Money Line, Handicap and Totals Bets You can learn the Basketball basics in an afternoon, then the real fun starts. Money Line, Handicap, and Totals are the most common NBA bets. The Money Line – You are selecting the winner of the game. So long as the game outcomes fall on the 50/50 line, they make money on the point and all the times the supposed “dog” comes through. You profit in this scenario by avoiding the trap of hammering what you think is a betting favorite only laying a point at home. We aren’t saying that every opening line out there is a trap by the books.

With each new NBA season, sports bettors get to take a whole new approach to betting on the NBA. Free agency, the draft, and trades have this league constantly changing more than any other, which starts up top with betting on the NBA Finals and trickles all the way down to the actual player transactions.

Money line betting is especially popular in NCAA basketball games. It is considered to be straight betting. In money lines you are simply betting on who will win the match; it is very straightforward, it does not even matter what the score is, what matters is who wins – period. Betting On Basketball Totals. Betting on the total points scored in a game is a very popular form of betting on basketball. Depending on the league or tournament, the number of points scored will vary significantly. In the NBA, point totals will land in the range of 180 to 220 points game to game, with the average in the mid 190 point range. Point Spread Betting Basketball point spread betting is probably the most popular type of wager that you can make. The point spread is a calculated points difference determined by oddsmakers between two teams lining up. For example, if Golden State is playing Charlotte, they’ll be a big favorite.

You honestly have the ability to bet on virtually anything involving the NBA these days. Once NBA trade rumors pop up, you can wager where star players will get traded to or what their next team could be the following year.

During the season, your betting options are at their greatest height, as there are a litany of player and team bets to choose from.

While the list is rather long as far as NBA betting opportunities go, there’s a small group of NBA wagers you should focus most of your time and energy on. With that, here are the seven best ways to make money betting on the NBA.

Talk about an edge. Normally, the top NBA betting sites set NBA odds with confidence, but even the most reputable sites have to admit they aren’t always sure how things will unfold.

They’re obviously setting the price they think bettors will respond to, but as things first get going, nobody has a clue what will happen. Why? Because these games don’t matter.

Teams will limit or rest their marquee players without hesitation, so your usual NBA betting strategy may not work here. However, if you research how coaches and players operate during preseason play and keep tabs on NBA news (follow NBA team beat writers), you can gain a serious advantage in this type of basketball betting.

Bet on Who Will Win the NBA Finals

This is a tried and true season-long prop bet that bettors can attack before the current season ends, and that’s often talking about the next season’s Finals.

NBA Finals odds are made available extremely early at the top NBA betting websites, and they’re constantly updated throughout the year. Regardless of when you feel like betting on the NBA Finals champion, you will usually have the ability to do so.

Bettors may want to pick their timing wisely for this wager, of course. The NBA can be fluid prior to the league’s NBA trade deadline each year, while placing bets before the summer’s free agency period ends is rarely suggested.

That being said, the NBA’s offseason usually paints a fairly accurate picture of who the top teams are and which NBA Finals sleepers could be worth backing.

Whatever your stance, you can bet on this wager virtually 365 days a year. You’ll just have to wait until the end of the NBA playoffs to find out if you won or not.

The art of NBA player prop betting should be mixed into your season-long NBA wagers. As noted, you can bet on where players will be traded or play down the road, but the list of NBA player props doesn’t end there.

Individual awards like the coveted NBA MVP, Most Improved Player, Defensive Player of the Year, 6^th Man of the Year, and even NBA Coach of the Year are among the best NBA player prop bets for you to target.

The nice thing is that like NBA Finals betting, most of these props are hosted at the most respected NBA sportsbooks for a good portion of the season. You can take advantage of early NBA odds by placing bets prior to the season, but as more information trickles out, you can still hedge your bets (or double down) with additional wagers.

Sometimes, the NBA can be predictable to the point where division winners or title favorites offer little to no value. When that’s the case, NBA bettors can aim a little higher with NBA player props.

Exploit NBA Point Spreads

You can bet on the NBA all year long, but the most action admittedly comes during the regular season. Props and futures are still out there to be targeted, but the grind refers to trying to figure out how to bet on individual games.

One of the most popular types of sports wagers is the point spread, as bettors try to find sustainable profit through picking teams to cover or beat spreads.

