NPB Predictions - Japanese Baseball League
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Nippon Professional Baseball League
Baseball in Japan is thriving. It is the number one sport in the nation, ranking better than football, volleyball, and any other competitive sports played in the Land of the Rising Sun. Every child in Japan dreams of becoming a professional baseball player.
You would think that most of them dream of making it big in MLB. In fact, what they strive to do is play in the local NPB league. The Nippon Professional Baseball League is considered to be on par with the MLB, with a lot of players transitioning from Japan to the US through it.
More so, the popularity of NPB has naturally increased the value of wagering on the sport. Many people are in search of good NPB predictions and want to find ways to place sports bets on the league. With our baseball picks and odds, you can have a clear overview of what can be expected.
NPB Predictions and Betting Tips
Most recently, the Japanese baseball national team won the World Baseball Classic against the USA in the final. Both teams were stacked with both MLB and NPB players, and it showed just how strong NPB is. It all attests to the development of the league, which has been making higher and wider striders throughout the years.
Knowing how to make good Japanese baseball predictions has, for that reason, become a necessary skill to have. It requires a lot of knowledge and dedication to get them right. But a faster way to do it is to check out the picks that our expert tipsters have for you.
Our page is specifically designed to cater to users who want to learn more about the league as well as find the necessary Japan baseball predictions. You can view the top three picks of the day on top of the page, or you can check out all the NPB predictions today and see which games are being played at the moment.
Our community is comprised of a variety of tipsters who are knowledgeable about the sport as well as the league. They are more than qualified to bring you both the coverage and prime picks about every game whenever you need it. There are thousands of tips on a daily basis which you can find on today’s predictions page.
Japan NPB Teams and Fixtures
Ever since the 1950 season, the NPB has been divided into the Central League and Pacific League. Both leagues count six teams, respectively. A single team plays 143 games a year during the regular season. A team from one League faces its intra-league opponents about 25 times while playing against their inter-league opponents six times.
The top three teams from every league advance to what is called the Climax Series championship play-off tournament, with the two winners of the tournament going to the Nippon Series. NPB usually starts in late March and lasts until its conclusion with a best-of-seven series between the Central and Pacific league winners.
Central League | Pacific League |
Chunichi Dragons | Chiba Lotte Marines |
Hanshin Tigers | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks |
Hiroshima Toyo Carp | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters |
Tokyo Yakult Swallows | Orix Buffaloes |
Yokohama DeNA BayStars | Saitama Seibu Lions |
Yomiuri Giants | Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles |
With the league stretching to so many games, there is a lot of room for making many baseball picks. There are quite a few important matchups, with the game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers and their rivalry being dubbed the Emperor’s Game.
How to Bet On NPB?
Making some top NPB picks requires you to have adequate knowledge of both the sport and the league. Those who want to be good at Japanese baseball predictions also have to go through a variety of preparations.
Knowledge of the league is essential but also finding the best odds among all baseball picks. You have to know about the best teams and the league’s history as much as possible. Also, it is good if you are aware of betting trends when it comes to baseball and learn all the basic bet types.
When creating your bet slip, you have to carefully assess the situation first. Knowing the current form of the teams, the atmosphere within a team and the latest stories about the players, as well as their preseason preparations. Knowing the team’s ambition prior to the start of the season as well as how their team is structured, will help a lot.
You can decide to create a single bet or an accumulator bet, the choice is up to you. What we advise you to do is to always check the odds prior to confirming your bet and never wager more than you are willing to lose. You can check all the NPB predictions today available on this page and get some tips as well as some pieces of advice before devising your final bet.
Some of the usual types of bets that you can use for NPB games are moneyline bets, futures, run line betting, prop betting, as well as handicaps. If you are not familiar with baseball betting, you can learn a lot from our baseball betting guide.
NPB Past Winners
The NPB as we know it today was established in 1950 and currently counts 74 seasons. The current champions are the Orix Buffaloes, which captured their fight title in its history by defeating the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in the Japan Series by 4–2–1.
The most successful club in history are the Yomiuri Giants, which have 22 trophies so far, with their latest one coming in 2012. However, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have established their dominance in the league in recent years, grabbing six titles in the last 10 years.
Season | Winner | Runner-Up | Score |
2022 | Orix Buffaloes | Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 4-2-1 |
2021 | Tokyo Yakult Swallows | Orix Buffaloes | 4-2 |
2020 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | Yomiuri Giants | 4-0 |
2019 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | Yomiuri Giants | 4-0 |
2018 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | Hiroshima Toyo Carp | 4-1-1 |
2017 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | Yokohama DeNA BayStars | 4-2 |
2016 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | Hiroshima Toyo Carp | 4-2 |
2015 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 4-1 |
2014 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | Hanshin Tigers | 4-1 |
Best Players in NPB
With the regular Japan baseball predictions, you are going to need to know more about their best players. It does not act as a feeder league to the MLB as it did in the past. There are a lot of stars who decide to stay at home and play for their favourite NPB clubs.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Orix Buffaloes is definitely one of the best pitchers in the league. As far as batsmen go, his teammate Masataka Yoshida is at the very top of the league as well. At the shortstop position, there is no one better than Kenta Imamiya from the Hawks. While Munetaka Murakami of the Yakult Swallows thrives at third base.
Other Baseball Leagues
Being familiar only with the Nippon Professional Baseball League is not enough if you want to be successful at baseball betting. You need to follow other famed leagues so you can make great NPB predictions. MLB is probably the best and most-known baseball league in the world. However, besides it, there is also the Korean KBO League as well as the Taiwan 1 League, which ranks at the very top. You will have the predictions in advance on tomorrow’s betting tips and upcoming predictions.
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