Volleyball is an international sport with many betting opportunities. Online bookmakers accept the most wagers on major world competitions. These include the Olympics, FIVB World Cup, FIVB World League (men) and FIVB World Grand Prix (women). Of course, also popular in Europe are the European Championship, European League, CEV Champions League and CEV Cup. In Asia there are many competitions including the Asian Volleyball Championship (AVC) and Asian Cup. In South America, teams compete in both the South American Championship and Americas Cup. These represent just some of the many competitions online bookies accept action on.
For betting on a league by league basis click any of these links to jump to the appropriate section, else scroll down a little to find the top 3 sites for betting on volleyball online:
- Superliga Brasileira de Voleibol
- Liga Argentina de Voleibol
- Liga Nacional Superior de Voleibol (LNSV)
- Asian Leagues
- Korean V-League (Men)
- Korean V-League (Women)
- European Leagues
- Italy
- Russia
- Poland
- Serbia
- Germany
- Turkey
- Bulgaria
If you’re a fan looking to back your nation, this can be done at many online betting sites. Suggested sites for betting major volleyball competitions are listed below. Note that from this list only 5Dimes accepts US players, so we recommend US volleyball fans sign up there and for players outside the US, go for ComeOn.
Of the sites mentioned above. They offer live streams from their website of many volleyball matches including less popular ones such as African Nations Championship, Asian Cup qualifiers and all sorts of domestic competitions. So long as your account is funded with $5 or more you can watch these streams and bet volleyball matches while they are in play. This includes betting on each serve, the set, the match, races to 5, 10, 15 and 20 and much more. The volleyball betting possibilities here are endless.
Domestic Volleyball Provides Most Value
While no doubt volleyball fans are the most excited to bet the major competitions, punters seeking value can find this with domestic competitions from around the globe. This is because such matches are small betting markets – the bookmakers don’t take much action on these. Simply reading match tables, looking to see if key players are tied up in international competitions, looking at the effects of travel, and even Google translating a few league websites can give punters an edge. In this article I’ll cover many domestic leagues and which websites are best for betting each.
American Volleyball Domestic Leagues
There are several North and South American countries that are dominant or competitive on the national scale, but do not have professional domestic leagues for betting. Such noteworthy countries matching this description include the United States, Canada and Cuba. When it comes to American domestic volleyball, Brazil has the most followed leagues, while Argentina and Peru also have competitive leagues.
Superliga Brasileira de Voleibol
The above title is Portuguese for Brazilian Volleyball Superleague. Both a men’s and women’s version exists, and both are very popular for online betting. While Brazil might be best known for soccer, they are also one of the most dominant volleyball nations in the world.
At the time I’m writing this article their men’s team is ranked #1 by FIVBA and their women’s team #2. Each has won many medals at major competitions.
Considering Brazil is a top threat in all national competitions, and the best players play domestically in Superliga Brasileira de Voleibol, this league gets a larger international following than other volleyball leagues around the world. You can find plenty of coverage of it on the internet, so here I’ll just cover the betting.
The most popular betting sites offering odds on Superliga Brasileira de Voleibol (both men and women) are ComeOn and Pinnacle Sports. With each you can bet home/away – meaning which team will win the match. They along ComeOn also offer an alternative option to bet the first set results.
Really it is advised to use all three websites. Pinnacle has great odds but also unique markets. Here you can bet set handicap and also over/under on the number of sets. ComeOn has a unique market on certain expected lopsided matches where you can bet a handicap that involves total points from all sets. If you’re serious about volleyball betting you’ll want to use all three sites.
Liga Argentina de Voleibol – Serie A1
The above title is Spanish for Argentine Volleyball League – A1 Level. This is the top level men’s professional volleyball league in Argentina. It has 12 clubs and has a promotion and regulation system. The next level down A2 is not covered by online betting sites. The league has been around since 1996. Despite not joining the league until the 2002-2003 Season, Drean Bolívar is the most successful club in league history. They were champions six times including back to back in their first two seasons, and a run of 4 in a row beginning in 2006-2007. More recently UPCN Voley has become a dominant team.
The number of betting sites offering odds on A1 is quite limited. www.comeon.com is the most popular while the only other we know of is bet-at-home.com.
Liga Nacional Superior de Voleibol (LNSV)
The above title is Spanish for Senior National Volleyball League. Formed in 2004, this is the top level volleyball club competition in Peru. It’s available in men’s and women’s version with the winner of each league gaining entry to the South American Volleyball Club Championship. They do not cover all matches but do live stream and offer live betting on about a dozen LNSV women’s matches per year.
