• How To Get In Nba Shape
• Odds Shark Nba
• Nba Picks Against The Spread
• Nba Sports Betting Today
• How To Bet On Nba Rookie Of The Year

So you wanna be a big baller when it comes to NBA betting, huh? Well, let’s just say there’s more to it than knowing your Lakers from your Clippers if you want to slam dunk your way to some successful wagers. That’s right, it’s time for how to bet on the NBA 101!

The 2 most popular pages in the NBA basketball betting section include the NBA Odds page where you can compare daily NBA game point spreads including moneylines and totals for the entire National Basketball League schedule. Our NBA picks page features info on the world famous NBA handicapping team at Maddux Sports. You can get signed up for our. They can do this because they predict that fans of NBA will bet on them anyway (Tip – Don’t be a fan when placing a bet). The bookmakers prefer a balanced book of takings on each market/game. To do this they set lines in a way that will encourage equal bets to both sides of the market.

How To Get In Nba Shape

• The ‘-110’ next to the line is what’s known as the vig, or juice, which is simply a fee the sportsbooks charge to use their service. A bet of $110 on Boston would improve your bankroll $100 as the team covered easily by 8 points.
• Whatever the case, winning your NBA bet comes down to careful study of player and team trends, injury situations, matchups as well as line value. Remember that NBA basketball odds are not the number of.

Betting sites to bet on NBA: compare the best offers

To bet on NBA you need to have a betting account first. If you don’t have it, you can compare the UK bookmakers sites before to choose the good one for you.

Odds Shark Nba

NBA Betting Explained

Each sport has a specific betting market, and the NBA odds would differ depending on the market that you opt for. As for cycling, horse racing or football, also the NBA has some distinct betting markets available for you to bet on basketball.

Money Line

If you hear about the ‘Money Line’ in a betting context and find it confusing, it’s likely because you’re used to European sports betting terminology. Don’t worry, there’s really nothing complicated about the Money Line market – it just means the match winner.

Its usage is not limited to NBA betting or basketball betting. In fact it’s a common expression used when betting on other traditionally North American sports like ice hockey, baseball or American football too. You can’t bet on a tie in the money line betting market, so your bet stands if the game goes to overtime.

You can bet on the outcome of a single match if you wish, although the odds are often short, especially if you back the favoured team. At odds of lower than evens (2.0), you are risking more money than you stand to win. That doesn’t mean it’s never a good idea to bet on favourites, it’s just something to bear in mind.

Another option is to combine several money line selections into an accumulator, or as they say in North America, a parlay bet. Although it’s more challenging to correctly predict the outcome of several matches, the potential rewards make it worthwhile to try this kind of bet when you’ve got a good feeling about several matches.

As you’re learning how to bet on the NBA, you’ll discover some of your favourite teams to pick in your NBA accas over time.

Spread

In the case of mismatches, where one basketball side is favoured heavily in the NBA betting predictions, you may find more value in betting on the point spread. It is the equivalent of a handicap bet on football (soccer) or rugby.

The main point spread is established in the build-up to a game and represents a wager that is relatively close to a 50/50 shot. As you can see in this NBA betting example, Cleveland Cavaliers start with a 9-point handicap in their match against Orlando Magic.

The odds on both sides are 10/11, which is close to even money, although it’s still odds-on, so you can’t back both outcomes and guarantee a profit. Let’s see how the points spread market would be settled according to the outcome of the game itself:

The more significant the perceived difference in level between the two teams, the higher the points handicap received by the favoured team. In some cases, we’re talking as low as one or two points. However it’s also common to see double-digit handicaps when one team is clearly superior. This is something that you will see a lot during the regular season, but it’s very rare when it comes to the NBA Finals odds.

Sometimes, a half-point unit is used in the point spread, eliminating the possibility of a push. Some sportsbooks offer additional handicap lines, giving you greater choice about the bet you want to put on.

The point spread is an exciting way to bet on the NBA as, when betting on the favourite, winning the game isn’t enough. Even if your team has the lead, you will be cheering them on to get as far ahead as possible and cover the spread. The potential returns are also higher compared to the money line, in the case of the favoured team.

