How To Bet On Basketball Games Online: NBA Betting Tips

Betting on the National Basketball Association can be profitable and fun if you have a basic knowledge of the sport and online wagering. Here at Odds Shark, we don’t like to toot our own horn – unless someone cuts us off on the highway – but we’re experts in the field of basketball betting. In fact, we’re experts in betting on every sport out there, and we want to pass our knowledge on to you through this NBA betting guide so you can make smart hoops picks while learning how to bet on basketball and win.

Whether you’re heading to the betting market to place a wager on a regular-season game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies, or you want to know how to bet on the NBA Finals, we’ve got you covered with our online betting tutorial.

Our Favorite NBA Betting Sites

What Is The Best Way To Bet On Basketball?

Before we explain how to bet money on NBA games, you should familiarize yourself with how the NBA odds will be laid out at the sportsbook. FYI – sportsbook is the industry name for “betting site.”

How To Read Basketball Odds

Let’s start with the basics, and have basketball odds explained. Betting odds will always be expressed with a plus sign (+) to designate the underdog and a minus sign (-) to represent the favorite. For instance:

The numbers beside the plus and minus sign are the actual odds. This is based on bettors making wagers of $100. The $10 is the juice or vig – what the sportsbook collects from each bet.

You don’t have to bet $100. You can bet $50 or $1,500 or $27. It’s up to you how much you want to wager. Braces are expensive, so please bet within your means, otherwise your children will have crooked teeth.

Now that you’ve had basketball betting lines explained, let’s start with basketball betting explained.

Moneyline Bets: Picking A Team To Win SU

Also known as a straight-up bet (SU), the moneyline is a bet that involves picking a Sportsbook. For example, if the Toronto Raptors are the favorite in their matchup against the Boston Celtics, you can bet on them to win outright. The odds would look something like this:

If you were to place $40 on the Raptors and they won, you’d get a payout of $55.38 – your original $40 comes back along with the $15.38 you won. Conversely, that same $40 on a winning Celtics bet would give you a payout of $128 – your original $40 is returned, coupled with your loot of $88. Our odds calculator will tell you how much you’d win based on the odds and how much you bet.

A bet on the underdog is considered a riskier wager since oddsmakers – the people who set the lines at betting sites – predict that this team isn’t going to win. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t bet on dogs and only take faves. As long as you handicap your bets accordingly, you could see big winnings on huge upsets. Don’t worry, we’ll cover handicapping strategies below.

Point Spreads: Which Squad Will Cover?

Like with NFL betting, when two NBA teams aren’t evenly matched, the point spread gives NBA bettors an alternative to picking one team to win over the other. The dog is given an advantage before the game starts, and the favorite is put at a disadvantage. Odds would look something like this:

In this scenario, the Kings would need to either win the game outright or lose by 17 points or less. As for the Warriors, they would need to win the game by 18 or more.

When you make a bet like this, you are choosing a team to cover the spread. You’ll often see ATS in association with this kind of bet. This means “against the spread.”

Spreads for an NBA game will typically be more than five (5) points since basketball is such a high-scoring sport. There will be times when the spread won’t have the decimal (.5) and you would see a whole number.

Using the same example as above for this NBA betting tip, if the point spread was 17 instead of 17.5 and the Warriors won the game by exactly 17 points, meaning the Kings lost by that same amount, it’s called a PUSH. In this case, you’d get your money back as if your bet never happened.

NBA Totals: Combined Score Betting

To make a totals bet, you would wager on whether the combined final score will go OVER or UNDER a set number of points. If the New Orleans Pelicans are facing off against the Houston Rockets, the odds would appear like so:

If you take the OVER, it means you need the total points to be more than 220 to win your bet. If you take the UNDER, you need the collective score to be 219 or less to win your wager. PUSHES can also happen in OVER/UNDER betting if the shared points hit the exact number set by the oddsmakers.