Asian Volleyball Domestic Leagues
Asia is another continent where many nations competitive in world and regional competitions do not have professional domestic leagues for betting. This includes China who is dominant in women’s competitions and Thailand who is generally competitive and has had recent successes. Japan is one of the top threats in female volleyball competitions and does have a domestic league for both men and women. This is called V.Premier League (V-League for short). However, the only online bookie offering betting odds for Japanese volleyball is www.comeon.com. This leaves us with Korea being the only source for betting that is widely available on Asian domestic volleyball.
The Korean Volleyball League (V-League) was founded in 2005 and now has seven teams on the men’s side. In the second and third season Daejeon Samsung Fire were the runners up. They’ve since become the league’s most dominate team winning the Championship five consecutive times.
There are many website that it is possible to bet Korean V-League men. These include ComeOn and several Asian bookies. The markets available here are many including match winner, first set, set handicap, over/under on total sets and a variety of prop bets. You’ll have no trouble finding betting odds on this league.
This league was also founded in 2005, originally with five teams but there are now six. In the league’s first eight seasons the dominate teams have been Daejeon KT&G and Daejeon KGC. Each has won the Championship three times.
The sites where Korean V-League women can be bet are somewhat limited. While you’ll find many markets for the men’s league as covered above, for the women’s side you can only bet on match winner and over/under. The two sites I know of with betting odds on this league is Pinnacle.
European Volleyball Domestic Leagues
There are over 30 European nations with domestic volleyball that online bookies offers odds for. Quite a few of these are not very popular. For example Spain SuperLiga, Sweden Elitserien, Slovenia DOL, Slovakia Extraliga, Belgium Ere Divisie Women and Liga men, Croatia A Liga, Estonia’s Meeste Liiga, England’s Super 8, Ukraine’s Superleague, NLA from Switzerland, the Opap Championship (Cyprus), Romania Divizia A1, Latvia Nacionala Liga, Czech Republic Extraliga, Finland Mestaruusliiga, Austria’s Herren AVL Superliga and Damen AVL, Portugal Divisao A1, Denmark Elitedivision and Landspokal Cup, France Pro A & Pro B, Greece A1, Morocco Super League, Netherlands A-League and DELA League Women and Norway Eliteserien are relevant leagues but won’t be covered in this article.
If you’re interested in betting any of the leagues I just rattled off, note that either or of ComeOn covers these. In this article I’ll cover only 7 European nations in quick summary form. Most of these nations have multiple domestic leagues each. In fact, I suspect there are over 100 different European domestic volleyball leagues which betting sites offer odds for. Again, if you’re looking for a small market sport, there is a lot of value to be had betting domestic volleyball. That said, I’ll now breakdown domestic volleyball betting briefly for the seven chosen nations.
Italy’s national teams are the most successful in Europe for both men’s and women’s volleyball and are both highly ranked. Of course for this reason their domestic competitions are also highly contested and provide some of the best volleyball betting opportunities on the market. The leagues break down as having both a men’s and women’s Serie A1 (top level) and Serie A2 (second level) with promotion and regulation between the two. At the end of the season top teams compete in both the Coppa Italia A1 and Coppa Italia A2 to decide a league champion. The winner of Coppa Italia A1 also plays the winner of Serie A1 in what’s called the SuperCup with the winner getting the top spot in Champions League.
This totals between men and women combined to six domestic leagues, three tournaments, and championship match. Betting is available on all these. Those living in Italy can bet all ten mentions leagues and tournaments at any Italian licensed betting sites. The rest of us can find plenty of sites covering even A2 including ComeOn, Pinnacle, NordicBet and dozens of others.
Russia is a threat to win most any volleyball competition on both the women’s and men’s side. Likewise they have strong professional leagues at the domestic level. The top is Russian Volleyball Super League (Волейбольная суперлига) which while founded in 1992, is a continuation of Soviet top league founded in 1933. There are 12 teams in the top level and is a second level broken down into two regions. Other competitions include the Russian Cup and Russian Championship. Locating betting odds for Russian volleyball matches is quite easy. Every website I’ve mentioned in this article thus far plus Sportingbet, Interwetten and a handful more offer betting odds on all matches.
