Last month, after Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte-Carpio were elected as the next Philippine President and Philippine Vice President respectively, we floated the question about what exactly there was left to bet on right now.
Then the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial happened, and we got our answer.
See, at the end of the day, even with all kinds of other political odds and current events odds on the boards – say, UN odds or NATO odds or Elon Musk Twitter odds or gas price odds or COVID odds – people just want a distraction. They just want to be entertained.
And generally, sports betting – or betting on celebrities and their nonsense – is a great way to double down on entertainment.
That’s why all the best Philippine online sportsbooks had Depp-Heard odds, and it’s why the mainstream media everywhere on the planet doubled down on coverage of the circus.
Well, the Johnny Depp trial is over now, too (he “won”), so it’s time to check in on the state of the legal Philippine gambling industry.
First things first – and most pressingly – are the current NBA Finals.
With Game 1 headed for a tipoff in just a few hours (9:00 PM GMT -4, 9:00 AM GMT +8), that’s going to be the top draw for all Philippines gambling fans across the board.
BetOnline Sportsbook currently has dozens of published lines for the game, and they’re even running some NBA promotions and themed contests for the Celtics-Warriors showdown.
Of course, the has also posted all the countless team and player props we’re used to, so we have a lot of research – and a lot of betting board browsing – to take care of before tipoff.
That said, most Filipino basketball betting fans are going to stick to the basic lines and just a few of the most popular side bets, so we’ve included a selection of the most interesting of these below.
(Remember, you can always make your own NBA player props using your sportsbook site’s custom Prop Builder app, so if you don’t see a line you like, you can create one!)
2022 NBA Finals Odds
2022 NBA Finals Odds – Series Prices/Series Winner
- Golden State Warriors -145
- Boston Celtics +125
2022 NBA Finals Odds – Game 1
Boston Celtics at Golden State Warriors
- Straight: Celtics +144, Warriors -164
- Spread: Warriors -3.5
- Total: 213.5 points
2022 NBA Finals Props – Game 1
Which team will score last?
- Boston Celtics -115
- Golden State Warriors -113
Will there be overtime?
- No -5000
- Yes +950
Will the first shot of the game be made?
- No -129
- Yes -105
Which team will make the first three-pointer?
- Golden State Warriors -126
- Boston Celtics -107
What will the largest lead in the game be (for either team)?
- Under 17.5 -143
- Over 17.5 +109
How many total three-point shots will be made in the game (for both teams combined)?
- Under 27.5 -118
- Over 27.5 -115
Will both teams score over 100 points?
- Yes -114
- No -114
Will both teams score over 110 points?
- No -626
- Yes +325
Which will be the first team to score 20 points?
- Golden State Warriors -145
- Boston Celtics +114
Now, the above NBA Finals odds for Game 1 are just the tip of the iceberg.
These days, the best Philippine betting sites all offer hundreds – if not thousands – of individual wagers for every single prominent athletic contest.
Back in the day, a single-game betting menu of just 300-400 wagers was something reserved exclusively for the NFL Super Bowl. Today – between all the NBA player props and NBA team props available at the top sites – that’s the number of lines you’ll get for run-of-the-windmill-dunk regular season contests.
Not including things like NBA live betting odds or custom prop bets that you can create yourself, BetOnline has roughly 780 different betting opportunities. About half of those odds are eligible to be combined into parlays too, so multiply everything by itself, add one, and you’ll get the idea.
And naturally, if you want to shop odds between multiple sites, you’d better get started ASAP, because top Philippine sportsbooks like MyBookie have about the same number of odds but with slightly different payouts attached. If you’re going to maximize your haul during today’s NBA Finals game, you’re going to really need to do your homework.
Of course, NBA betting isn’t the only game in town.
Sure, it’s going to dominate the Philippine online betting sites for the next week or two, but there are other online betting opportunities in the offing (except, unfortunately, for e-Sabong, which seems to have gone the way of the dodo, at least for now).
Case in point, the 2022 PBA season starts on June 5 with the 2022 Philippine Cup.
After two years of abbreviated seasons, this season should see all three standard conferences being contested, including the Commissioner’s Cup, which hasn’t been contested since 2019.
The following clubs are the current defending champions of the conferences in question:
- 2021 Philippine Cup – TNT Tropang Giga
- 2021 Governors’ Cup – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel
- 2019 Commissioner’s Cup – San Miguel Beermen
In more general gambling news – particularly Philippine casino gambling news – it’s being reported that incoming President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. (who takes office on June 30) is going to be addressing a number of pressing gambling industry concerns.
Disregarding the Western-style #fakenews talking points being promulgated by the above-linked GamblingNews.com wherein the writer opines that despite winning one of the largest landslide elections in Philippines history, “not many people are looking forward” to the Marcos presidency – seriously, this guy literally writes that “even though [Marcos] had around 30.8 million votes, hundreds of people protested the outcome” – here’s what’s apparently on the menu regarding the gambling initiatives of the incoming administration:
- Deciding whether or not to continue ahead with the Duterte Administration’s temporary gaming expansions that have proven problematic in some regions
- Deciding whether or not to reinstate online cockfighting with stricter controls aimed at curbing corruption/crime
- More discussions with China and PAGCOR regulators about the future of POGOs
- More discussions with PAGCOR and MSW about expanding access to online casino gambling, aka iGaming
Honestly, we don’t expect the new administration to be particularly antagonistic toward Philippine gambling expansion, though we think it will be slightly more conservative than the last few years of the Duterte Administration, particularly regarding some of the more controversial Philippine gambling issues that have arisen of late.
We’re cautiously optimistic.
Let’s go Celtics!