Basketball Odds & Betting
Basketball is primarily watched by North Americans although the sport is played in other countries as well, it just isn’t as popular. The most popular basketball league to watch and wager on is the NBA and it’s a sport where you can make some serious money if you watch the sport. Typically you will be able to pick up early in the NBA season which teams are going to compete and which teams aren’t going to compete. There are always several teams with lots of wins and several teams with lots of losses. The faster you can determine which teams every year are the teams to look out for the quicker you’ll be able to start making bank on basketball betting.
How to Read Basketball Odds
The two most common types of bets in basketball are moneyline bets and point spread bets and both are really easy to understand. If you have never bet on basketball before or you’re not from North America then you might not understand the odds at first. Typically sportsbooks will always offers basketball odds using the US system and it’s as followed.
- Moneyline Bet – Toronto Raptors +150 vs. Los Angeles Lakers -140
In the moneyline bet example in order to win the bet you need to pick the winning team. If you look at the odds posted above then you’ll be able to tell that the Lakers are the favourites and the Raptors are the underdogs. You would need to risk $140 for every $100 profit if you bet on the Lakers and if you bet on the Raptors then you will win $150 per $100 risked.
- Point Spread Bet – Toronto Raptors +6.5 vs. Los Angeles Lakers -6.5
In the point spread example the team you pick will either need to win by a certain amount of points or they can lose by a certain amount of points. In the example above if you pick the Lakers they needs to win by 7 or more to win and if you pick the Raptors then they can lose by 6 or less to win.
Types of Basketball Bets
Like mentioned in the above examples the two most common basketball bets are moneyline bets and point spread bets. Another common bet made on basketball games is the over/under which is where you need to pick whether the posted total will go over or under. You can also wager on many props throughout the basketball games such as who will score the most baskets, who will have the most rebounds, who will win the tip-off among many other prop bets. Prop bets are known to be more luck then anything and you’ll find that it’s easier to cap moneyline and point spread bets then any other type.
With the NBA season nearing its end now you’re going to need to wait until the 2010 season until you can begin wagering again. The sport of basketball has a long season so if you can manage to cap games in this sport you can earn a steady side income from your wagers.