Total Points

Total points are similar to the point spread in that it’s a two-outcome market with close to 50/50 options. A points line is set, and punters can wager on the total points in the game being either over or under that amount.

For an average NBA betting match, the total points over/under line is between 195 and 220 points, depending on how high-scoring the oddsmakers think the game is likely to be. That’s a big range, so clearly, a lot of thought and calculation goes into the process of creating the market to enable betting on the NBA.

Other basketball competitions, such as in the UK, may vary, as they have some different rules which affect the number of points scored, most notably the game length. We’ll look at these differences in more detail later on, after we finish covering how to bet on the NBA in full.

Alternative game totals are also often available with some bookmakers, allowing you to adjust the line to suit your fancy. If it sounds like we’re repeating ourselves from the previous section, that’s because it’s true. Coverage of basketball betting markets varies significantly from one bookmaker to another. Some give it the full works, while others are content to offer just the basic markets.

Futures And Outrights

Like with any major sporting competition, you can bet on NBA future markets. Betting opens well before the preseason and remains open throughout the season, all the way through to the finals, and NBA betting predictions will take into account the form of teams, and other factors such as injuries to crucial players.The NBA Championship odds would rise and fall throughout the season so it is important for the punter to utilise the best time to get their value.

The most obvious and easy to understand kind of outright bet relates to the winner of the championship or tournament. It gives you an extra reason to follow your selected team’s progress, particularly if they put together a good run of form and start to look like strong challengers, just think about the Toronto Raptors last season and how their run of form projected them to the championship.

The downside? You have to put down your money at the moment you place your bet when betting on the NBA, and you only receive winnings once it has been settled. Depending on the length of the competition you bet on, that could be a long wait!

At the start of the season, it’s hard to predict how to bet on the NBA outright markets. It’s not always clear how teams will perform, meaning there are longer odds available when betting on the NBA. You could back multiple selections and still guarantee a profit if one of them wins.

Special NBA betting outrights include the MVP award and betting on the winner of a division or group. This one is easier to forecast as there is a smaller selection of teams.

NBA Betting Odds Explained

NBA Championship Odds

The most common way that punters get involved with betting on the NBA is by placing a stake on the team that they believe will win the NBA Championship. A host of considerations can be taken into betting on this, with many opting to follow the events over the summer months and keeping up to date with trades before placing their wager.

However, there will of course be those that simply bet on a team to win the NBA Championship because it’s their team. That plan has worked in the past, just remember the UK team Leicester City winning thousands of pounds for a handful of their fans when their side won the Premier League. Undoubtedly it isn’t the most educated tactic, but it is a way for punters to win money to add to their joy of their team winning the championship.

Reading the NBA Championships isn’t particularly difficult and follows the trend of all major competitions. The favoured sides will be priced at lower prices, while those who aren’t even expected to reach the playoffs could be priced at triple-digit figures. For example, the favourites for next season’s championship are currently the Los Angeles Clippers.

This comes after the Clippers managed to sign Kawhi Leonard from the Toronto Raptors. The second favourites are the Los Angeles Lakers, and a big factor for that is LeBron James. Last season’s historic winners the Toronto Raptors are currently priced as rank outsiders due to Leonard departing the franchise. However many NBA tips may offer enticement that they could be a better side this season.

NBA Playoff Odds

The regular season is only half of the fun in the NBA, because the real competition doesn’t get started until the playoffs begin. Here, eight teams from the respective divisions qualify to the post-season knockout competition, and home form is crucial. Each regional conference will play out a first round, semi-final and then a final to decide who will progress through to the NBA Championship final.

Nba Picks Against The Spread

Each of these games are best of seven, but if a team goes 4-0 up then they will have the remainder of the time off before having to play their next fixture. That in itself is a continuous issue that you must decide on when betting on the NBA. Some would consider more time off as bonus, while others see it as a negative as they could become lacklustre next time they are on the court.

NBA Finals Odds

Once the teams have been decided through the respective conference finals, they will meet in the NBA Championship game. The gruelling seven-game series often goes down to the bitter ending and some of the most remarkable stories have been made in the past over these seven games. This also offers incentives for basketball betting predictions for the comings season, as the two favourites at this time are both from Los Angeles and can’t meet in the Championship game.