On August 22, 2000 Poland issued licenses for volleyball clubs to compete as professionals. This was only the fourth sport to be granted such license, with basketball, boxing and football the others. In short order volleyball became one of the most popular sports in Poland. Their men’s national team is ranked #4 at the time I’m writing this article. Most its players also play domestically for Polska Liga Siatkówki (PlusLiga) clubs. This league has been running since 2000. The women’s version didn’t come about until 2005 but has helped field strong competition to the national team. The Polish women are ranked 15 by FIVB at the time of this article.
No matter if you’re looking to bet PlusLiga or Enea Cup for either men or women there are plenty of options to do so online. If you’re from Poland then note Pinnacle Sports offer online betting in Polish złoty. The rest of the world can bet domestic volleyball from Poland at practically any online betting site. US sportsbooks such as 5Dimes and Bookmaker cover this league. Asian bookies such as 188bet and SBO do the same. From here every European betting site I know of covers Polska Liga Siatkówki.
Serbia is another strong European nation for volleyball. Their men’s and women’s national team are both ranked in the top ten at the time I’m writing this article. Their domestic leagues are however not as closely followed as one might expect. The top level is Serbian Volleyball League (Одбојкашко првенство Србије). For the women’s version, the only sites I know of offering betting odds is ComeOn and because neither covers all matches you’ll really need to check the odds on both. The men’s league is however well covered. It has ten teams and for years Vojvodina Novi Sad was the most dominate team having won the tile 11 of the 21 seasons that both Serbian Volleyball League and National League have existed. The only five sites I know covering this league are Marathon Bet, Pinnacle Sports, SBOBet and TonyBet.
Germany has had decent success historically on the national volleyball scale and currently the men’s and women’s team are both ranked #10 by FIVB. The women’s team won silver at the 2011 European Championship and a Bronze at the 2009 FIVB World Grand Prix. These medals were refreshing to see as years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 they had no medals in any competition. The men’s team won the European League in 2009 for their only medal in decades.
Despite their lack of dominance on the international level they do have a strong domestic volleyball scene. The top level is the German Volleyball League (Deutsche Volleyball Bundesliga) which was founded in 1974. It’s played in both mens and womens versions each with 12 teams. It can be bet online with ComeOn and most UK bookmakers.
The Turkish men’s national team is not too competitive. The women’s team is. They won Silver medals in European Volleyball League in 2009 and 2011, and won a Bronze in 2010. They also won silver at the 2009 Mediterranean Games and bronze medals at both the 2011 European Championship and 2012 FIVB World Grand Prix. Domestic leagues from Turkey do have a decent following.
On the domestic level professional volleyball is regulated by the Turkish Volleyball Federation (TVF) (Türkiye Voleybol Federasyonu). This was founded in 1958 and has three domestic leagues for each men and women. These are identified by number, Türkiye 1. Voleybol Ligi, Türkiye 2. Voleybol Ligi and Türkiye 3. Voleybol Ligi. There is also a Turkish Cup tournament for the top teams. The winners of 1. League and the Turkish Cup play in a Super Cup match.
The challenge with betting Turkish domestic volleyball is most sites don’t accept players from Turkey. For this there’s really only Tipico and Betboo as good options. Outside Turkey the sportsbooks covering these leagues are slim. Specifically the options I know of are BetVictor, ComeOn, Interwetten, PaddyPower, Sportingbet and William Hill. Sincerely I know of no other offering odds on Turkish domestic volleyball.
Bulgaria is the opposite of Turkey in that historically their men’s team has competed well, while the women’s team has not. This however might be changing some as the Bulgarian women have won a medal (2 silvers and 2 bronze) at the past four European League competitions. Their men’s side however has a long history of medals, never a gold, a couple silvers and mostly bronze medals.
Domestically Bulgarian volleyball does have a considerable following. The top level is called Superliga. Both the men’s and women’s league can be bet at www.comeon.com and Sportingbet. Most locals bet the men’s side with PAF, though it’s also available with SBObet.
Volleyball Betting Final Words
In this article I didn’t even come close to covering all the various volleyball domestic leagues available for betting. Also there are plenty of friendlies held as well. Some popular teams well followed on the national scale not covered in this article include Taipei, Iran and Colombia. Also Busaiteen Club (البسيتين) is one of the strongest volleyball teams in Bahrain and is worth a mention. For any other leagues or competitions not covered here ComeOn are the most likely to offer odds. Again volleyball is a great sport because it is a small market. Fans enjoy betting the major competitions but with some effort learning the leagues there’s a lot of profit to be had betting professional volleyball at the domestic level.
