggest sides and live odds comparison.
The league took on the name of ABC in the 1983-1984 season, Real Madrid winning that year, just as they had with the first ever league competition back in 1957. Indeed, as in football, so it is in basketball, with the giants from the capital and their fierce Catalan rivals Barcelona, being hugely dominant in the sport.
Real Madrid are the most successful side in the history of Spanish basketball, boasting an impressive 32 titles, including in the 2014-15 season. Barcelona are some distance back with 18 titles whilst only four other sides have ever been crowned Spanish champions. In addition to those 40 titles, the two giants of Spanish sport have also been runner-up a further 30 times between them, really indicating the extent to which they dominate basketball in Spain.
That said, relative minnows of the sport have won the ACB four times since 2002, with Baskonia winning in 2002, 2008 and 2010 and Malaga winning in 2006. Betting on the ACB outright winner market may not be quite the foregone conclusion betting on La Liga in football is, although it’s virtually unheard of for either Real or Barca to not head the ante post ACB betting.
The ACB tends to be dominated by home-grown players, although most reams will usually have a sprinkling of stars from overseas. Brian Jackson, of the USA, is one of the ACB’s all-time leading points scorers, whilst his compatriot Granger Hall is not far behind despite never having played for one of the big two in a long career in Spanish basketball.
The best teams in the ACB regularly compete fairly well in European basketball competitions but at the other end of the table, the league’s worst sides face relegation to the Liga Española de Baloncesto. The bottom two sides are relegated with two new teams being promoted into the 18-side top tier.
As well as the league title, Spanish clubs also compete for two domestic cups and alongside European games this means lots of fixtures… and lots of betting opportunities. Our live odds comparison compares the best match odds for any given ACB game, as well as for the overall outright winner betting.
With 34 games in regular season (teams play home and away) followed by a prolonged round of play-offs culminating in a five game finals, there really is loads of great ACB action to enjoy and, of course, to bet on… good luck!