The series as we mentioned before is played over seven-games once again, and each time will play at home and away. The team that opens the series at home is decided by which franchise had the best regular season record. The team with the worst record will open the series, while the team with the best will have home court advantage in the seventh. Both are crucial elements to remember when betting on the NBA.

NBA Betting Strategies

So now you know the main options for NBA betting and how to bet on the NBA, here are a few friendly tips to help optimise your success. Anyone who wants to find value in their basketball betting tips needs to be well prepared to give themselves the best chance possible.

Heed the stats

American sports have long placed great importance on keeping detailed statistics, something which has only grown in European football over the last decade or so. As such, you can find plenty of information online to find value in NBA betting markets, whether it be on a player or teams performance.

Pick a favourite market

As we mentioned above, there are a few main options for how to bet on the NBA:

• money line
• points spread
• and total points.

Sometimes it’s easier to get a feel for one of these, rather than trying to be a specialist in every area when betting on the NBA.

A good starting point is to check out stats relating to that market. Then either start betting with small stakes or even just record your predictions if you don’t feel ready to put money down yet. In either case, you will see how your predictions stack up against the reality. If you are consistently able to make correct predictions on one market, it might be that you’ve got a knack for this type of bet.

Don’t forget home advantage

Like in a lot of sports leagues, playing at home is an advantage which can make a difference in NBA betting. Take the Denver Nuggets as an example. There’s a reason Denver are known as the “Mile-High City”, because it has an altitude of 1,600 metres. Acclimatising to that altitude is no easy task for visiting teams, meaning the Nuggets have a disproportionately strong home record, even against supposedly stronger teams. It is essential to read up on pieces of information like this before staking money on the NBA betting markets.

In case you weren’t already aware, visiting teams are listed first in the NBA schedule and in betting markets on most sportsbooks. Don’t get confused about this and double-check in case the sportsbook lists the teams the other way round – it has been known to happen. This is one of the striking differences between betting on the NBA compared to the EPL in the UK.

Get the best odds

If you’re serious about betting, this must become second nature to you. Even a small difference in odds makes a difference in the long run, so you should always make sure to get the best odds available on your preferred selection before betting on the NBA.

Research for the best sites for basketball, and you will find various websites boasting that they offer the best NBA betting tips. It helps to have a few different accounts open and topped up with a small amount of cash, so you are ready to get on before the odds disappear. It will certainly make a difference in your long-term results when betting on the NBA.

Of course, you may just be looking for a bit of fun and not too bothered about finding the best NBA betting tips. It is all well and good, it’s up to you after all. In that case, just choose the bookmaker you enjoy betting with most and make sure they offer the kind of market you want to bet on.

Have Multiple Bookmaker Accounts For Your NBA Betting

When it comes to betting on sport, no bookmaker will provide you with the same odds. This means that you will be constantly shopping around looking to get the best value. It is always a smart idea to have multiple betting accounts just in case you see a power boosted price on a market that interests you and you want to take advantage of it immediately.

It is better to have money in there also, because you don’t want to run the risk of missing out on an offer which could be substantial. This means that it is incredibly convenient for all punters to have multiple betting accounts for their NBA betting.

Not only NBA: other basketball competitions to bet on

It’s no secret the NBA is the biggest basketball league in the world unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for most of your life! However, it’s far from the only basketball event you can bet on. There are many events played under FIBA (International Basketball Federation) rules too.

Interestingly, NBA rules differ in several ways from those put in place by the FIBA. A few examples include:

• Court size
• Match length
• Player foul limit

Let’s look at the best basketball competitions to bet on apart from the NBA.

Olympic Games & World Cup

These national tournaments are above all a chance to see the stars of the NBAunited to represent their country, rather than facing off against each other as they usually do. Ever since the Dream Team stormed to gold at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, there has been particularly big hype about the USA team participating in international tournaments.

