BBL06 is only a few days away, and with 47 games to be played over the next few months, there's plenty of betting markets to sink our teeth into as we offer our BBL06 Season Preview. We look at some of the more popular ones ahead of BBL06 kicking off on Tuesday, December 20th.
BBL06 Outright Betting
The Big Bash League Winners market is always a hard prospect to try to predict. We’ve seen teams come out of no-where to win it all so many times due to the very even nature of the league. Cricket Australia has done a great job of making sure talent is distributed fairly evenly and T20 cricket at the best of times is still a very unpredictable sport. One player can win a game for a team on any given night as we saw Usman Khawaja do in both the semi and the final last year, helping the Thunder win from 4th place.
In saying that, we can still extrapolate a lot of information from both last year’s season and teams rosters on paper. The Melbourne Stars look to, once again, have one of the strongest teams on paper this year. The Stars boast a batting line-up stacked with T20 specialists in David Hussey, Glenn Maxwell, Rob Quiney and Kevin Pietersen. Odds are at least one of those guys is going to go off for a big score every game, which is all you need to win a T20. The Stars are 2nd favourite to win the title at $5.50 (Sportsbet).
The Adelaide Strikers could also be an interesting play. Last year’s minor premiers aren’t getting much love with the bookmakers, at $9 (Sportsbet) only the Hurricanes are higher priced. What the Strikers have in their favour, however, is a lack of players that are likely to miss significant time due to international duty. Travis Head looks to be the only one that could be likely, while their roster still boasts T20 specialists Brad Hodge, Kieron Pollard, Ben Dunk and Craig Simmons. They might not have the star power in the bowling stocks but Kane Richardson and Ben Laughlin have been some of the more consistent bowlers in BBL history. I like the Strikers for a value bet at $9.
Sportsbet lists the Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Renegades as the 2 favourite at $5 and $5.50 respectively. They are both ‘stay aways’ in my opinion. They have a lot of guys who are set to miss time due to international duty in Aaron Finch, Matthew Wade, Peter Siddle and Callum Ferguson for Melbourne and Adam Voges and the Marsh brothers for Perth. While Perth do have the pedigree, Melbourne haven’t exactly proved a winning culture over their BBL history, reaching the finals just once in six tries.
TIP: Melbourne Stars to Win BBL06 - $5.50 at Sportsbet
BBL06 Leading Tournament Run Scorer Market
This market is dominated by Chris Lynn, Kevin Pietersen and Cameron White, but at their prices, there is far more value to be found elsewhere. Pietersen is definitely capable of anything, but he and White are aging, and Lynn is just returning from injury, so I think it’s a good spot to take them on.
When looking into this market there are three main points to consider.
Firstly you want someone batting at the top of the order since they will get the most opportunities to score. The second factor is ideally you want someone who will play finals since they will count in this market at most sports books. Finally, you want someone who is going to be available for every match.
The player I’m most keen on is Ian Bell. The English stalwart came out this week saying he still harbours ambitions to play for the England Test team, so there’s no doubt he is motivated to perform. He’s a world class player and has proven himself in all formats. He’ll most likely open the batting in a strong Scorchers team that will most likely play finals. Some books have him as short as $12, but at the time of writing, you can still get $34 at Bet365 which is a great value bet if you are following our Big Bash League betting tips.
TIP: Ian Bell BBL06 Leading Tournament Run Scorer - $34 at Bet365
The other big international this season is the appearance of Brendon McCullum for the Brisbane Heat. He’s arguably the most destructive T20 batsman in the world, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him to something special this BBL season. He’ll open the batting and will play every game, but the two things against him are that the Heat probably won’t play finals, and his price, which at the moment is $17 at Bet365. He’s still probably worth having on your side.
Other potential bets you may like to consider include Daniel Hughes ($51 at Luxbet), Aaron Finch ($34 at CrownBet) and Marcus Harris ($26 at Ladbrokes).
BBL06 Leading Wicket Taker Market
I’m not a huge fan of this market as it is hard to find too much value. The good bowlers are very good and the bad are pretty bad. Sunil Narine would be my top pick, especially if there are turning decks at Etihad Stadium, but there’s no value in his price. Mitchell Johnson could be an interesting play at $21, as he looks set to play every game due to retirement from international cricket.
Team to Finish Bottom of the Table
The Hobart Hurricanes clearly have the worst team on paper, and they have a history of underperforming anyway. Maybe they can turn it around, but they will rely incredibly heavily on their top 4 or 5 players. After that, they drop away very quickly. I think they are a good bet to finish last and am happy to take the price on offer.
TIP: Hobart Hurricanes to Finish Bottom of the Table – @$3.25 at Sportsbet
Highest Scoring Ground
The Brisbane Heat have a brilliant batting team but a rather putrid bowling attack. Expect most of their games to be super high scoring up at the Gabba where they will roll out the flattest of highways to bat on. The price is a little short, but you could saver the Adelaide Oval if you were worried.
TIP: Gabba to be the Highest Scoring Ground (Match Aggregate) – $2.30 at Crownbet
Make sure to read full terms and conditions of any betting promotion before placing any bets - bonuses may not be available to residents of all states.
