Four women’s teams remaining out of the original 32 that started the main draw
following Thursday’s round of 16 and quarterfinals at the $440,000 FIVB Long Beach
Grand Slam double-gender tournament. Friday the FIVB Beach Volleyball World
Tour is back in the USA for the first time in a decade. While the men’s teams played
the last of three pool play matches on Thursday and the first single elimination match,
the women baked and battled under the warm Southern California sunshine. Friday
will be the semifinals and medal matches to conclude the women’s portion of the event.

The 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is back in the USA for the first
time since 2003. With the event being held for the first time in Long Beach the
purpose-built site is located on the expansive glistening sands of Marina Green
Park on East Lakeshore Drive. Matches at the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam,
presented by ASICS, are scheduled to start at 8:15 a.m. Friday with the men’s
round of 16 followed at 1:00 p.m. with the men’s quarterfinals and the men’s
semifinals will be at 4:15 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.


The women’s semifinals will be held at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. with the
women’s bronze at 2 p.m. followed by the women’s gold medal match at 3:00 p.m.
General admission is free to the event. VIP tickets are on sale through the
event website at www.wsobv.com.


With final four placements secured, meeting in the women’s semifinals Friday
will be Germany’s No. 7-seeded Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler vs. Brazil’s No.
4-seeded Maria Clara Salgado/Carolina Salgado and No. 2-seeded Taiana
Lima/Talita Antunes vs. USA’s No. 15-seeded Emily Day/Summer Ross.


To earn their final four spots by winning their respective Thursday’s
quarterfinal matches, Germany’s Holtwick/Semmler stopped USA’s No. 8-seeded
Lauren Fendrick/Brittany Hochevar, 21-16, 21-18 in 38 minutes; Brazil’s Salgado
sisters defeated No. 5-seeded compatriots Agatha Bednarczuk/Maria Antonelli,
23-21, 31-29 in 56 minutes; USA’s Day/Ross came from behind to upset Slovak
Republic’s No. 13-seeded Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nextarcova, 17-21, 21-13,
15-11 in 46 minutes and Brazil’s Lima/Antunes finally overcame Canada’s No.
24-seeded Sarah Pavan/Heather Bansley, 17-21, 21-15, 15-11 in 55 minutes. The
losing teams in the quarterfinals all leave Long Beach with official fifth place
finishes.


In the women’s round of 16 matchups that started Thursday’s competition
schedule, Germany’s Holtwick/Semmler eliminated Switzerland’s No. 17-seeded
Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre, 25-27, 21-18, 15-5 in 54 minutes; USA’s
Fendrick/Hochevar defeated No. 12-seeded compatriots Jennifer Fopma/Brooke
Sweat, 21-18, 22-20 in 37 minutes; Brazil’s Bednarczuk/Antonelli eliminated
USA’s top-seeded April Ross/Jennifer Kessy, 21-15, 13-21, 16-14 in 52 minutes
and Brazil’s Salgado sisters eliminated Switzerland’s No. 9-seeded Nadine
Zumkehr/Joana Heidrich, 21-15, 21-19 in 38 minutes.


In the second four matches of the round of 16 Thursday morning, Slovak
Republic’s Dubovcova/Nextarcova upset Brazil’s No. 3-seeded, Barbara
Seixas/Liliane Maestrini, 19-21, 21-16, 15-12 in 54 minutes; USA’s Day/Ross
upset Spain’s No. 6-seeded Liliana Fernandez/Elsa Baquerizo, 21-18, 21-15 in 39
minutes; Canada’s Pavan/Bansley outlasted Czech Republic’s No. 10-seeded
Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova, 21-18, 23-25, 15-11 in 60 minutes and
Brazil’s Lima/Antunes fought through a comeback attempt to beat Germany’s No.
20-seeded Jana Kohler/Anni Schumacher, 21-6, 19-21, 15-12 in 47 minutes.


After recording their fifth straight win in Long Beach with their
quarterfinal victory, Brazil’s Antunes, who with her teammate Taina Lima lead
the point standings in the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, said, “We
started better than Canada but they rallied to catch-up once we started making
mistakes in the first set. At that point we called a time out and said to one
another ‘lets stay focused here, they are doing well, but we can do this, it is
for the quarterfinals’. We just had to give ourselves the best chance to win.
You cannot get ahead of yourself. You must play one point at a time.”


In looking ahead to Friday’s semifinal against USA’s Day/Ross, Antunes
commented, “I think this will be a tough match! Everyone will be here to support
USA. Yet, I think it will still be fun, regardless. We did play against them in
the pool (and won) but this will be a completely different match, everything is
tougher at this point. We just need to prepare ourselves for the tough
match.”


The FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, presented by ASICS, is the showcase part of
the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball, a SoCal beach festival that includes
4-person and 6-person recreational events, a youth tournament and nightly music
concerts. Also part of the event is the inaugural ASICS World Series Cup
featuring two teams in each gender from the USA against two international teams
with the finals on Sunday. In addition to the international live FIVB telecasts,
the event also includes 23 hours of live or same-day telecasts split between NBC
Sports Network, Universal Network and NBC TV Network.


