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What are NBA Futures?
NBA futures in a nutshell are essentially NBA bets on NBA events that have yet to occur. Betting on NBA futures is very popular, especially in the United States, for both novice and professional bettors. With NBA futures, basketball bettors can wager on which team they believe will win the NBA Championship. While the NBA Championship futures market takes in the most volume of bets and money at sportsbooks online, there are plenty of other opportunities in the NBA futures betting market.
Betting on NBA futures also allows basketball fans to wager on which NBA teams will win their respective divisions, and which ones will win the Eastern and Western conferences. There’s also a bunch of other fun prop bets in NBA futures wagering, such as which player will win NBA MVP, who will be Rookie of the Year, or individual awards like Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man, and Most Improved.
NBA Championship Futures
The NBA Championship is typically decided every June in a best-of-seven series known as the NBA Finals. When wagering on NBA futures of who will win the NBA Title, oddsmakers refresh and update futures odds all season long. If the Milwaukee Bucks are tearing it up and sitting near the top of the standings or power rankings, their odds will improve. If the Golden State Warriors are struggling and riddled with injuries, you will see their odds drop.
There are also trades to take into consideration, as well as free agent signings, and coaching changes that can affect Championship odds. The opening NBA Championship futures odds are released at the end of the current NBA season after the last NBA game has been played, with NBA futures odds listed for all 30 teams in the association.
For example, the NBA’s best team like the Los Angeles Lakers might have +200 odds to win the NBA Championship, while the last-place team, such as the Oklahoma City Thunder, might have odds of +50000 to win the Larry OB. A $100 wager on the Lake Show would profit $200 if the purple and gold were to win it all, while a $100 wager on the Thunder would profit $50,000 if OKC was crowned as champs.
Our odds calculator helps you determine how much money you could win, based on the betting odds and amount of money wagered. We have American odds, Decimal odds, Fractional odds, and Implied Odds, which is indicated by percentage.
Championship Odds
Due to the nature of the league where dynasties are often built by player movement in free agency, betting on NBA Futures might not always be the most profitable. But, betting on the right team early on can provide better results.
Take the 2019 Toronto Raptors for example who won the Larry O’Brien Trophy with +1850 odds in August of 2018. As the regular season progressed, the Raptors odds shifted to +750 in December of 2018. It’s easy to see how NBA futures odds can offer less value as the season unfolds. We The North were a prime example of that.
NBA Division Futures
The National Basketball Association is broken into two conferences, and divided into six divisions:
Eastern Conference Divisions
Western Conference Divisions
NBA futures let you wager on which teams you think will win the division in which they play.
NBA Conference Futures Betting
Similar to divisional futures betting, conference futures betting is another type of an NBA futures bet where you predict the winner of the Eastern Conference, and the Western Conference. The difference between divisional and conference betting is that there are only five teams within each division, whereas there are 15 teams in each conference.
NBA Awards Betting
Online betting sites also offer NBA futures odds on player performances and seasonal awards. Online sportsbooks will have NBA futures odds for which players are favorites to win:
- • Most Valuable Player
- • Defensive Player of the Year
- • Sixth Man of the Year
- • Most Improved Player of the Year
You can even bet on which bench boss will win Coach of the Year. However, these NBA futures bets can be somewhat difficult to predict because their results are subjective. NBA awards are based on opinion, and determined by votes from members of the media. To learn more about how to bet on NBA games, check out Odds Shark's basketball betting tutorial, along with all of our NBA News.