Whether you’re betting on an NBA team to cover a 5-point spread (win by six or more points) or beat a 10-point spread (lose by 10 or fewer points), this is a common bet due to the ability to win without being right about the actual winner.

There isn’t much value in backing favorites in pro sports, so spread betting allows you to take a look at how games are priced and see if there’s an advantageous approach.

How you bet on NBA spreads will always depend on a multitude of circumstances, but this checklist is a good one to abide by.

• Injuries/starting lineups
• Recent series history
• Fatigue/schedule
• ATS data
• Home/away splits
• Eye test
• Find the best value

This is a good list of criteria to check off as you prepare to bet. If any star players for either side are out, that needs to be noted. Of course, this is especially important for the favorites, and it becomes a bigger deal the larger the spread is.

If the Golden State Warriors are favored by 10 points and Stephen Curry is ruled out, the Warriors covering suddenly gets a little dicey.

Leaning too much on past results can get you in trouble, but rivalries and “mental holds” can be real things in a sport like basketball. If a team has won six straight in a series or 10 of the last 12, that isn’t something to ignore.

Perhaps more important than anything when betting on NBA spreads is assessing team fatigue and how each team’s schedule impacts them. Teams on long road trips, playing back-to-backs, or hitting the floor for the third time in four or five days can suffer immensely from mental and physical fatigue.

On top of that, it’s always useful to take a look at a team’s against the spread data, as well as straight-up results and home vs. away splits.

Lastly, don’t overlook the eye test.

This applies to the matchup at hand, in addition to the pricing by whatever NBA sportsbook you’re betting at. If you can quickly assess a matchup and a team is favored by -10 and shouldn’t be, the bet could be as simple as that.

Of course, before putting any of this into play, be sure to go NBA lines shopping at your most trustworthy NBA betting websites. The more sites you can look at, the better prices you’ll find.

This should lead to maximum value and an easier, safer bet.

Everything we just touched on can and should be applied to your search for that huge NBA upset pick. Betting strictly on NBA underdogs probably isn’t the best idea just because it can backfire horribly, but sometimes there are very sneaky spots to target insane value.

When looking to bet on NBA upsets, there are five huge factors to consider.

• Price
• Matchup
• Schedule
• Fatigue
• Injuries

NBA betting odds are always going to dictate what you do to some extent. Be sure to shop around just like with any wager and work your way down from there.

Of course, be sure to dissect the matchup at hand so that you know how to view the prices for the game. Consider what major injuries are expected to have an impact, how tired players can be, and what their schedule has been like.

There is information online as far as which games are most likely to be “trap” games for every franchise, but you can do the digging pretty easily yourself. Basically, if a team has played numerous games in a short amount of time — and/or if they’re coming off of a huge game or looking ahead to one — they could be physically or mentally ill-prepared.

Betting on NBA underdogs can be highly profitable, but it’s not guaranteed to always be sustainable. It’s best to pick your spots and try to refrain from always betting only on the major underdogs (+145 is a nice win, too).

Another popular way to bet on NBA games is to pick a side on game totals. The top NBA betting sites assign an overall total for points scored in the game, and bettors need to decide if it’s too high or too low.

There are absolutely going to be instances where you’ll just want to leave it alone and bet on something else, but totals can be fairly easy to exploit.

Here are some things to consider before betting on NBA totals.

• Injuries/fatigue/schedule
• Pace of play
• Offensive efficiency
• Defensive efficiency

Just like with most NBA wagers, be sure to do your research and know what big injuries to account for, as well as anything pertaining to player fatigue or schedule impact.

The next big thing to look for is team pace. Some teams rely on a slow, methodical offense, simply aren’t great at scoring, and/or try to beat teams defensively. The slower the pace, the fewer possessions you have to work with.

If one team plays fast and the other doesn’t, these offensive philosophies could cancel each other out. Teams can also change the way they play depending on matchups and whether they’re at home or on the road.

If in search of a tiebreaker, home teams tend to dictate the pace — at least initially.

Offensive and defensive efficiency are also very important to note, and you can add in shooting percentages, both inside and from long range. The point is to build a strong case that one or both teams are going to struggle to score or dramatically slow the game down, or both teams can contribute to a very explosive shootout.

