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Betting Guide
The NBA draft has seemingly grown in importance every year. Teams going selling their assets to go all-in on draft picks has become the norm and the rookie class seemingly gets better every year. The NBA Rookie of the Year is always a race and one of the most fun aspects of an NBA season to bet on.
Let’s take a look at how to bet on the NBA Rookie of the Year Award and where the best place to do it.
Where To Bet NBA Rookie of the Year:
America: Bovada is one of the best sites for NBA Rookie of the Year betting. They always post the odds early in the season and have them up in late June as well.
Canada: Canadians are lucky as they have Sports Interaction who always post really good numbers on NBA awards including the Rookie of the Year.
Everywhere Else: One of the best books for posting timely NBA Rookie of the Year odds is Bet365 Sportsbook. They offer competitive lines and a simple to use interface. Note that if you are looking for other futures they aren’t the best site for that as they don’t have them throughout the season. See our article on Where to Bet NBA Futures for that.
What is NBA Rookie of the Year betting?
The NBA Rookie of the Year betting is simple, you place a bet during the preseason or regular season on which rookie is going to win the Rookie of the Year award with odds set on the favorites.
Take for example, the 2016 NBA Rookie of the Year. When the odds were released, they had Emmanuel Mudiay listed as the favorite at +300. He was followed by Jahill Okafor at +400, Karl-Anthony Towns at +450, D’Angelo Russell at +600 and Justise Winslow at +1400. The Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis was at +1500. Before the season a person could look at these odds and place a wager on one of them. These odds are listed in the American format so a $100 wager on Mudiay would pay $300.
The winner for the 2015-2016 season ended up being Karl-Anthony Towns so everyone who took him at +450 won their wager. Everybody else lost. Each year the odds are released towards the start of the season and that is the time that you can get the best odds on players with the caveat that you have the least amount of knowledge of their skills or playing time.
Common NBA Rookie of the Year Questions:
When are the odds for NBA Rookie of the Year posted?:
Sometime between the NBA Draft and the beginning of the following season you will typically see odds posted for the NBA Rookie of the Year betting. The odds can fluctuate between being just a few of the top picks to being literally every player drafted in the first round with a few second round players sprinkled in. To use our previous example, 2016 had Anthony Brown at +15000. Brown was a second round pick, 34th overall.
The odds can stay up for a period after the start of the season, but many sportsbooks set them to expire as the season starts. If the race is particularly good or particularly close they can be posted throughout the season, but that depends on your sportsbook.
You will also see the odds updated and posted around the time of the All-Star Break. At this time the odds can fluctuate quite a bit from the start of the season as there is a lot more data to work with.
Finally, towards the end of the season and during the playoffs is when you will see the odds posted for the final time as things get close to the time that people vote on such thing. By March of 2016, Karl-Anthony Towns was actually -1200. This is a bet that you want to get in early for the most part.
How to Bet NBA Rookie of the Year:
Bovada: Within the sportsbook section click on “Basketball” in left sidebar. This opens up the basketball page. Now click “All Basketball” at the top and select “NBA”. Next click “All NBA” and choose “NBA Futures”. If the Rookie of the Year award is available to bet on, it will be listed there along with all other futures.
Sports Interaction: In the left sidebar click “Basketball” to expand that section then choose “NBA Futures”. If the Rookie of the Year is available to bet on at that point in time, it will be listed there along with all other futures.
Bet365 Sportsbook: Click the “Basketball” section on the sidebar. The NBA will be at the top and there will be a Futures sections with bets such as the Rookie of the Year.
NBA Rookie of the Year Betting Strategy:
The key to a great NBA Rookie of the Year is finding the most NBA ready player who will also get a lot of minutes and thus rack up a lot of statistics. A great example of this player would be the aforementioned Karl-Anthony Towns. His team was in a deep rebuild that season and he was going to get plenty of opportunity to shine.
Of course, it’s a lot easier to look at things like this in retrospect. Michael-Carter Williams of the Sixers won this award back in 2014 and everyone agreed it was because he was getting a lot of stats on a bad team. That made Jahill Okafor of the 76ers at +400 a great bet that season as the 76ers were one of the worst teams in the NBA again at that time, but he wasn’t as good of a player and didn’t quite rack up the stats.
The best strategy of all might be simply to bet on the number one overall pick. In the last ten years, the #1 overall draft pick won this award five times. Kevin Durant, number two overall, could probably be included in this list as well if you properly remember Greg Oden’s injury issues. Outside of the top picks and Durant, the winners have been the following draft picks: 4, 6, 11 and 36.
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