While the USA frequently dominates at the Olympic Games and World Cup tournaments, there have been occasions where they have failed to live up to the hype. Especially during the early 2000s where they went from 2002 to 2006 without capturing a title. That would be something to keep an eye on in 2019 when the US side will head to the World Cup.

Another reason to be careful when wagering on these tournaments is that NBA teams are sometimes reluctant to let their best players participate, afraid of them incurring an injury. As you can imagine, that has a big impact on the team’s chances of winning.

EuroLeague & EuroCup

A little closer to home, Europe also hosts some fine basketball clubs and players. The EuroLeague is the basketball equivalent of the Champions League, with the continent’s best clubs battling it out for the title.

There are less EuroLeague matches than in an NBA season, bearing in mind the clubs also compete in their own domestic league. The EuroLeague format has changed several times over the years, with a 16-team regular season introduced in 2016-2017. Unfortunately, the UK still don’t have the quality of players to compete at this level.

OK, so the EuroLeague doesn’t get as much media attention as the NBA, but you can still find broadcasters in most countries who screen it. Some bookmakers also live stream matches for free, as long as you have funds or an open bet in your account. A major advantage is that the games are screened at a reasonable time, rather than in the middle of the night like the NBA, due to the time difference. That makes it easier to follow the action and bet in-play while watching.

Although it’s a second-tier competition, the EuroCup is also growing in quality and exposure every year. The winners qualify automatically for the following season’s EuroLeague.

How We Selected Our Bookmakers For NBA Betting

When it comes to finding a place for all your NBA betting needs, it really couldn’t be more straightforward. We are dedicated to UK operators that ensure NBA betting is a leading sport on their platform, as opposed to just another sport to say that they offer. Bookmakers such as William Hill, Betfred and Ladbrokes go above and beyond when it comes to the NBA services they offer.

As well as offering live streaming and in-play betting, they have a variety of betting markets and offers with competitive odds. They ensure that the NBA is covered for diehard fans. The comprehensive coverage that they give to basketball ensures that they are the leaders for UK punters looking to maximise their returns on NBA betting.

Bet on the NBA conclusion

Now that you have read this guide, you will understand how to bet on the NBA matches. You should be able to calculate the profit from your bets. And, you should be able to make the best-informed bets possible!

Other sports to bet on

Once you placed your bet on the NBA game of your choice and are waiting for the out come, take advantage of your betting account to place bets on other sports and events. We recommend following the calendar of the most popular events, one of which would be the coming Joshua vs Ruiz 2 fight.

Of the four major American sports, the NBA is still regarded as the easiest to predict on a nightly basis. This perceived predictability is a double-edged sword; on one side, it’s nice to be able to handicap a matchup on your own and be fairly accurate more often than not. On the other side, the bookmakers are close to or spot on with their opening lines with more regularity than we’d desire.

Still, betting on NBA basketball offers great profit potential to those who know how to navigate this unique betting landscape. One big key to staying profitable in NBA betting is to understand how the lines are made and what they mean. Staying sharp in this area will allow you to find spots where the lines are off and ready to be hammered, and also when to stay away, which is a big skill in keeping a good margin in NBA betting.

Our ultimate NBA betting strategy guide comes directly from experts who have put their money where their mouths are and have made their livelihood as advantage bettors for years. They’re happy to share their insights and expertise to give you helpful strategies to improve your NBA betting prospects. Whether you’re new to NBA betting or you’re a seasoned gambler looking for a way to sharpen your basketball betting acumen, we’re very confident that you’ll find our tips useful.

Our guide is broken down into sections to help give you an easier read and help make things easy to find if you ever need to come back and get a refresher on a particular topic. Good to go? Let’s get started.

I. The Basics

These basic skills and strategies lay the groundwork for solid and informed NBA betting. You always want to have a good foundation to start with, and these tips help lay that groundwork. You might find some of these tips to be obvious, but simple disciplines go a long way. In the long run, keeping your betting game on the rails is one of the biggest factors that will separate you from winning and losing significant units of money.

While some of the tips in this section can be applied to most other forms of sports betting, they are listed here because of their unique value to betting the NBA.

