Fenerbahçe S.K. vs. Olympiacos B.C. Prediction on October 4, 2024

Match info

Last season’s fallen semifinalists open the 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague cycle with a blast, as Fenerbahçe S.K. (Fenerbahçe Beko for sponsorship reasons) meet Olympiacos B.C. at home in Istanbul. The third-place match from the previous Final Four, which the “Kokkini” (the Reds) narrowly won, will be replayed only after 130 days in the 25th season of the best men’s basketball club competition in Europe. It gets underway on Friday, October 4, at 8:30 p.m. local time at the Ülker Sports Arena, with both teams being leveled up thanks to exciting signings during the summer.

Meeting statistics

The current form of Fenerbahçe S.K.

The EuroLeague season 2024-25 will likely see Fenerbahçe striving to take a step further than last year. The Turkish side has undoubtedly been among the busiest teams throughout the transfer market this summer. A lot of players have changed, including some important contributors who left, but the squad has also added players who have excelled in Europe.

After enduring one of their stormiest seasons in memory, the “Sarı Kanaryalar”—the Yellow Canaries—have reset. Dimitris Itoudis was the team’s head coach, and the club had big plans for him. But following a dismal season opener, it was determined that a total makeover was required, and the Greek coach was fired. Šarūnas Jasikevičius assumed his position. The Lithuanian is regarded as an old-school coach, just as he was while playing, but despite this, he was able to fully integrate with the club and bring out the best in everyone. He drastically altered the play style, and in a departure from his earlier coaching roles, he allowed the players a great deal of autonomy. Nigel Hayes-Davis, who proved to be one of the top power forwards in the EuroLeague the previous season, benefited immensely from this. Fenerbahçe, together with Barcelona, had the best home-court record (15-2) and ended the regular season in sixth position: 20-14. Panathinaikos were their opponents in the Final Four, and the Turkish club was going to face a formidable task right away. They were then defeated again, this time by Olympiacos, in the third-place match.

Along with Georgios Papagiannis, Johnathan Motley, Tyler Dorsey, and Yam Madar, Fener have lost Nick Calathes, the hero of the playoff series against Monaco. But they’ve added the explosive Wade Baldwin and Bonzie Colson from Maccabi, along with the seasoned Nicolo Melli and Devon Hall from Milano, to take their places. The largest question mark is around Khem Birch. Boban Marjanović, the most recent addition to Fenerbahçe’s squad, indicates that the Turkish team will have a very talented frontcourt this year. The Serbian center has been in the NBA since 2015, and his basketball acumen will be a huge benefit to Jasikevičius’ squad.

We’re not sure if we see them at the Final Four this year, however, the odds of bookmakers say otherwise. They are the fourth-biggest favorites to claim the EuroLeague title. As a matter of fact, Fenerbahçe are favorites in the upcoming match too, with odds of 1.71 on Frank Casino. Olympiacos are 2.20.

The current form of Olympiacos B.C.

Olympiacos have a definite goal in mind going into this season: to win the EuroLeague title. The Piraeus-based squad is keen to succeed after a string of near misses in recent years, especially after a busy summer of big signings targeted at winning the title.

The Greeks had a wild and spectacular season last year, making it to the Final Four before falling to Real Madrid in a rematch of the 2023 championship game. Even though they finished in third place, the team’s goals have increased, as evidenced by the big summertime signings.

The “Kokkini” (the Reds) have often finished in the top four over the previous three seasons, but they’ve heartbreakingly failed twice.

The strong team dynamic that Olympiacos’ head coach Georgios Bartzokas fostered was one of their main assets last season, although injuries dogged the group the entire time. Olympiacos had a 22-12 record at the end of the regular season in spite of these difficulties. The team was virtually untouchable in its Peace and Friendship Stadium, which once again proved to be a stronghold. Olympiacos fans were quite disappointed with the Final Four, even with their team’s heroics against Barcelona in the playoffs. Olympiacos cut into the lead but were unable to rally as Real Madrid dominated the game from beginning to end. What had been a promising season came to a sad conclusion.

Olympiacos have set the bar high; making it to the Final Four is inevitable, but they now need to go one step further and win the title for which they are marked by the second-biggest favorites by every basketball betting site, next to their arch-rivals Panathinaikos, who’ll be defending the championship. OLY hired Evan Fournier from the NBA and brought Sasha Vezenkov back from the same league. They also brought in Tyler Dorsey, Luca Vildoza, and Keenan Evans. It won’t be difficult to replace either of the guys who left during the off season.

Head-to-head

These two met 34 times (32 times in the EuroLeague and twice in friendlies). Olympiacos are slightly better with 19 wins, compared to Fener’s 15.

Match analytics

Given that it’s the first match of the EuroLeague season for both, and that the rosters of both are greatly changed in the summer and will need some time for things to settle down, we think that you should be avoiding the moneyline bet here. Opt for the under market.

Tip: Under/Over Including Overtime – Under 157.5, with odds of 1.98 on Thunderpick.