Basketball At 2016 Olympic Games
Basketball is set to be a major part of the 2016 Summer Olympics which take place in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The basketball matches will take place between the 6th of August and the 21st of August, with all of the games taking place in the Carioca Arena 1, which is located in the Olympic Park. For the purpose of the basketball tournament at the Rio games, the capacity of the arena will be 16,000 people.
Carioca Arena 1
In addition to hosting the basketball games at the 2016 Olympic Games, the venue will also be used at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, where it will play host to wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby games.
The stadium is located in the Barra da Tijuca area of the city and this is found in the west zone of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. After the Olympic Game, the arena, like many of the venues in the Barra Olympic Park, will be converted into an Olympic Training Centre. While the venue has a 16,000 capacity for the basketball events at the Rio Games, the capacity of the training centre will be set at 5,000 going forwards from the summer events.
The tournament
The basketball tournament of the Rio Games will be split into two key sections, the group stage and the knock-out stage.
There will be 12 teams taking part in the basketball tournament at the 2016 Games, and this will see two groups of six countries with every team playing their group opponent once. Winning teams will be presented with two points for the game and the team that loses will receive one point. Both groups will see the top four teams qualify for the knock-out stages, leaving us with 8 teams, which means that the knockout round begins at the quarter-final stage.
If separating teams, the following criteria will be used:
- Points
- Head to head results between teams who are equal on points
- Points difference
- Points scored
Group A
Group A will consist of six teams with two teams still looking to qualify from the July Olympic Qualifying tournaments. The four teams who have already booked their place in the Olympic Games include United States of America, Venezuela, China and Australia.
The first game in Group A takes place on the 6th of August while the last game in Group A takes place on the 14th of August.
Group B
Group B will also consist of six teams but there is only one place remaining and this spot will be filled from the July Olympic Qualifying tournaments. The five teams who have already booked their spot in Group B in the Olympic Games are Brazil (who qualified as hosts), Spain, Argentina, Lithuania and Nigeria.
The first game in Group B takes place on the 7th of August while the last game in Group A takes place on the 15th of August.
Knockout stage
The knockout stage begins on August 17th with all four matches at this round taking place on this date.
The run-down of fixtures at the quarter-final stage is as follows:
- Game 1: Winner of Group A v Fourth placed team in Group B
- Game 2: Runner-up of Group B v Third placed team in Group A
- Game 3: Runner-up of Group A v Third placed team in Group B
- Game 4: Winner of Group B v Fourth placed team in Group A
The semi-final matches will take place on 19th August and are as follows:
- Game 4: Winner of Game 1 v Winner of Game 2
- Game 5: Winner of Game 3 v Winner of Game 4
The two losing sides of the semi-final stage will take place in the third and fourth placed play-off match on the 21st of August. The winner of this game will take the Bronze medal for the Olympic Games. The two winning sides of the semi-final stage will take place in the Championship match, which also takes place on the 21st of August.
2016 Olympic Games Futures Market
With over a month to go until the beginning of the basketball tournament at the 2016 Rio Games, there is plenty of time to get involved with the Futures market. The rosters are being finalised at the moment and even though Team USA look set to be without the two biggest stars of the NBA, you would still expect the Americans to be the strongest team in the tournament. If you are looking to back Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games, you’ll need to wager a lot of money to get anything of worth back. Those that are extremely confident of the team’s march to success will consider this to be an invitation to buy money but all it takes is one off night and you may find yourself losing out on a lot of money.
If you expect America to win this event, it is likely you will make better use of their money by placing bets on them to win individual matches and then roll over your winnings throughout the tournament. However, if you expect there to be an upset, the Futures market is one well worth considering. With teams still playing for the right to be involved with the tournament, the Futures market isn’t yet settled but as soon as it is, we’ll provide you with the latest basketball betting options for the Futures market.