The first bookmakers' odds for the 2026/27 EuroLeague title, compiled by Basketball Sphere and reported by Sport5, expose a wide gulf between Israel's two clubs in the competition: Hapoel Tel Aviv sit among the genuine contenders, while Maccabi Tel Aviv are grouped deep in the also-ran pack.

Hapoel are priced at 12.00 to win the title, the fifth-best odds of any of the 20 teams in the field. Maccabi, by contrast, are all the way down at 34.00, tied for 14th — the gap that gave the Sport5 report its headline, framing Maccabi as "far from" their crosstown rivals this time out.

Panathinaikos head the market as 4.00 favourites, just ahead of defending champions Olympiacos at 4.25. Olympiacos beat Real Madrid 92-85 in Athens in May to win their fourth European Cup and first since 2013, but bookmakers rate the Greek club as a marginal second choice behind their compatriots for the coming campaign. Real Madrid and Fenerbahçe are tied for third-favourites at 8.00.

Hapoel sit just below that group, ahead of Barcelona and the newly moneyed Dubai Basketball, both priced at 15.00.

Sport5's analysis points to spending as the reason for Hapoel's rise up the market: alongside Dubai, the report says, Hapoel made the single biggest financial investment of any club in the competition this summer, in a squad rebuild aimed squarely at Europe's traditional powers.

That investment is visible on Hapoel's roster sheet. The club signed Vasilije Micic, the former EuroLeague MVP, alongside Czech veteran Tomas Satoransky, forward Zach LeDay and ex-Los Angeles Clippers wing Amir Coffey, while extending Ish Wainwright's contract through 2028 — a squad now built with genuine Final Four ambitions rather than simply another EuroLeague campaign to survive.

Maccabi's positioning tells the opposite story. Israel's most decorated club, six times champions of Europe, finished the 2025-26 EuroLeague regular season with a losing 18-20 record, and the bookmakers now rank them level with Valencia, Olimpia Milano and Partizan Belgrade — clubs Maccabi have traditionally finished above, not alongside.

Sport5's report does not write Maccabi off entirely, noting the squad still has the individual quality to trouble the favourites over the course of a long season, even if the odds imply their realistic title chances are slim.

The rest of the market runs Žalgiris Kaunas at 21.00, ASVEL Villeurbanne at 26.00, Andorra and Red Star Belgrade at 29.00, then the group of Valencia, Milan, Partizan and Maccabi at 34.00, Beşiktaş at 41.00, Baskonia at 81.00, and Virtus Bologna, Bayern Munich and Paris Basketball closing out the list at 101.00 apiece. The 2026/27 EuroLeague regular season is due to open in October, when the numbers will start to move for real.