The point spread is often used to figure this out, too. If the total is high but the spread is also high, there is a risk of a blowout. The over would then be at risk of not delivering.

Ideally, betting on the over has both teams offering average or above average paces and capable, efficient offenses. If you can have one or both teams playing average-to-poor defense, that only helps.

It works the other way for the under, while pricing can be crucial no matter what the case is for either team. That’s where the eye test and hunting for elite NBA betting value once again come into play.

Lastly, consider trying live sports betting. This isn’t just about hedging previous bets, either (although it’s okay to do that a little bit).

Rather, betting on the NBA live is more about taking advantage of game momentum and line movement. If the Warriors open a game as 10-point favorites but are down by five at the break, their game line will almost certainly dip.

Perhaps now they’re no longer favored to win the game, or at a minimum, that 10-point spread shrinks drastically. In-game injuries, team adjustments, and player performance can play into things swinging back the other way, while anyone who watches the NBA knows how much basketball can go back and forth.

Betting on the NBA is a roller coaster ride in general. Live NBA betting simply allows bettors to exploit it.

One great NBA betting strategy to use with live NBA betting is noting how teams perform in the third and fourth quarters. Whether it be coaching adjustments, lineup changes, or just an overall team philosophy, some teams come out red hot to start second halves, and others tend to cave.

That’s just one sliver of information you can use to bet live on the NBA and hopefully do so successfully. More than anything, though, NBA live betting allows you to keep the game exciting (and potentially profitable) from start to finish.

Just be sure to research the very best live sports betting websites before placing your bet.

Where to Bet on the NBA

As you can see, there is a lot to soak up in the NBA betting world. Your options for betting on the NBA know no bounds, as you can wager on players and teams all year long or even bet on the games as they go.

Of course, this all circles back to what I opened with, and that’s first finding the best value at the most reputable basketball betting websites.

Finding which site is the best for you as an individual is a process you personally need to take on because every site can be different as far as bonuses, promotions, customer service, and payment methods go.

Ideally, though, you can find a handful of NBA sportsbooks that package most of that criteria and are also safe to play at.

For a short list you can trust, here are some great NBA betting sites to consider.

I won’t waste your time running through these websites to tell you where to bet, but all of these NBA betting sites check off the major boxes. Those would be safe, reputable, and elite in terms of pricing and promotions being offered.

I don’t think the point is to ever pick just one site to bet on the NBA, though. NBA betting is so volatile by nature that you will always want to keep your options open. That applies to wagers offered but also to pricing.

Hopefully, this post helps point you in the right direction in terms of where to bet on basketball and which wagers to attack. For more NBA betting odds, insight, and advice, hit up our NBA betting guide.

As one of the most popular sports to bet, sports bettors have been making
money on basketball for years and show no signs of letting up anytime soon.
While the sport itself is simple and the bets on the sports are also simple, the
strategy can sometimes be a bit confusing knowing where to start. Ultimately,
you will probably develop your own strategy to beat the books, but we can help
by giving you some tips to get you headed in the right direction to “making some
serious coin.” It’s our understanding that is how the cool kids say making
money.

The best way to utilize these strategy suggestions is to use them as a guide
for developing your complete betting strategy. While most of them are meant to
be taken literally, it’s important to remember that they are meant to be a piece
of your overall strategy, not the entire strategy. These tips should work
hand in hand with your own strategies and should help to direct the way your
mind works to develop your strategy. Basically, don’t let one tip below be the
only way you pick your bets. Use them as pieces of a more comprehensive betting
strategy based on your knowledge base.

Points in the Paint vs. 3-Pointers

Paying attention to how a team makes most of their points can be important
when looking at consistency. A team that relies heavily on 3-point baskets is
great, but it’s a lot easier to go cold on shooting 3-pointers than it is on
posting up and driving to the basket.

Keep this in mind when looking to pick game winners as well as if you are
making bracket bets for the tournament in college basketball. The winning team
in the NCAA tournament is almost never a team that makes most of their points
from beyond the arc. Those teams are great to look at for upsets, but not for
long-term consistency and deep runs.