Live Odds: Betting While The Game Progresses

Betting sites will provide live odds while the game is going on. In-play betting lets you wager on each play, and things like the next team to score, or changing spreads. When you see live odds that you like, take them ASAP because they will disappear quickly. The faster you can make your picks on live lines, the better.

Prop Bets: Keeping It Light

During the NBA season, you’ll see prop bets. In sports betting, props (short for proposition) are wagers on the occurrence or non-occurrence of certain events or highlights that may not directly correlate to the outcome of the game. You’ll see NBA player and team props based on milestones like:

Props are considered more entertaining than other basketball bets since you don’t have to worry about teams covering the spread or winning the game straight up.

Futures: Betting On The Long Term

NBA futures are bets made on events that will happen in time. Sure, all bets are made on happenings that have yet to occur, but futures are made weeks and months in advance of the event. At your online sportsbook of choice, you’ll see bets like:

Futures bets can be made at any time before the event takes place. Oddsmakers will release odds before the season begins, so it’s best to jump on them as early as possible before the lines move.

Parlays: Many Bets On One Ticket

This type of bet allows you to bundle two or more wagers on one betting slip. Parlays let you take the moneyline from one game, the totals from another, and the spread from a different matchup. For instance, a parlay ticket could look like this:

Milwaukee Bucks Moneyline + Chicago Bulls vs LA Lakers Total + Dallas Mavericks to cover the spread

With this kind of bet, all wagers on your ticket must hit, otherwise it’s deemed a bust. If you have even one loss, you lose the entire bet. You can also make cross-sport parlays and include college football and NHL bets with your basketball picks. In fact, you can create tickets with any sports that are played concurrently with the NBA season.

We have a parlay calculator that will show you what you’d win based on the odds of each bet on your slip. Our tool lets you add up to 100 bets, though most sportsbooks only offer up to 10-team parlays.

Handicapping Your Basketball Bets

When oddsmakers set the lines, they take many factors into consideration. They look at past performances, coaching and injuries. With this in mind, it is imperative that you develop an NBA betting strategy. When you handicap your bets, look at which team is playing at home.

It’s important to consider home-court advantage, particularly when the opposing team is on the end of a losing road trip or has played multiple games in recent nights. Fatigue can make or break a team and can affect your bets.

Another betting strategy to consider is momentum. When a team gets hot, it can often string together huge winning streaks both straight up and against the spread. Similarly, bad teams can rack up blowout losses in bunches as well. Be on the lookout for these spikes in season momentum and grab the odds early.

Finally, we have pages that can help you make smart bets:

How To Sign Up At A Sportsbook To Bet On The NBA

Now that you know how to bet on NBA games, you’ll need to find somewhere to place your bets.

Step 1: Pick a Sportsbook

Select the one you like best. Sportsbooks are betting sites you visit to wager on the NBA. Each and every betting site we champion is trustworthy, safe, secure and meets our standards.

If they didn’t, we wouldn’t recommend them. There are many places to bet on the NBA. Head over to our best NBA betting sites to find the sportsbook that’s fit for you!

Step 2: Sign Up

Registration is easy and only takes a couple of minutes. Provide your name, email address, deposit information and birthday to verify that you are legally permitted to gamble. Enter all relevant information and wait for a confirmation email or link. Have your deposit info nearby because as soon as the sign-up process is finished, you can make your first NBA bet.

Step 3: Make a Deposit

How you choose to fund your account is entirely up to you. Gambling for real money at your preferred sportsbook entails deciding on a deposit option that makes sense for your needs.

Almost all betting sites let you make deposits with your credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX), e-wallets (PayPal, Neteller, Skrill), and debit. Some online sports betting sites will accept cryptocurrency as a deposit method. You’ll typically find gambling sites that take Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash and Ethereum.

Step 4: Place Your Bet

Now that you’re all warmed up, pick a sportsbook from our list and bet like you’re Barkley!