Home › NBA Lines › NBA Articles › Betting Odds
NBA Betting odds: The beginning of the NBA season tends to sneak up on fans just a bit. By the time the year gets rolling in October, fans have just started to settle in to the grind of the football season, and the baseball playoffs are still dominating the day-to-day TV viewing. However, when baseball hits the road, the NBA is all that is widely available during the week, and when the Super Bowl wraps up in February, there's nothing but hardwood action for bettors to enjoy.
Betting on the NBA isn't nearly as popular as the NFL, but of the major pro sports, it's easily the second biggest draw. Hundreds of millions – if not billions – of dollars are wagered on the Association every single year. At BookMaker.eu, bettors have several options to choose from when betting on the NBA.
POINT SPREAD
The point spread is the essence of sports betting, and when you look back at the Tim Donaghy point-shaving scandal, this is exactly where games were won and lost.
Home teams are very often favored in the NBA, as home court advantage is generally worth at least three or so points. When a team is favored, that means it has to not just win the game, but win it by a number of points as well. If the Bulls are favored by 4.5-points (shown as -4.5) over the Raptors, they have to win by at least five points to cover the spread. If Toronto loses by four or wins the game, it will have covered the spread.
MONEYLINE
Whereas the point spread involves the final score of the game, the moneyline is a bit easier to explain. Simply put, the winner of the game wins the moneyline bet.
The proposition though, isn't 50/50. The more points a team is an underdog by, the more money you can make. Consequently, the more a team is favored by, the more it costs to get that team on your side. A team which is favored by 10 points might be lined at -500 on the moneyline, meaning it costs you $500 if you want to win $100. However, if a team wins a game as a 10-point dog, the payout on your $100 could be as high as $450.
TOTAL OR OVER/UNDER
Totals in the NBA are incredibly ranging. The lowest scoring games in the NBA can feature totals in the 160s, while the highest can easily get into the 230s or so. Most games though, feature a total of around 200.
In order to win an over/under bet, you've got to correctly prognosticate whether the total number of points in a game will be higher or lower than the number the sportsbooks have posted. Overs are typically shaded just a bit, especially in some of the closer games. In the NBA, fourth quarters often feature more points than the average quarter because of all of the fouling teams have to do who are playing catch-up in the dying couple minutes. The prospect of a five-minute overtime period also pushes bettors towards the over from time to time.
FUTURES
NBA futures betting isn't quite as popular as you might think, especially knowing that there are only four teams who have played in the NBA Finals over the course of the last four years and only 10 different winners of the Larry O'Brien Trophy since 1983 and 11 since 1980.
However, there are still great opportunities abound for futures bettors without wagering on who is going to win the NBA Finals or the East or West. Season win totals are popular in every sport, and the NBA isn't an exception. There's always a wide range of expectations, none of which will be higher than on the 2017 Golden State Warriors now that they've signed Kevin Durant. Even as recently as four or five years ago, no team had a regular season win totals beyond about 55 wins or so. Now, the Warriors are going to be in the high-60s for the second straight year.
NBA TEAMS
Eastern Conference - Atlantic
Eastern Conference - Central
Eastern Conference - Southeast
Western Conference - Northwest
Western Conference - Pacific
Western Conference - Southwest
