The 2011 NBA play-offs is when the basketball magic really starts.

Eight teams from each of the league's two conferences will qualify for the playoffs, all seeded 1 to 8 in a tournament bracket, with all rounds contested in a best-of-seven format.

The play-offs will begin on April 16 and for the eight teams that have jostled their way to the top of the standings, 2011 offers hope that a gruelling schedule and marathon list of fixtures are finally going to come to fruition with a series of results which will propel them to the title of world champions.

THE NBA proudly, and without a trace of modesty, declares itself as the place where “amazing happens”.

The league is seldom, if ever, undersold and there is an enormous variety of betting markets to be exploited by UK-based internet fans of the game searching for good value odds across basketball betting markets.

Thirty teams compete across a winter season, with more than 80 regular matches per team, the sheer weight of fixtures highlights the amount of scope there is for sports bets on basketball.

History tells us that up until the mid-90s, pro basketball was a game played by Americans and consumed primarily by a domestic market. However, with the FIBA world championship final scheduled to take place in Turkey on 12 September, so basketball and the scale of world basketball championship betting has boomed in comparison with just a decade ago.

Betting on the FIBA world championship has been radically transformed by the internet, a place where odds, fixtures, results and a host of free bets are to be unearthed.

The WNBA is the success story of professional women’s sports in America. From its foundations less than 15 years ago the organisation has grown from strength to strength, and WNBA betting is becoming an increasingly attractive proposition for UK internet customers seeking better value odds and a change of scene from following football results on a Saturday afternoon.

Live WNBA betting offers broad scope for a variety of bets, from leading scorer in an individual match to number of points scored or fouls committed; in short, WNBA betting lines are tremendously varied.