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Betting Guide
All we really want when watching the NBA Playoffs is a great series. If we have a favorite team, that’s one thing, but in general all we’re looking for is a great series with competitive basketball. It’s why we watch these series between teams that we have no rooting interest in and why we watch basketball to begin with. Competition, skill and drama, that’s what playoff basketball is all about.
There are times when we hope a series will be good and times when we know it won’t. Whatever the scenario, you can bet on it with the NBA Playoffs Total Games Played plays. Sometimes you don’t want to pick a winner, sometimes you just want to watch great basketball and that’s what this one is all about.
This article will cover what exactly NBA Playoffs Total Games Played bets are, how to bet them, the best place to bet them and our strategy for placing winning bets. Let’s get right into it.
Where To Bet NBA Playoffs Total Games Played:
America: Bovada
Canada: Bodog offer this on all the series of the NBA Playoffs.
Everywhere Else: 888 offer this on each playoff series as a total. So you could be over or under 4.5, 5.5 or 6.5 games.
What are NBA Playoffs Total Games Played Bets?
Simply put, how many games will the series go? Not who wins or what city the Finals will end in, but simply how many games the series will see.
This is a nice way to sort of hedge what you think might happen. For instance, you think there is a chance of an upset. That’s usually six games so the underdog can close at home. Of course, the home team might not lose any home games and you could see the underdog team in an elimination game six at home.
Or maybe you are like me and just like to do this to bet on whether you think a series will be good or not. Six games or seven games, that’s a good series. Four or five, not so much.
There are two ways to bet this depending on the sportsbook.
The first is that you pick a number and bet on it. Each number will have different odds on it depending on the likely outcome of the series. So, if it is a dominating #1 seed taking on a weak #8 seed, it might look like this:
4 games -250
5 games -150
6 games +120
7 games +200
If you were to bet on the series going short, you need to pay for it. You would need to bet $250 to win $100, or a $100 bet that would pay only $40, if you want to bet on the sweep here. You might get slightly better odds on a gentleman’s sweep, but you would still be betting more than you will receive back.
However, if you bet $100 on it going seven games and it did then you would get paid $250. The positive odds mean you get more money back than you risk.
The second is an over/under in which you can bet over or under on a set length of games in the series. That would look like this for a strong #1 versus weak #8 match-up:
4.5 games Under (-100) Over (-100)
5.5 games Under (-120) Over (+150)
6.5 games Under (-200) Over (+200)
In this scenario, if you think the series is going to get seven games then you would bet over on the 6.5. A $100 bet would pay $200 there. If you think it will be a sweep, you need to go under on the 4.5.
Common NBA Playoffs Total Games Played Questions:
How likely is the Finals to go seven games?
A fun bet time to make a total games played is the Finals. What better time to hope for a great series than in the Finals? A lot of people might even think to bet the Finals to go seven games because how awesome would that be?
However, the NBA Finals has only gone to seven games roughly 25% of all NBA Finals. The average Finals length is around 5.75 so five or six seems like the best bet.
How To Bet NBA Playoffs Total Games Played:
888: These types of bets can be found in the “Outrights” section of basketball. Find the series markets for the series you are interested and scroll down to “Team Specials”.
Bovada: Under the “NBA Playoffs Series Prices” section you will find all of the series of the round. Click the “+” with the number and scroll down until you find the total games played.
NBA Playoffs Total Games Betting Strategy:
The length of the series is always dependent on the quality of the teams playing in it. The early rounds, when you have the 1 vs. 8 and 2 vs. 7 series? Give me the under, the low numbers.
One thing I like to keep an eye on is the “gentleman’s sweep” which is what some people call a 4-1 series win. This is where one team is clearly better, but for whatever reason they lose one game during the series. I feel like we see these a lot during the early rounds of the NBA playoffs. It can make an over 4.5 bet on a big favorite look pretty good.
For the Conference Finals though? Give me the over. These are usually the best teams in the league facing off and they know how to protect their home courts. We see it so often where teams win all of their home games and we get a game seven. Winning game six on the road is nearly as hard as winning game seven on the road. The later the round, the more games I am looking for in a series.
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