Make a Bankroll Management Plan

Most folks budget when it comes to basic stuff like food or housing, but for whatever reason, they completely abandon this concept when it comes to gambling. But the bottom line is this: if you want to be able to gamble consistently and win, you have to have some basic bankroll management.

How you keep tabs on your betting bankroll is up to you; we’re not trying to force financial advice upon you. But NBA betting can be very intensive, and there is a lot of action to be had each night. To keep from hemorrhaging cash in a short amount of time, you want to have a good plan for what your overall bankroll is and what your standard bet will be based on the balance.

No matter how basic your method may be, having a way to keep an eye on your bankroll will help keep you from going off the rails with huge bets that could cripple you if they miss. You’ll also be more likely to avoid the temptation of chasing losses. A good plan is the best way to stay in the pocket with your betting system and find out what works and what doesn’t over an extended period of time.

Stay Informed on Player Injury and Rest Updates

There is no worse feeling than playing a betting line you think is way off base, only to realize after your loss that the line was “juicy” because a star player on the team you bet was out for the night with an injury or was being rested. Not only do you feel like a square for losing, but you feel regret because you know you could have made a better decision simply by checking out the injury updates.

This kind of stuff happens all the time, and it’s just a black hole for your bankroll. Please make sure you’re staying up to the minute on personal news when betting. In addition to knowing who’s in or out of a game, make sure you have the latest on things like minute restrictions or if a guy is playing banged-up and won’t be as productive. Incorporate the information however you wish; just make sure that you have it in the first place. Don’t bet blind.

We’re not blowing smoke just to make a point; this is a huge priority for any serious NBA bettor. This is because injury news about players often doesn’t break until very close to game time – sometimes mere minutes before tip-off! You must stay apprised of injuries or other happenings all the way to game time, and our advice to you is to place your bet as close to tip-off as you can.

This might sound cumbersome, but not only is there amazing value in saving money on a play you would have otherwise made, but you also will find easy profit opportunities betting the other way thanks to breaking news. There’s a reason the big sharps have little closed-circuit TV monitors in their private booths – they relish the opportunity to race a ticket in before the book can change a line or take it off the board altogether.

When news breaks, it takes time for books to adjust the lines. The sharks take advantage of this. The fish miss out or get eaten alive because they didn’t know the facts. Don’t be a fish; BE A SHARK!

Pay Attention to Schedules and Schedule Tracking

The premise is simple; teams don’t perform as well when they’re fatigued as they do when they’re fresh. Much like the injury tracking above, it’s also good common sense to make sure your betting horse isn’t limping into the arena on tired legs. But what was long held by sharps as a hunch has now become a legit game changer in the age of data. We’re sure some big shot at the books played a role as well, but the bottom line is that schedule tracking is a big thing to watch out for now.

What is schedule tracking, you ask? Schedule tracking is looking at a team’s schedule and looking for rough patches in the schedule that would lead the team to be tired or fatigued. The hope is that on these particular games, the betting line fails to reflect this crucial factoid and a team is overvalued, giving great value to a bet against that team. This is especially valuable for teams that the betting public likes no matter the case, as books have to keep the lines high to keep their action balanced.

There are multiple angles to look for when using scheduling to influence your betting. The most well-known example of a schedule-based betting trend is the “back-to-back,” which is the popular way of saying that a team will play on consecutive nights. Back-to-backs are a part of most NBA daily betting analyses when it’s in play, especially when the particular team’s games are on the road or have a road/home combo.

However, simply finding a team on a back-to-back is not enough to guarantee profit on your play. Like we said earlier, this is a majorly tracked trend now. The bookmakers now know that this kind of money will come in big and they’ve adjusted accordingly. Staying that crucial step ahead will require a bit more keen strategy. Thankfully, we’ve got just that in the next section, which focuses on skills you will want to incorporate specifically for NBA betting.

II. NBA Betting: Get the Edge

Having basic betting principles down is a great way to ensure that you’re not simply throwing your money away. Beyond that, you’ll want to have some skills specifically tailored to the sport you’re betting. Below are some of the strategies and tactics our experts employ to find the best lines and stay up on the books. We’re happy to share, and we encourage you to use them and improve upon them at home!

