Horse Racing stats man, Andy has contributed to OLBG for 18 years - An Ipswich fan and F1 fanatic, he also contributes EFL football and Motor Sport opinion.
2025 KBO League Preview
One thing which is apparent with the playoffs is the team who wins the league and in doing so gets an automatic spot in the final, really does have a big advantage and more than often, makes that advantage count.
Since 2002 the winner of the KBO Series has gone to the team that won the league in 21 of the 23 finals.
Having a break from the end of the regular season to the final seems to pay dividends, also the team they face could have played twelve additional games to get to the final depending on when they entered the playoffs.
That is certainly an important factor to consider when looking to back who will win the KBO Series!
Who will win the 2025 KBO Series? Head over to the baseball predictions to see which teams the OLBG baseball tipsters are picking daily and which teams they think will advance to the playoffs.
MLB Preview & Betting Guide
Most Successful KBO Franchises
The Samsung Lions lead the way for series appearances with a total of eighteen, they have won seven of those with eleven defeats and they did also win in 1985 when the league decided the winners so, in fact, have eight wins in total.
The Doosan Bears made their fifteenth appearance in 2021, they had made the last seven KBO series after 2021 but that came to an end in 2022 when they didn't even make the post-season and overall have won six of those with nine defeats.
Kia Tigers have by far the most impressive record in the series, they have made it into a total of twelve series and they remain undefeated in the series, they have won all twelve of those!
Past KBO Series Winners
Here are the last ten winners of the KBO Series.
| Year | Winners | Score | Losers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Kia Tigers (Lee Bum-ho) | 4-1 | Samsung Lions (Park Jin-man) |
| 2023 | LG Twins (Youm Kyoung-youb) | 4-1 | KT Wiz (Lee Kang-chul) |
| 2022 | SSG Landers (Kim Won-hyong) | 4-2 | Kiwoom Heroes (Hong Won-ki) |
| 2021 | KT Wiz (Lee Kang-chul) | 4-0 | Doosan Bears (Kim Tae-hyoung) |
| 2020 | NC Dinos (Lee Dong-wook) | 4-2 | Doosan Bears (Kim Tae-hyoung) |
| 2019 | Doosan Bears (Kim Tae-hyoung) | 4-0 | Kiwoom Heroes (Jang Jung-suk) |
| 2018 | SK Wyverns (Trey Hillman) | 4-2 | Doosan Bears (Kim Tae-hyoung) |
| 2017 | Kia Tigers (Kim Ki-tai) | 4-1 | Doosan Bears (Kim Tae-hyoung) |
| 2016 | Doosan Bears (Kim Tae-hyoung) | 4-0 | NC Dinos (Kim Kyung-moon) |
| 2015 | Doosan Bears (Kim Tae-hyoung) | 4-1 | Samsung Lions (Ryu Joong-il) |
How do KBO Favourites Perform?
When comparing the KBO favourite statistics with another Asian league, the NPB is Japan, the home favourites are similar, over the past five seasons in the KBO they have a 57.3% win rate whilst in Japan that is 54.5% so slightly better in this league.
The big difference comes with favourites on the road, in Japan, those have a win rate of 49.6% so less than half of them win, however, in the KBO that figure is 55.3% which is quite a bit better meaning overall the KBO is a more reliable league than the NPB for winning favourites.
| Season | Home Favs | Visiting Favs |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 251-408 (.615) | 183-309 (.592) |
| 2021 | 223-426 (.523) | 130-284 (.458) |
| 2022 | 230-423 (.544) | 172-296 (.581) |
| 2023 | 242-390 (.621) | 184-323 (.570) |
| 2024 | 232-409 (.567) | 171-306 (.559) |
| Total | 1178-2056 (.573) | 840-1518 (.553) |
2024 KBO Playoffs Recap
Here is how the 2024 playoffs were won where once again the regular season winners who advanced straight to the final made their advantage count!
What is the KBO Baseball League?
The KBO League otherwise known as the Korea Baseball Championship is the top-tier league in South Korean baseball which was established in 1982, originally with six teams, it has expanded to a ten-team league. The league is very popular around the world with baseball fans with the majority of those ranking this league in the three or five leagues in the world behind only the MLB and Japanese NPB.
South Korean fans love their baseball and the league is the most popular league in the country, figures from the 2017 season showed that throughout the season, a total of 8.4 million spectators attended the games, with 720 games during the season, that was on average an attendance of 11,666 which just goes to show how much the South Koreans love their baseball!