Check the Team’s Schedule

Fatigue plays a huge role in the success of teams in basketball. Unlike
sports like football, teams play a lot of games and their schedules vary, often
with multiple games throughout the week. Take a look at how many games the team
has played recently and if they’re on a long road trip or something like that.
If a team is playing their fourth game in five days, you can bet that they’re
going to be tired which means they’ll be slower and less likely to perform well.

Looking at the location of these games is also important as away/road games
will definitely take a bigger toll on a team’s energy. Also, look at how far
they have to travel for their games. If they are going cross country back and
forth for every game, the travel is going to wear on them even more. You should
also take a look at what point it is in their season as the effects of this
don’t usually start coming in as heavily until after the first quarter of the
season. The later in the season it is, the more this is going to be an issue and
the more opportunities it will create for you.

Road Favorites After a Blowout Loss

A popular betting strategy is to take a look at teams that are favored in an
away game after getting blown out in their previous game. These teams are
clearly strong enough in talent to be still favored on the road after a big loss
which means they have a lot of actual talent and substance that the oddsmakers
still like.

These teams are also going to be fired up after getting embarrassed.
Teams that have been blown out by 15 or more points and are still road favorites
in their next game have covered the spread over 60% of the time in the last 10
years.

Big Home Underdogs

No one likes to lose at home in front of their own fans. This seems to be
true when it comes to basketball as well. Teams have a strong tendency to cover
the spread when they are big underdogs (10+ points) at home.

A lot of this has
to do with the emotional desire to impress at home, and a lot of it has to do
with the other team usually letting off when they’re up quite a few points.
They’ll put in second stringers and rest their big names because it only matters
to them if they win, not by how many points. Even though we care about the
spread, teams playing the game do not. A win is a win, and a loss is a loss to
them.

Make Money Betting Sports

Watch for Moving Lines

One of the best ways to dominate sports betting of any kind is to recognize
that there are experts out there who are practical geniuses at sports betting.
If you’re one of them, this won’t affect you as much, although it always helps
to know what the other experts are doing. If you see a line moving one direction
after the public has bet heavily on the other side, you’re probably witnessing
the experts taking advantage of the uneducated public.

Historically, the general public has not been very smart when it comes to
sports betting. They bet with their heart instead of their head way too often
and are too eager to jump on trends that don’t mean anything. There’s a reason
sports books are so profitable. This creates a lot of opportunities for the
expert bettors. Here’s what we mean with an oversimplified example.

Let’s say the Orlando Magic are -6 points to win a game and they’re playing
the Knicks. All the sports outlets and the media start talking about how great
and underrated the Knicks are, and the public starts betting heavily on them.
The line moves quickly to the Magic -3 reflecting all of the public betting on
the Knicks. If you start to see the line moving back the other direction, like
back to Magic -4, you are probably witnessing the smart money taking advantage
of the public’s over-eagerness to get on trends. When you see this, you should
bet with the experts.

If you see a line moving one way and you think it’s way off because the
public is betting based on their hearts and popularity, definitely bet the other
direction. You may still want to wait a little bit to see if it moves any
further in what you think is the wrong direction. For example, in the above
example, after the public starts betting what you think is incorrect, the line
will move from Magic -6 to Magic -5. You could bet it right then if you think
it’s now a great bet or you could wait and see what happens. If the public keeps
betting it, the line will move further and further in your favor making your bet
much more attractive. The worst thing that can happen is the line corrects back
to its original point, and then you just don’t bet on that game. You can also
bet the game at -5 and then bet it again if it moves further if you think
they’re both good bets.

Finding the perfect timing to jump on moving lines is an art form and one you
will have to perfect as you go along. We also want to make sure to point out
that just because a line moves does not mean you have to bet on the game. You
should really only bet on the game if it fits with your strategy and you think
it is a good pick. You also want to be careful to make sure that the line
movement is from the experts correcting bad betting by the public, not the other
way around. The sportsbooks are great about putting out good lines, but they do
make mistakes. If they put out a bad line, the experts will start betting it
immediately, and it will correct quickly. Don’t confuse this with the public
incorrectly moving the line.

To make this all easier, here are some quick tips to go along with this
strategy.