Read the Bookmaker

One of the most important principles Sun Tzu teaches in The Art of War is to know your enemy, and that’s what this tip is all about. Learning to think about the bookmaker’s intentions when putting out a line is definitely one of those “separator” skills – by that we mean that it’s one of those defining betting skills that separate the consistently profitable pros from the losing recreational bettors.

This is a “game behind the game” tip, but it’s extremely important in NBA betting (just as much as in NFL betting, in our opinion). The principle is to ask a very simple question: why did the book open the line at that number? Expert sharps consider it second nature to ask this question, but most folks never even think to.

We could list examples for days, but let’s discuss one to show you what we mean:

A and B are two evenly matched teams playing in a highly anticipated game where a lot of betting volume is expected. Team A is at home. After all the factors like home court advantage and such are factored in, the game is a true pick’em. So, what do you think the opening line will be?
Team A – (-1)
That’s right; if you thought zero, you’re wrong.

In this example, we said the game is a true pick’em, and it is. So why did the book open the line at -1? Great question! Now you’re learning.

This is a common example of the public’s inclination to bet the home team in true coin-flip situations. Another common perception (even amongst experienced NBA bettors) that are leveraged by the books in this example is that if a team is going to win, they’ll likely win by more than one point, so it’s worth it to lay the point and pay less vig than you would on a moneyline bet.

Bookmakers capitalize on these common perceptions by putting pick’em games out at Home Team (-1) or (-1.5) to make the public pay a premium on their habit. They’ll also put out Home Team (-1) opening lines even if the home team should open as a 1-point underdog.

The reason? If public perception is that the game is a flip, the bookmakers know they’re going to receive more bets on the home team. Therefore, they want that side of the action to pay the vig so they make their profit on the percentages in the long run. And overall, they do just that. 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. What we are saying is that by asking yourself what the book is trying to accomplish with a particular betting line (or price) and why the lines are where they are, you’ll find great opportunities all over the board on a regular basis.

Find the Shaded Lines

“Line shading” is a term referring to when a bookmaker anticipates heavy betting action on one side of a matchup and moves an opening betting line toward that side. Line shades can be small (one point) or large (3+ points) and are a great profit-seeking area of betting if you know how to find them.

Let’s say the Boston Celtics go on a hot streak (both in wins and ATS) that gets a lot of media attention. In such a case, more public bettors will start to come in wanting to ride the wave. To keep their betting handle balanced, the books respond by inflating lines involving the Celtics by a couple of points. So if the Celtics were supposed to be a (-9) favorite in a game, the books will put them out at (-11) instead.

There is nothing wrong with what the bookmaker is doing here. If the Celtics stay hot, the books could lose a lot of money each game from lopsided betting on them. So shading the line is the correct move on their part so long as it evens out their action. They can discourage enough sharp bets on the Celtics who want to bet for value, and they make the public take a bigger risk of a dog cover.

In scenarios like these, the value play is often (but not always) to bet against the shaded line and take advantage of those underdog points. Both the books and the sophisticated bettors know that the line has been swung to disfavor a cover by the Celtics. It’s literally a gift to you. Take it! More often than not, the public will be disappointed, while the sharps enjoy a nice score and keep on trucking. The bookmaker is satisfied that they got enough action on both sides, and all is well in the betting world.

The only downside with this sort of play is that it is based on short-term perceptions, so you can’t really plan for it. The only real way to find these opportunities is to keep up with NBA news and events and build up a bit of a bettor’s intuition of when the masses have caused a line shade.

Another great scenario where books shade lines hard is on second-half lines where the action got super lopsided in the first half. This is covered a little bit later in the guide in the Middling Second-Half Bets section.

The overall principle here is to remember that line shading can happen for any reason. Much like the first section talking about reading the bookmaker’s intentions, a big part of finding a shaded line is to try to find out if the book is trying to encourage or discourage action on a certain side. The best way to do that is to stay informed.

Fade the Public

We’re sure you see this a lot; it’s part of almost any expert betting advice on any sport that’s out there. Well, it’s there for good reason! The books are there to make money, and they make money by forcing the public to pay a premium for their popular notions.

