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Betting Guide
While there are many different ways to bet NBA basketball, the bread and butter of it is still betting on individual NBA Games. That’s what we’re covering here today.
There are a lot of options when it comes to betting NBA games with a ton of different types of bet to choose from.
The simple bets which would be outright winner to point spreads to over/unders. There lots of variants for each too, but we’ll try to keep this article simple.
Where To Bet NBA Games:
America: You can go pretty much anywhere to bet NBA gams, but our favorite place for US bettors is Bovada. They offer up to date lines, competitive point spreads and a ton of game props.
Canada: Sports Interaction is pretty much the standard bearer for betting NBA games in the Great White North.
Everywhere Else: There are many great places to bet NBA games, but 888 is one of the best options out there. Nice lines, plenty of options and interesting game props to go with them.
What is betting on NBA Games?
This is a pretty simple thing – you bet money on the outcome of a NBA game. Simple.
You can bet NBA games by doing any of the following:
Moneyline: Put simply, you are betting on who will win the game. The line will be set with a price on both sides. The favorite might be a negative number like -150 (meaning you have to bet $150 to win $100) and the underdog might be a positive number like +150 (meaning you win $150 if you bet $100). That’s why it’s called the moneyline because there is a price attached to each side.
These bets are simple because if the team you picks wins, you win.
Point Spread: This is a bit more complicated as the favorite will “lay” points to the underdog. So, let’s say the Warriors are playing the Kings. Warriors are great, Kings are bad. The Warriors in this game might be a -11 favorite. This means if you bet the Warriors they have to win by 12 or more for you to win the bet. Vice versa, if you bet the Kings you only need them to lose by 10 or less.
These are the most popular basketball bets out there. The lines often change throughout the day based on more information becoming available as well as the popularity of the bet.
Over/Unders:: Or the total of amount of points. This is when the sportsbook sets a number for a game and you have to decide if you think the total score will be over or under that amount. Take that hypothetical Kings vs. Warriors game, the total on this one might be set at 221. This means that the total combined score of both teams must be over or under 221. A 120-100 game would be a loss. A 122-100 game would be a win.
Game Props: There can be quite a lot of these and they are basically betting on things that happen with the game. Things like Highest Scoring Quarter, First Team to Reach 10 points, whether the game finishes with an odd or even total and win margins.
Common NBA Game Betting Questions:
Is home court advantage a real thing?
The short answer is yes.
The long answer is not as much as it used to be. Home court winning percentages have gone down in recent years. In the 2002-2003 season we saw home teams win 62.8 percent of their games and that number steadily declined from that point. In recent years we’ve seen this number dip below 60% so while a home team is still a pretty solid bet it is not as good as it one was.
How to Bet NBA Games:
Bovada: Click the “Basketball” section on the sidebar and then all the NBA Games will be listed there. You can simply click on what you want to bet – ie: Raptors -7 – and it will show up in the sidebar under “Bet Slip”. Just put in the amount you want to risk there.
Sports Interaction: Click “Basketball” on the left sidebar then “NBA” and that will list the games you can bet on. It will just list the basic betting but there is an option to click “More Betting” and see everything you can bet on for that particular game.
888: On the left sidebar, click “NBA” which should be under “Popular”. The games will be listed and you can either choose to bet the money line or spread or total, or click the +101 or whatever and see the additional betting options for that particular game.
NBA Games Betting Strategy:
The most overlooked thing, but one of the most important things to look in betting NBA games is rest. The NBA schedule is one of the most brutal in sports as they travel all across the country and usually only stay for one night before moving to another city to play a single game the next night. It’s always good to look for “scheduled losses” which is a game in which a team is playing their third game in five nights (or worse, fifth in eight days) while also playing on a back-to-back. Teams lose these games quite a bit and they are usually just chalked up to being victims of the schedule.
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