NBA Betting Guide For The Novice Bettor
NBA Betting Guide For The Novice Bettor
Betting on NBA basketball is extremely popular and can be very rewarding. With and 82 game regular season and playoffs there is 8 months of games. The 3 most common ways to bet on the NBA is Point Spread, Totals (Over/Under) and Money Line.
Point Spread
Betting The NBA point spread is the most common way to place a bet. The point spread is used to even out the playing field and attempt to get an equal number of bets on both teams. Let’s use a hypothetical game to explain this further. In this scenario The Atlanta Hawks are the favorite and the Indiana Pacers are the underdogs. The minus sign always means the favorite and the plus sign always means the underdog. So when you see Atlanta -7.5 that means Hawks are favored to win the game by 7.5 points. If you bet on the favored Hawks they have to win by 8 or more points for you to win the game. If you bet on the Indiana you would win the bet if the Pacers either win the game or lose the game by 7 or less points. It’s impossible for Atlanta to win by 7.5 points so there must be a winner. If the spread were -8 and Atlanta won by exactly 8 then it is a push which means all sides get their money back. The payoff or loss on the bet depends on the odds. The most common odds for an NBA game would be -110. Which means you have to risk $110 to win $100.
Total
Betting on the NBA total (also known as Over/Under) is betting on the total number of points scored by both teams. NBA totals are usually set anywhere between 180 and 230 points. You will come across totals under 180 and over 230 but not often. If the total is set at 200 points that means you can either bet the “Over” which means the 2 teams would have to score 201 or more points to win the game or you can bet the “Under” which means the two teams would have to score 199 points or under to win. If they score exactly 200 points it means a push and all bets are returned.
Money Line
The oddsmakers also allow you to bet on which team you think will win the game outright. In this scenario we have a game pitting the Utah Jazz vs the Houston Rockets. The oddsmakers have made Utah the favorite and listed them at -130. They have listed the Rockets the underdog and listed them at +125. All that means is you have to bet $130 to win $100 on the Jazz and you only have to bet $100 to win $125 on the Eagles. The game can not finish in a tie so there must be a winner.
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