How to bet on Basketball

Invented in 1891 by Dr James Naismith, Basketball is a popular game with 5 players on each team. The first game was played on 1896 in Iowa City , Iowa , USA.

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Best way to bet on basketball:

Developing a successful basketball betting strategy has many ways, one of the best ways will be to bet against the public. Meaning if a team is being supported by the general public, bet on the opposition. The reasoning behind it will be that the information is only the sportsbook or bookmaker and that the public regularly calls it wrong when they bet.

The odds of betting against the public normally gives a good return, because the sportsbook wants to minimise the odds for the majority piling on one outcome or team.

NBA has many ways of betting, the following are some ways to bet on them:

  • Moneyline bets: You pick a team as the winner. Moneyline is designated by either a negative or positive number. The team with the negative odds are the favourite and the positive odds are the underdog. If a team is -120 on the moneyline, you’ll win $100 for a bet of $120. For the underdog with a +120, you’ll win $120 with a bet of 100.
  • Over/Under bets: You will be betting on the total number of points that are scored in a game. You will have to predict the score whether it’s over or under the total set by the sportsbook.
  • Parlay bets: Betting this way means linking 2 or more bets for a larger pay-out. Betting on the point spread in multiple games will get a much higher return on your wager. However, parlay bets are much risky than any straight betting above.
  • Proposition bets: This is a yes or no variety, examples are “Will LeBron James will score more than 35 points in a game”.
  • Futures bets: Betting on future events like predicting the winner of the NBA Finals or how many games a team can win in a regular season.

Live Betting: Live betting allows bettors to bet even after the game has begun

What does +1.5 mean in basketball?:

Spread Betting:

Spread betting will be the most go-to choice for betting on basketball. Also known as Line betting. It is a form of handicap betting and if you go to the bookmaker of your choice, an example of an NBA game will like this:

 

LOS ANGELES LAKERS -5.5 VS BOSTON CELTICS +5.5.

 

So, the Lakers must win by more than 5.5 points or their winning margin must be over 6 points if you bet on the Lakers. Celtics will need to win the game or lose the game by a maximum of 5 points if you bet on the Celtics.

Tips on when to bet:

Bet Early:

Betting as soon as the markets open around 8-9 am ET will give you a favourable start. Injury news, inefficiencies in the market and lines that are off are adjusted quickly as the wittiest bettors and syndicates globally would want to get the upper hand on the value before it’s sucked out of line.

Oddsmakers and bettors rectify their mistakes on the initial lines that they release at the start as more information on games are given closer to tip-off. Bookmakers adjust their lines based on injury news and other factors and with that information, the lines become more accurate and harder to beat as the day goes by.

Consistently beating the closing line will be the most predictive indicator of a long-term winning bettor. This enables you to generate the Closing Line Value and get better odds compared to when the line closes at tipoff.

Study and React to Injury Reports:

Injuries can change the entire flow of the game as basketball only have 9 players whereas football has 11 players on each side. A basketball team only can send out 5 players playing in a game, so 1 player can impact more on the game.

 

While you can have an advantage on betting early, look out for injury reports that will put you in a bad spot. You can always use it to your advantage where a player who has an injury could have a sufficient amount of impact in a game.

 

Star players will commonly not play in back-to-back games so you will have to predict based on their recent games, news reports and the betting markets. Sportsbooks are not all quick to react to injury news when adjusting their spreads and totals and that is one of the best places for bettors to gain an advantage.

 

Getting to understand how a coach approaches a game also gives an advantage. Some coaches go all out when it’s the regular season, while the rest will be more likely to sit stars.

Paying attention to what the coaches say during press conferences and media availability is good as well as some coaches can sometimes tip their hand leading to games when talking to them.

Look for Scheduling Advantages:

Even with the NBA taking steps to reduce the number of back-to-backs, average NBA teams are 13.5 with no break in between this season. Spots bettors capitalize on this even though it’s less than 17% of their 82 games.

Totals: How many possessions will a game have?

One of the biggest factors when handicapping totals in the NBA will be Pace. The number of possessions in a game determines how high scoring a matchup is as much as a team’s offensive efficiency.

Basketball-Reference :

 

Pace – Pace Factor (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA); the formula is 48 * ((Tm Poss(https://www.basketball-reference.com/about/glossary.html#poss) + Opp Poss(https://www.basketball-reference.com/about/glossary.html#poss)) / (2 * (Tm MP(https://www.basketball-reference.com/about/glossary.html#mp) / 5))). Pace factor is an estimate of the number of possessions per 48 minutes by a team. (Note: 40 minutes is used in the calculation for the WNBA.)

How do you bet on a basketball game and win?

Understand the sports: It will give you special details, inform and prepare you for spotting those valuable markets.

Public favourited teams are not a sure win: Bookmakers will give a price that is hard to ignore sometimes but do not be fooled by it.

Conclusion

Basketball has become a popular sport within both men and women. It is also growing more popular as players are getting better and the future of competitive basketball is showing more promising results than it is of today! We hope you have fun watching and all the best on the bets!