• Know WHY the line is moving. Don’t just bet because it moved.
• Only bet if you think the new line is a good bet. Don’t just bet because it
  moved.
• You don’t have to wait to jump on a bad line, but timing and waiting can be
  beneficial as well.
• Sportsbooks are wise, but they still make mistakes too.
• Sometimes the public will be right.

Watch Out for Your Favorites

We mentioned a few times above that we can find opportunities to take
advantage of the betting public’s willingness to bet with their heart instead of
their head. The obvious caveat to that is that we don’t want ever to be the ones
that other people are taking advantage of. The best way to do this is to be
careful when we
look to bet our favorite teams and be careful who we get news
and advice from and how we choose to interpret it. Let’s look at each of these
briefly.

We all always want our favorite team to win. Because of this, our brains work
to find the ways that it is possible, even if it is not probable. This is great
when you are being a fan because it gives you hope and can make the game
watching experience much more enjoyable. As a sports bettor, though, it can
spell impending doom. This improbable hope can cut into your profits if you let
it bleed into your picks and strategy. The best advice is probably to avoid
betting your favorite teams unless you are sure of something with your strategy.
It’s tough to be unbiased, and there are usually a ton of other games to choose
from.

The second thing we mentioned is being careful who you get advice and news
from and how you choose to interpret it. The public loves to glamorize stories
and underdogs, and they are professionals when it comes to hyping up games that
might not actually be as close as they say it might be. It’s important for
you not to get caught up in these stories and let it affect your betting
strategy. The best way to protect yourself against this is to be careful of
where you get your news and information from and make your picks as independent
of other people’s opinions first. After you have made your pick, you can reach
out to others and read other opinions and see if it changes the way you have
chosen to bet. Just don’t let it control you and don’t become a member of the
dreaded “general betting public.”

Cherry Pick Your Games for Value

It is no secret that the odds makers are good at what they do. Most of the
lines they put out are going to be spot on and will make finding value a
challenge. That doesn’t mean that value does not exist. When there are lots of
games going on, it’s much more likely that you might be able to find some lines
with mistakes in them. Smaller games in popularity are also going to have less
time spent on setting their lines. There really is no secret to when to try and
find bad lines. The key is to have a strategy in place that helps you spot these
lines and take advantage of them.

One of the best ways to do this is to set up a system to where you determine
what you think the line on the game will be BEFORE you actually look at the
lines. Then you can bet on the games that look to have value to you. For
example, let’s say you are going to be betting NBA games and you want to bet
three games. You pick the following games

• UNLV vs. Gonzaga
• Florida vs. South Carolina
• Miami vs. Duke

Now, BEFORE you look at the lines and point spreads on these games you work
your strategy and try and figure out what you think the spreads should be. You
determine the following:

• You think UNLV will lose by 6 points.
• You think Florida will win by 4 points.
• You think Miami will lose by 2 points.

So if you were the odds maker, you would set the lines at:

• UNLV +6
• Florida -4
• Miami +2

When you check the actual lines at the sportsbook, you see the following:

• UNLV + 8
• Florida -4
• Miami +1

In this situation, you would do the following:

1. Bet on UNLV because they can lose by eight points according to the
   book instead of the six you think they’re going to lose by. You think that
   UNLV will do better than what the oddsmakers think.
2. Don’t bet on the second game because you think the line is correct.
3. Bet on Duke because they only need to win by one point instead of the
   two that you think they are going to. You think that Duke will do better
   than what the oddsmakers think.

The point here is to determine how you think the teams will do and what you
think the spread should be before you look at what the book has posted. This
will protect you from being influenced by what they predict and will also make
it much easier to spot value bets.

Check the Lineups

This is a fairly basic tip that unfortunately is ignored way too often. When
you’re betting on games, make sure to check injury reports and rosters before
you make your wager.

How To Make Money Betting On Basketball Odds

Let’s say you see the Golden State Warriors
are playing a game and are only -2 to win against the Knicks. You think this is
an incredible value and can’t believe the book would post such an awful line.
What you forgot to look up, though, is that Steph Curry, their star player, is
out along with two other starters. This happens a lot especially with long
seasons and a lot of games to be played.

How To Make Money Betting On Basketball Hoop

Make sure that the players you are
banking on to help you win your bet are actually slated to play in the game. It
only takes a few minutes and can save you a lot of money in the long run.