Even if a notion has merit, it will lose value in the betting market by way of having everyone doing it. It’s not that being with the public is always wrong; it’s just that in this business, it’s going to be very costly to do so over time. Awkward as it might be to tell your best buds that you bet against the hometown team this evening, it beats losing money to mere sentiment. Being a contrarian bettor is a skill you simply must embrace to keep your bankroll intact.

Betting against the public is a great intuition to have, and just by embracing it, you will find yourself sniffing out inflated lines and finding trends where the public is giving too much or too little credit to a team based on reputation or media coverage or whatever whim of the day.

Our tip to you is just to make sure you don’t overdo it. It’s nice to have the skill and the fortitude to go the other way when it’s the right play, but make sure it’s the right play. It’s not enough to find the public’s money and go the other way. That is a losing system. Instead, make sure you combine your plays against the grain with other supplemental factors that make your bet more of a high percentage prospect, e.g., an inflated line or a scheduling trend.

Know How to Middle the Second Half

Now we’re betting some NBA! This is a sweet play that you’ll want to learn; it’s an absolute moneymaker, and it’s a part of every professional bettor’s arsenal.

For those not familiar, the term “middle” or “middling” refers to instances where swings in the betting lines allow for opportunities where a player can bet both sides of a game and potentially win both bets.

Atlanta is playing Boston, and the line opens with Boston as a (-5) favorite. You bet on Boston.
An hour before tip-off, it is announced that Atlanta is resting two of its best players that evening and they will not play. Betting action comes in very heavy on Boston, and the book responds by swinging the line on all the way up to a (-10) favorite.

The middling opportunity here is if you bet Atlanta (+10). No matter what, you will win one of your bets. But if Boston wins by 6, 7, 8, or 9 points, both tickets get paid.

Nba Sports Betting Today

This may sound like free money, but there is risk involved: while one of your bets will come through, if both don’t, you will be a slight loser by paying the vig to the house. Make sure you’re aware of the probabilities versus the price before deciding to take a middle.

Now that we have middling down, let’s make some money.

How To Bet On Nba Rookie Of The Year

The tip we’re suggesting you look out for is when you’ve already wagered on an NBA game, and then the first half results in a blowout for one side.

Chicago is playing Detroit, and you bet Detroit as a (+3) underdog.
Detroit blows out Chicago in the first half and leads by 15 at halftime.
The bookmaker puts the second half line at Chicago (-6).
BEGIN HAPPY DANCE.

In this scenario, you already have an 18-point cushion for your (+3) bet on Detroit. Excellent.
But if you bet Chicago to cover the (-6) in the second half, Chicago can win the half by anywhere between 7 and 18 points and both of your bets will get paid (excluding O.T.). You now have an 11-point range where both bets will win. Most Excellent.

That example is not an exaggeration. Middling opportunities like these are out there throughout the NBA season. Sportsbooks make a ton offering half lines. But their weakness with some of these lines is that they have to put the line out based on where they think the bets will fall, the action that’s occurred, and the action they’ve already taken on the game. They also have to be wary of what competitors’ books are doing. And they have to do it all in very short time (while the teams are in the locker room).

Look for opportunities like these and crush the books when they give you a big opportunity like this. It’s a winning play that’s yet to be corrected in the betting markets, and we highly encourage you to take advantage of it.

The best way to take advantage of this play is to have access to multiple accounts across betting sites. It allows you to line shop all over the world and increase your chances of finding these great plays. If you’re interested, you can find information on safe and reliable sports betting sites on our main pages.

Here are some other great tips and trends to help you become a great NBA handicapper:

Energy and Morale

The art of gauging a team’s energy level has many components. Part of it is being in tune with their schedule, and part of it is staying in tune with locker room tensions or stress (and how these tensions are affecting performance).

This is a difficult betting nuance to write about, especially for experienced bettors. So much of what you analyze in professional betting are hard numbers – spreads, stats, scores, rinse and repeat. Asking you to place actual value on something like locker room drama is a tough sell.