The women’s semifinals and medal matches of the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam
will be held on Friday with the men’s semifinals also on Friday and men’s medal
matches closing the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam on Saturday. Play Wednesday
through Friday will start at 8 a.m. and at 11 a.m. on Saturday for the men’s
medal matches.


The gold medal teams in each gender in the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam will
each split $33,000, the silver $22,000, the bronze $16,500 and fourth place
$12,900. The women’s medal matches will be held on Friday and the men’s medal
matches on Saturday. The FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam is the 291st FIVB
international men’s event since the FIVB began play in 1987 and the 253rd FIVB
women’s tournament since women started international competition in 1992.


The 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is comprised of 10 Grand Slam
events and the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. Not part of the
World Tour but still counting towards the FIVB World Rankings, the FIVB yearly
calendar also includes seven Open events, five double-gender and two women-only.
There is a double-gender FIVB Open event being playing this week as well in
Anapa, Russia.


After another week off next week, the 10-Grand Slam 2013 FIVB World Tour will
continue in two weeks in Germany at the $440,000 FIVB Berlin Grand Slam. The
season finale of the tour will be in Brazil in mid-October at the $440,000 FIVB
Sao Paulo Grand Slam.

Volleyball is a fairly popular sport. It has more of a following in some  countries, such as America, Brazil and Russia, then others. Because there isn’t  a huge fan base (it’s not considered a major, international sport), unless a  major tournament is being played, it can be difficult, if not impossible to find sportsbook that is offering volleyball bets. There simply aren’t a lot of big matches or enough bettors interested in consistently betting on the sport, to  justify sportsbooks taking bets. Most betting action for this sport will take  place during the FVIB World Championships, the Olympics and World League.

Volleyball Betting Types and Odds
There are a number of volleyball bets that bettors can make. We have reviewed some of the most common ones below.


Match Betting in Volleyball: This is a simple wager. Individuals are betting on the outcome of a match. Depending on the sportsbook, this wager may use either a decimal or fractional system. The payouts will be better for the underdog. This is to encourage betting on both teams. Bettors that bet on the team that is expected to lose, do so because the potential exists for them to receive a big payout, much larger then the one they would receive if they wagered on the winner and won. Odds makers offer these types of lines in order to entice bettors to bet on both sides of the match.


Point Spread: With this type of wager, the winning volleyball team must beat the spread in order for the bet to pay out. Some bettors like this bet because even if their team loses, they don’t as long as the winning team failed to cover the spread. This is how the sportsbook encourages even betting with these types of wagers.

Point Totals: This is a bet on how many points, total, will be scored  between the two volleyball teams. Bettors aren’t betting on the outcome of the  match but instead on how many points will be scored. This is an under/over bet.  The sportsbook will present a number and bettors will wager whether or not the  total number of points will be over or under that figure.


Set Handicap: This wager is on the outcome of a particular set. These  are offered at terms similar to match bets and are often listed in a decimal and fractional system. These are also sometimes listed as Moneyline bets.


Volleyball Major Events
FVIB World Championships: This is the oldest and most prestigious  volleyball tournament. It has been played since 1949. An indoor tournament, both the Russian men and women have dominated this event. The most recent champions on the women’s side are the Russians and Brazil for men.


Olympics: The Olympics occur every four years and is one of the  biggest sporting events in the world. The top national volleyball teams compete  for world dominance. The Olympics are watched by millions of people and are 
prime times to make sports bets.


World League: This tournament has been played since 1990 and is one of Volleyball’s most prestigious events. The men’s tournament is called the FIVB  World League and the women’s, the FIVB World Grand Prix. Italy and Brazil have  dominated this event, both winning it 8 times.


Volleyball Betting Strategy and Tips
The fan base for volleyball is pretty small when compared to the likes of  soccer and basketball. This provides both advantages and disadvantages. One  advantage is that there is less competition. This can result in more wins for 
those who do bet. Also, because so few people follow the sport, there is not a  lot of reporting done on it. Individuals really have to dig if they want to find good information about the sport. Because not everyone will do what it takes, 
those who will, have an advantage.


One disadvantage of volleyball not being a major sport is that sportsbooks don’t offer many bets on matches. Most often, bettors will have to wait for major events, like the ones mentioned above (see Major Events), before they are 
able to place a bet. For diehard fans, this can be very frustrating.


Even though there isn’t as much reporting on volleyball, as there are the  major sports, proper and thorough research is important for bettors. They will  need to know which teams are the best, whom the top players are, who’s injured 
and how many wins and losses a team has. All of this information will be necessary in order for individuals to make good bets. The Internet will probably be the best way to obtain this information. The sport’s international governing body’s website should also list matches, results and relevant information at  their website as well and is a good place to do research.


Volleyball isn’t considered a major sport, but it is still entertaining and  requires a great deal of skill and athleticism. It is also fun to watch.  Individuals that wish to bet on the sport will find that most action takes place during the Olympics, the World League, and World Championships. To give oneself the best chance at winning, proper and thorough research will be required. Comparing the odds made available by sportsbooks is also recommended. Doing so 
will ensure that bettors are able to qualify for the highest payouts possible.