NBA Betting – How to Bet on NBA

The NBA offers sports bettors a lot of opportunities to make money. Along with an 82-game regular season, there is also a lengthy postseason. When you factor in preseason games, you will find that there are thousands of sports betting opportunities throughout the year. If you’re a football bettor who is looking for another sport, the NBA may be a good choice for you.

NBA Betting Articles

Spreads, Moneylines, and Totals

The best NBA bets are the point spread, moneyline, and totals. For those who are not used to wagering on basketball, point spreads can be difficult to analyze. Sometimes they are miniscule (2-3 points) and other times spreads are huge (20-30 points). More often than not, point spreads tend to range between 3.5 and 12.5 points.

Although those numbers may sound manageable, consider the fact that professional basketball is a sport where the game’s outcome is often determined in the final minute. The first thing you have to determine when you see a small spread is if the game will actually go down to the wire. If it will, then you can start to figure out if the small point spread is worth betting.

Moneylines are not always available on NBA games due to the fact that they tend to be fairly easy to handicap. Certain games are especially simple to project the winner and loser. If you can find a moneyline, it’s certainly worth considering.

Totals are another common NBA bet. The over/under wagers tend to be based on a few factors, including the average number of points a team scores and allows. Handicappers will also consider how the teams paired up earlier in the season and which team is home and away. When wagering on totals, you want to find those that look as soft as possible or that are solid bets.

Accurate and Current Matchups

Perhaps the most important type of prep that any NBA handicapper can engage in involves developing accurate matchups. This is not always easy to do because of the number of games that are available at any given time. In a single week there will be 45 to 55 games to wager. If you consider the point spread and totals for each game, then you may have over 100 betting opportunities in one week. Which games do you pick?

It’s a good idea to know the teams in one of the conferences as thoroughly as possible. That will give you an edge in conference play. Then, within the conference, learn as much detail as you can on two divisions. That’s because NBA teams play those within their division and conference more often than they do the clubs outside their conference. You’re narrowing down the number of teams that you need to know in detail, but getting the maximum number of games to bet. This will help you develop accurate matchups.

Making Smart Bets

This section on NBA betting offers about 10 different articles on how to wager like a professional and make smart bets. Get tips on techniques, methods, and strategies that you can use to make winning basketball picks.

We will help you understand how important the draft is, how to utilize preseason games, and what you should do on a daily basis to stay in the game. We’ll also take you through the preseason, regular season, and playoffs, with a special section on the NBA Finals.

Finding the Right Games to Bet

There are a few things that every sports bettor needs to do in order to successfully wager on professional basketball. The primary action is to identify teams that they will focus on throughout the season. As the season progresses, bettors should look for games that offer real value.

You want to look for:

Mismatches and moneyline bets
Middling underdogs and a spread of over 10 points
Matchups problems not reflected by the spread, such as an underdog team with a strong inside game going up against a favored club with injury issues
A team coming off a tough OT game with a game the next night – secure the early odds on such a game and bet against the tired club
Weaker teams in the midst of a tough road trip
Top teams that were blown out in their last game and have something to prove
Any team with a matchup edge that has been given a soft line
Odds posted prior to an injury or roster change – bet on the old odds before they are adjusted to accommodate the change

Riding Certain Players

As a sports bettor, you can ride star players to numerous wins. However, be wary of doing this. Although we tend to simplify the NBA and say that one superstar can win a game, it is much harder for them to win multiple games in a row.

What you really want is a team with one or two top superstars surrounded by important role players, backed by a talented bench that includes a premium sixth player. Make that one of the teams that you’ll wager on consistently.

One note of caution: Do not blindly make bets. That will compromise your ability to make the most of your bankroll. Engage in solid research and handicap thoroughly at all times.

Home or Away Team Favorites

NBA teams play a total of 41 home games. There will be anywhere from seven to 10 teams that will win 30 or more of these games. There will be another six to 10 that will win 25 to 29 of their home games. Look for the home court advantage and bet on it.

Home court is important mainly because the fans are close to the court and can generate energy for their team. Also their reaction to plays can influence referees to call close fouls. Only a few teams can win consistently on the road, and these teams will usually be near the top of the league standings.

Division Dominators

Within a division, teams will play each other four times, resulting in 16 division games. Usually two teams from each division will win 10 to 14 of those games. That makes them great bets. More often than not they are the two top teams in the division. These are teams that you want to identify immediately and wager on often.

Betting on division dominators can result in you winning about 120 bets. That alone can put you over the top in terms of profit.

Weak Elements and the Mid-Season

One thing to be aware of is that as weak teams get to the midpoint of the season, their performances often suffer even more going into the second half of the year. This is often the time when bad teams blow up their roster and trade away veterans to stockpile draft picks and cheap assets. When this occurs, the roster is filled out by journeymen and D-league stars, which usually makes the team safe to bet against in future games.

Basketball’s Postseason

The NBA offers sports bettors a very long postseason with the potential to wager on up to 105 games. The minimum number of games during a postseason is 60, but typically you will have about 85 to 90 games to wager.

The good thing for sports bettors is that in a few of the first round series (there are eight series) the better team will dominate, which means your picks will be easy. There are usually two or three series that are won 4-1 or 4-0. Still, you have to handicap properly to know which series will go in that direction. That leaves five to six series that will run six or seven games.

When you get into the second round, you may still find some series that are settled quickly. The conference finals and the finals often go longer.

In handicapping the NBA playoffs, look at how teams performed against one another during the regular season, find out why they performed in the manner in which they did and determine if anything has changed. Consider any matchup factors that might tip the balance one way or another. Home court is especially important during the playoffs.

Making Money

It’s important to remember that successful professional sports bettors always work to lower their risk. They do so by searching for games that give them a real edge and a better-than-average chance of winning their bet. Along with that, they tend to stay away from wagers that automatically create more risk, such as parlays, or those that lower their odds, such as teasers. When they wager they use betting units, carefully assigning more units to those wagers that offer the least amount of risk.

Be sure to utilize the NBA pages on this website. They will offer you the insights, methods, and information that you can use every day of the NBA season. It is very important that you utilize solid handicapping techniques when making your picks. Well-executed matchups will enable you to make savvy picks as an NBA sports bettor.

Staying Connected

One thing is for sure: You must stay connected to the league each and every day in order to give yourself the best chance at successfully wagering on NBA games. Use these pages to find out how to do that. Have a great season of wagering. There’s certainly plenty of opportunity.