The fans play a big part in the game, their enjoyment of the match is second to none, they sing, dance and do everything in their power to enjoy the game no matter the score! The following video is a great watch for a quick introduction to the league.
The KBO League Structure
The KBO League has games every day except for Monday during the regular season, the ten teams play each of the other teams sixteen times which results in a total of one-hundred and forty-four games being played by each team, this has been the case since 2015, the season when the league was expanded to ten teams with the addition of KT Wiz.
There are no divisions or conferences like the MLB, this is simply because there are only ten teams compared to the thirty in the MLB and it's a simple qualification system in place to get into the playoffs. Come to the end of the season, the team finishing top of the league get an automatic spot in the final of the playoffs, the team in second goes straight into the semi-finals, the team in third goes into the quarter-finals whilst the teams in fourth and fifth compete in the first playoff game for a spot in the quarter-final that means, the better your regular season goes, the better reward you get in the playoffs.
Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Preview & Betting Guide
Unlike the MLB, draws are an acceptable result in the KBO, if there is a draw in the playoffs then the match is replayed, this means that whilst the series is best 5 & 7, there could be more matches than those numbers. For playoff games, once the fifteenth innings have been completed and there is still no winner, the game will then be declared a tie, during the regular season, there is a limit of twelve innings before being declared a tie.
- KBO Wild Card Game
- 4th vs 5th (Best of 3 - 4th starts with a 1-0 lead and wins with a tie)
- KBO Quarter-Finals
- 3rd vs Wild Card Winner (Best of 5)
- KBO Semi-Finals
- 2nd vs Semi-Final Winner (Best of 5)
- KBO Korean Series
- 1st vs Semi-Final winner (Best of 7)
An introduction to the KBO League Teams
One thing which you will notice with the KBO teams is that most of them have a company name within their team names all bar one of the teams are named after their owners, that one exception is the Kiwoom Heroes who sold their naming right but as you can see, the likes of KIA, LG and Samsung all own teams in the KBO league. The six founding teams of the league were the Haitai Tigers (KIA Tigers), Lotte Giants, MBC Chungyong (LG Twins), OB Bears (Doosan Bears), Sammi Superstars (Ceased in 2008) and the Samsung Lions.
Remember to head over to the Baseball Best Handicappers page where those who have shown a profit with their baseball predictions will be highlighted, many of them will follow certain KBO teams and give you an expert opinion on each of the games.
Doosan Bears
- City: Seoul
- Stadium: Jamsil Baseball Stadium
- Capacity: 25,000
- Founded: 1982
Hanwha Eagles
- City: Daejeon
- Stadium: Hanwha Life Eagles Park
- Capacity: 13,000
- Founded: 1985 (Joined 1986)
KIA Tigers
- City: Gwangju
- Stadium: Gwangju-Kia Champions Field
- Capacity: 20,500
- Founded: 1982
Kiwoom Heroes
- City: Seoul
- Stadium: Gocheok Sky Dome
- Capacity: 16,744
- Founded: 2008
KT Wiz
- City: Suwon, Gyeonggi
- Stadium: Suwon kt wiz Park
- Capacity: 20,000
- Founded: 2013 (Joined 2015)
LG Twins
- City: Seoul
- Stadium: Jamsil Baseball Stadium
- Capacity: 25,000
- Founded: 1982
Lotte Giants
- City: Busan
- Stadium: Sajik Baseball Stadium
- Capacity: 24,500
- Founded: 1975 (Joined 1982)
NC Dinos
- City: Changwon, Gyeongnam
- Stadium: Changwon NC Park
- Capacity: 22,112
- Founded: 2011 (Joined 2013)
Samsung Lions
- City: Daegu
- Stadium: Daegu Samsung Lions Park
- Capacity: 24,000
- Founded: 1982
SGG Landers
- City: Incheon
- Stadium: Incheon SSG Landers Field
- Capacity: 23,000
- Founded: 2000
Article Contributor Information
Andy Powell stands as the linchpin behind OLBG's dynamic baseball content, blending his passion for the MLB and international leagues like NPB and KBO by creating and maintaining the baseball content on OLBG which includes this KBO League Preview.
The statistics used in this blog include only regular season games from the beginning of the 2020 season until the end of the 2024 season.
Andy Powell
Content Editor
Other Baseball Blogs
Here are the other baseball preview blogs that we have here on OLBG.
