Basketball Betting Guide

Basketball is played in countries around the world and there are professional basketball leagues in lots of countries. When it comes to betting on basketball though, the most popular league is the National Basketball Association (NBA). Every team in the NBA is in a US city except for the Toronto Raptors (Toronto, Canada).

College basketball (NCAA Div 1 Basketball) is also popular to bet on by Americans and international fans. The most popular time of the season to bet on college hoops is during the March Madness tournament. March Madness is a tournament featuring the best college basketball teams and the winner of the tournament is crowned the National Champion for that year.

Online sportsbooks have started to expand the leagues that they post odds for and now basketball bettors can bet on a wide range of professional basketball leagues in many countries. New bettors should focus on betting on the NBA and college basketball at first unless you follow international basketball and have confidence that you can beat the bookies betting lines.

How to Bet on Basketball
The best way to bet on basketball is with an online sportsbook. You can bet with an online sportsbook regardless of where you live and the range of bets can’t be beat by any land-based sportsbook in the world. If you haven’t wagered online before you need to open an account with one of the top online sportsbooks and fund your account using one of the accepted deposit methods.

After setting up and funding a sportsbook account you’re ready to start betting on basketball. US sportsbooks will have the best NBA odds and NCAAB odds, so we recommend playing with a US-friendly sportsbook when betting on basketball. Americans bet a lot of money on basketball games and therefore the range of bets and betting limits are better with the top US bookmakers.

Types of Basketball Bets

Moneyline Bet – A moneyline is when you bet on a basketball team to win the game. You can also bet on a basketball team to win a single quarter or half of a game rather than a full game when betting with online sportsbooks.

Point Spread Bet – A point spread bet is important to understand. If the Raptors +7.5 vs. Pacers -7.5 are playing the Pacers need to win by 8+ points to win the point spread bet. If the Raptors lose the game by 7 points or less or win the game than the Raptors would win the wager.

Totals Bet – In the NBA you can bet on game totals, quarter totals and half totals of both teams combined score or of a single team’s score only. For instance, the over/under line of the Raptors 1st quarter points is 22.5. You can bet on over 22.5 1st quarter points or under 22.5 1st quarter points for the Raptors.

Parlay Bet – A parlay is a bet with more than 1 outcome that needs to be correctly predicted. You can combine different types of bets on a parlay such as 2 point spreads and 1 game total. Parlays are only +EV when the number of games you bet on 2-3 games. Betting on a parlay with more outcomes isn’t +EV and isn’t recommended for the serious bettor.

Teaser Bet – I personally don’t bet on teasers in basketball because it’s hard to find value. Basketball teasers are a type of bet where you need to pick 2+ point spreads or game totals on the same ticket. Rather than use the actual point spread or total the spread/total will move in your favour by a predetermine number of points (4.5-5.5 on Average).

Prop Bet – When you follow a specific team or group of players prop betting can become a great weapon. A prop bet can be almost any type of bet that isn’t described above. An example of a prop bet in the NBA would be over/under 22.5 points for Derrick Rose in a given game or over/under 10.5 offensive rebounds for the Clippers in a given game.

Futures Bet – A futures bet is a type of basketball wager where you predict an event happening in the future. You could bet on the Celtics to win the NBA Championship or you could bet on the Tar Heels to win the National Championship. There are a lot of different types of prop bets that you can bet on for the NBA and college basketball.

The basketball betting industry is only going to keep growing in the next few years, as more international fans have begun watching basketball and betting on the sport. The Olympics in 2012 will also help basketball reach a broader audience and for us experienced basketball bettors the 2012 Olympics will be a great time to bet on Olympic basketball games.