NBA Finals Historical Series Odds: Home Favorites Dominate Game 1

The 2025 NBA playoffs are ready to tip off, and the eyes of the basketball world are on the road to the Finals. The top contenders from the East and West will clash with the goal of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. As the postseason unfolds, we've diving into the historical NBA Finals series odds to see how past matchups, betting trends and upsets can shape 2025's championship outlook. 

Teams have everything to play for as the playoffs determine who the next NBA champion will be. For savvy bettors, our NBA Finals Historical Series odds can offer a roadmap to spotting patterns and getting ahead of the market.  

NBA Finals Historical Series Betting

Now, it hasn't been a clean sweep since 2014 for the Western Conference champions capturing the NBA crown, but as we can plainly see here, oddsmakers have been infatuated with the best of the West by favoring them in 10 of the 11 NBA Finals. Boston broke a trend of 10 consecutive Western team's favored to lift the Larry O'Brien last season. 

The biggest discrepancy came in 2017 when the Golden State Warriors were an overwhelming -2000 favorite to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers, with Golden State ultimately winning that series in five games.

NBA Finals Game 1 Betting Trends

Kicking off a series with a home victory doesn't always tell the tale of how it will ultimately unfold, but it's as good a start as any if you're looking to win four of seven. However, the losing team in Game 1 has come back to win the series in two of the last four years. So, failing to take Game 1 isn't the end. 

The home side has been favored to take Game 1 each of the last 11 years, and have gone 9-2 ATS. 

NBA Finals Total Games Betting Trends

A fun prop to bet on throughout any postseason is wagering on how long a specific series will go. Intriguingly, no NBA Finals series has gone the full seven games since the epic Warriors vs Cavaliers Game 7 back in 2016. 

In the case of the Finals, with the exception of the Warriors-Cavaliers matchup which graced us for far too long from 2015 through 2018, there was a four-year streak of the series going exactly six games prior to the Denver Nuggets beating the Heat in 2023 in just five. Backing the NBA Finals to finish in UNDER six games is the safe play for 2025.