Fortune favors the bold, especially when it comes to betting on basketball games. The NBA is hands down the best basketball league in the world, full of elite players and iconic franchises. Since more and more states have legalized
As such, the top US basketball betting sites offer a tremendous array of betting markets on each NBA game, and you can test your betting prowess on all sorts of intriguing basketball game props and thought-provoking player bets. These bets are easily accessible, and if you have the funds in your betting account, you can place an NBA parlay with massive potential returns in a matter of seconds. Whether you are going to back the favorites, bet on an in-form player or go for a long shot is all up to you.
Since more and more states have legalized sports betting, the interest in NBA public betting has grown. Our job is to show you how to get started, and feed you with useful information and winning NBA picks to help you turn a profit from your basketball betting.
Getting the Best Value for Your Basketball Wagers
There are no guaranteed results or surefire-winning formulas, but we do advise our readers to cast a wide net in terms of betting markets. You may find more success using standard betting markets such as moneylines or totals, but there are so many other bets that you have at your disposal. And with more betting opportunities, we are talking longer odds and endless possibilities to make bank on your basketball betting predictions. Setting a budget and using tools such as a Kelly Criterion calculator can help you determine how much you should spend on your wagers, and ensure that you avoid those big losses. Then, there will be golden opportunities on longshot bets, which can bring considerable returns even on the smallest stakes.
Understanding NBA Betting Odds
The NBA is one of the most popular sports betting markets in the US. If you are a passionate NBA fan or just a casual watcher of sports news to get the latest NBA odds, you can place informed bets. If you are relatively new to sports betting, phrases such as betting lines and overs might sound complicated, but once you fully grasp what the odds mean, you will find it all exciting.
If you are unsure how to navigate betting on the NBA playoffs and what all of these bet terms mean, we have listed the most prominent types of wagers below. All of these bets are available at the best online sportsbooks which have extensive NBA coverage.
Types of Basketball Wagers
There are occasions when predicting the winner of a game is actually a lot harder than betting on game aspects such as team performance statistics or player points. Or, you may have a solid hunch but the odds are not long enough for you to consider staking a bet. Instead of settling on a bet that does not satisfy, you can explore different types of bets, alternative betting lines, or find wagers that can be combined into a Same Game Parlay, to get the desirable risk-for-reward ratio. You will find an abundance of different types of bets on NBA games, the range of NBA betting markets are impressive. There are other basketball competitions at the top US basketball sportsbooks, and we, at BettingTools, are here to show you how to best use them.
Basketball Moneylines
Moneylines are two-way bets on a basketball game, in which you have to predict the winner of the game. You can bet on the home team or on the away team to win, and if you predict correctly you will win your bet. On the subject of overtime, for regular moneylines it does not matter whether your chosen team wins in the regulated time or whether they seize the win in overtime. Unless the moneyline bet specifically states that the result does not include overtime, but in those rare cases, the moneyline will be split three ways with an option to bet on the game to go to overtime (that is, a draw outcome in regulated time). Moneylines are the bread and butter of lots of sports bettors, as they are straightforward and generally tipsters will predict moneylines ahead of any other bet. Moneyline odds are easy to understand as ultimately you are just picking who will win the game outright.
Basketball Spreads
Spreads are similar to moneylines, in that you need to pick the winner of a game, but it introduces the concept of a betting line. To give both teams a 50-50 chance of winning, the sportsbook uses a betting line that closes the gap on the teams. This moneyline is subtracted from the stronger team’s score, or, if you bet on the underdogs, it is added to the underdog’s score. So for example, let’s say that there is a game between the Boston Celtics and the Denver Nuggets, in which the Celtics have the edge over the Nuggets. The sportsbook may offer a line of 3.5. If you bet on the Celtics, they would have a -3.5 spread and would need to win the game by 4 points or more. A bet on the Nuggets would have a +3.5 points boost through the spread, and you will win as long as the Nuggets can beat the Celtics with the points boost.