But the numbers we crunch are often just reflections of the trends we find by using our senses to observe the teams. How did player rest become a big trend in NBA betting? Because we observed it, bet on it when others weren’t, and won big. More than any other method, this how the pros find new trends before anyone else.

Following this tip is asking you to trust your gut, scary as that can be for some. This isn’t for everyone; if you just want to be a snipe-the-numbers bettor, that’s perfectly fine. You can make good and consistent money just going the math route. But in our opinion, the truly elite sports bettors – the ones who make trends and bend lines – trust their intuition on how to gauge a team’s energy level and determine when a team is ripe to over/underperform a line that’s out there.

If you decide to use this factor in your betting system, our #1 piece of advice to you is simply to take notes on why you’re betting a certain way so that you can track your results over time.

Don’t Be Afraid of Road Favorites

More than the other major sports, NBA lines are influenced by two big betting habits: home court advantage, and a team’s previous game(s). Most public bettors fear losing a bet because the other team got a charge from the home crowd or “got home calls from the refs.” It’s the reason they play so heavily on home teams.

As a result, there are often great value plays for good teams that hit the road. Books know they’re going to get big action on the home underdog even after they shade the opening line toward them. Worse case, the sharps hammer them early, they move the line toward the road favorite, and they’ll get the home team bets on the back end.

This is especially true of teams coming off a big loss in their last game. If a solid team is on a road trip and they get blown out in one game, take a look at them in the next game if they’re a favorite. Not only are they a good team looking to bounce back, but they’re probably playing a clearly inferior team if they’re still listed as a favorite on the road despite the bad loss. You’re might benefit from a more significant point swing in your favor, as well.

Sometimes it pays to be early in this spot, but all the same, the play is there. You’ll have to sweat out some home calls here and there, but this play performs quite well over time.

III. NBA Betting: Keep the Edge

Once you have some solid betting strategies to wield, it’s great to see good results come in. Staying ahead, however, means never being complacent and always looking for ways to improve your betting system. This section has just a couple of tips that we think you should consider to help tighten up your game.

Track Your Bets by Team; Consider Specializing

Every bettor has strengths and weaknesses in their game. Some of it is just natural. For instance, time zones alone can determine what teams a person sees more often than others.

This tip isn’t about overall strategy so much as it’s about tracking your bets and making sure your results are consistent across teams.

When you bet a game, you’re betting on the performance of both the winning and losing teams. If you find that you’re crushing your bets on one team and whiffing more often than you’d like on others, take a step back and ask yourself why. Hopefully, you’ll reach the desired effect and find out if and where you might be weak in your observation of certain teams. Then you’ll know exactly where you must either improve your analysis or just save some of those losing bets.

If you find that you’re consistently doing well with a certain group of teams, e.g., the division your favorite team is in, consider specializing your bets to games involving those teams and branching out from there. You’ll have a little less to chew on, and your laser-beam focus on just a few teams can keep your good results consistent.

Track Your Results by Bet Type

You certainly want to keep good records of your results no matter what sport you’re betting – it’s the mark of a good handicapper. But we think it’s particularly important to track your NBA bets by bet type. By bet type, we primarily mean tracking your bets by:

• Spreads vs. money lines
• Straight bets vs. parlays (and if parlays, how many legs)
• Full-game bets vs. 1st/2nd half bets or bets on quarters

These are just the most basic examples, but you can track your bets by any kind of pattern that you think is worth a second look. The most important thing is that you actually do it. The point of it is to make sure that each type of bet you put down is making you money. If a certain bet you’re making is a drain on your bankroll over time, save that bet or transfer it into a bet type that performs well for you.

Tracking your NBA bets will also help you ensure that you’re not throwing away your money on certain types of bets. If you’re performing well on full-game and second-half bets, but you’re bleeding cash on first-half bets, stop betting the first half! Likewise if you’re grinding out a nice profit on straight bets, only to give it right back by gambling on frivolous long-shot parlays.

Bottom line: tracking your results by bet type will make you money, save you money, and help you identify your strong and weak betting areas.

We hope you found our guide helpful and fun to read, and we’re rooting for you find those trends that work for you and pad your bankroll. No matter what happens, remember to have fun and enjoy the games!