The NBA – One Hell Of A Lot Of Money Gets Wagered Here

When it comes to sports betting the NBA is right up there in total spent each week. To a non-American NBA betting might seem a bit confusing. If you are a complete novice to sports betting then yes it looks like a load of gibberish. If you are familiar with say betting on football, and I mean association, then it’s not so hard.
Off course it depends which bookie you go to as well. Terminology in basketball is not so different really when we are talking about laying a bet down. Spreads, money lines, quarter, and totals they are all simple to understand really.
The biggest difference is how the bets are formatted, decimal, fractional or American! Even British bookies use American terminology so for anyone new to the scene it can take some getting used to but we will try to give you the low down on it all.

NBA Betting Tips Are Everywhere

If you are new to the scene a quick search online and it seems the world at its wife can give you tips on the NBA. Start off slow and you will be fine don’t believe everything you read online. NBA betting is no different than any other sports betting in that you do your research. Facts are what count. Opinions are like a-holes everybody’s got one. Go to serious sites for info, NBA.com has to be the first stop. You will find out who pulled a muscle last game, who came close to fouling out, who’s hitting the three pointers.
Stats are what you really want if you are serious about betting on the NBA. There are some seriously geeky sites dedicated to basketball stats. Find them, look hard read a lot. Information is the ammunition a smart sports bettor uses in the war against the bookies. The trick is knowing which information is valid.

Price Format The Noobs Downfall

Probably the one biggest confusing thing to a new sports bettor is how the price is formatted. When it comes to getting the best odds for the NBA shopping around is the best bet. Not all bookies offer a format conversion of prices. So you really do need to understand what they are. Fractional odds are a British/Australian thing written as a fraction 5/1 is stake 1 win 5, but this bit is important, plus your stake back.
Decimal odds are used by almost all of the rest of the world and the same price would be 6.0 that would be for every 1 staked 6 back inclusive of stake. American format assumes you bet a dime, sorry $100, and will give a plus or minus figure. The best way to explain is to give an example of a real game. Blazers v Celtics fractional 11/4 and 2/7 decimal 3.75 and 1.28 American +275 and-350. For the rest of us it doesn’t make much sense, sorry America.

NBA Betting Explained

The first bet anyone ever places on a NBA game is on the money line market. Put simply the money line is a straightforward forecast. Who’s going to win? There’s no draw in basketball so you bet on who is going to have the highest score at the final buzzer. Dead easy. You can bet on first half money line as well. You can have quarter betting win, lose tie. Then you have 1st, 2nd quarter last team to score. 3rd quarter money line. You can basically get odds on who will be leading at the end of any quarter.
Then we have the handicap market or spread as the Americans call it. Now the spread is simply a way to bring grossly mismatched teams closer. A handicap simple, like golf. This market like with football you will get a few different alternative spreads offered. NBA betting will give you one main spread. Blazers (+8) v Celtics (-8) payout 10/11 from William Hill you will get a different spread between bookies but probably not with British ones. The alternatives will give different spread figures and payouts.

There Are Loads Of Punts

Pundit and punter sound the same but they can be very different. There are so many markets offered on the NBA that it is sometimes hard to tell the smart bet from the punt. Winning margin is an example of a smart bet if you have done your research. Stepped up in increments of two you can get some very favorable odds on some matches you can hedge and get a great deal. Will there be overtime can get some crazy odds depending on the match up. Enhanced odds can be a punt at times and sometimes a clever bet.
You will usually get a player to score over say 30 points and the team to win, the odds will be very good compared to the straight money line.

Totals Over/Under Personal Scores

The over/under market is a very popular section when it comes to NBA betting. Most bookies will offer a game total over/under figure with payout odds for that. Then they will offer separate over/under scores for each team. You can get odds on each quarter score over/under both combined total and individual team score. You can even get a total score odds or evens! You can bet on how long it will be before a certain player scores. How many points that player scores for the first quarter. The second quarter and so on.

Shop Around

Bookies vary wildly when it comes to betting on the NBA. British bookies can make a few mistakes here and they are well worth studying carefully. The smartest books on the NBA are the USA facing bunch they know what’s what and you will be hard pressed to find a mistake within their markets. The NBA is massive and for the sports bettor it’s a wonder game to dig your teeth into. There is so much information out there it’s easy to be informed.
NBA betting tips are everywhere the internet is full of them. The thing is there is so much money riding on it. The athletes are the highest paid of any sport. Sponsorship deals are huge. It relatively new to the rest of the world but Americans have been betting on every NBA market ever conceived for as long as the game has been around. We are catching up the wealth of pure sporting facts surrounding the game means for a true sports bettor the NBA is a must. The game is so fast paced that a small piece of info can be a great tip to the savvy NBA bettor. Especially when some of the European bookies don’t really know what it is all about. Still there loss our gain.
Remember fix a budget for your bankroll. Do your research. Shop around for the best deals. More than one sports book account is essential for the avid sports bettor. Top NBA betting tip, have fun! Life’s too short to stress over a bet. Your mortgage money is for the roof over your head. Good luck.