The official betting line is always the closest one to bringing both teams level. The odds on either team should be -110, or just slightly longer or shorter. But you don’t need to stick to the official line. If you want longer point spread odds on the favorites, you can explore the alternative spreads and pick a bigger line, adding more risk to the bet but increasing the odds significantly. Should you want to minimize the risk, you can choose a more favorable line on the favorites, but this will shrink the odds on them to win.
Basketball Totals
Totals are bets on how many points will be scored by both teams in a single game. This is the combined score of both teams and it does not matter which team wins the game. This wager also uses a betting line and your job is to predict whether the game will end with a number of points over the line or to end with a sum of points under the line.
The official betting line is usually drawn at the number of points that the two teams are predicted to hit, so a bet on over or under usually come at odds of -110. Just like with spreads, you can open the alternative totals bets and look for a larger line or a smaller one. The longest odds are on Over bets with a big line, or on Under bets using a small line. If you want to play safe though, you can bet Over a small line or on Under a large line. This flexibility allows you to define a range of points, and get the exact risk-to-reward ratio you need.
Basketball Game Props
Beyond totals, spreads and moneylines, there are loads more bets that you can experiment with. For example, you can find those three betting markets on a specific half or quarter of a game. You can therefore bet on the moneyline winner in the first quarter, how many points will be scored in the first half, and on a team to beat the spread in the third quarter. These special NBA game prop bets relate to only the specific period as if they were an individual event. It does not matter if your chosen moneyline team is losing when the second quarter starts – if they score more points than their opponents in the second quarter then you will win your second quarter moneyline bet.
Then, there are various totals on specific scoring methods. You can bet on the rebounds, threes, and dunks. A massively popular bet among NBA fans is the Race To markets, where you have to predict which team will reach a certain number of points first. If you want to swing for some longshots, then the correct score bets are usually offered with odds of +30,000 and even higher. For less risk, another longshot is the Winning Margin bets, where you have to predict which team will win and how many points they may win the game by, such as between 1-5 points.
Basketball Player Bets
NBA player bets are among the most popular bets with sports bettors, especially as there are lots of opportunities to tie them together into SGPs or SGPx parlay bets. You will find bets on player total points scored, total dunks, total assists, total rebounds, total threes, and loads more. There are also bets on which players will lead the stats for points scored, threes made, rebounds, and so on. The top sportsbooks also offer head to head bets on players, giving you the chance to pick the stat leader between two players. The possibilities are endless, and with key betting insights at BettingTools and loads of statistical information to rely on, the player betting markets are a real goldmine for NBA bettors.
Basketball Live Bets
You can place bets during a basketball game, taking advantage of the live odds offered. Using live bets has lots of advantages, best of all, you can check out how the teams are playing and spot indicators that may impact the outcome. You will have opportunities to bet on ongoing quarters, and what will happen next in a game, but you have to be quick when placing your bets. The odds update in real time and every single point scored can affect the price of your picks. Live betting is not all about placing bets either. Some bets have a cashout function, where the sportsbook gives you an offer to buy your bet back. If your pick is doing well, you can expect a nice large cashout offer. Should your bet be losing, the cashout offer will be far smaller than your stake, but at the very least, it cuts your losses.
Basketball Futures Bets
Futures are bets on what will happen at the end of the season. For example, you may find bets on the winners of each Division or Conference. Top sportsbooks also offer futures on teams to make the playoffs, or how far they may reach in the postseason. The most popular futures bets are on the outright winner of the NBA Championships, the Rookie of the Year Award and the Most Valuable Player Award. The top basketball betting sites offer futures bets extremely early, even before the next basketball season starts. The betting markets remain open throughout the NBA season (until they are resolved), but the odds change constantly. The best time to bet on NBA title favorites is before any of the games have started, as their early bird odds are generally the longest. The sportsbooks listed above all provide excellent NBA futures odds, allowing you to predict the NBA Championship winner pretty much as soon as the previous season finishes.
We like good futures bets at BettingTools, and always check the futures odds at the start of the season and review them every now and again once the season is in full flow.
