Getting In The Game: Betting Strategies for NBA Games
Basketball is easily one of the most popular and fastest-growing sports in the world. Every year, new fans come to the sport and start learning the basics and following a team. Basketball has also become a popular sport amongst sports bettors, particularly for online sports betting.
Fast-paced and high scoring, basketball creates a lot of opportunities for in-play betting, and the competitiveness of the NBA also helps the betting odds on games offer good value to casual sports gamblers. People are often placing small stake wagers on games to make things a little more fun and interesting when they are watching the game.
Here we are going to look at a few betting strategies for NBA games, and basketball in general, so you can have a little extra fun too. You may even make some extra money you can spend on tickets to watch the game for real!
The Basics of Betting
Sports betting is growing in popularity almost as quickly as basketball. Online sports betting and using smartphone apps to bet on sports has helped make betting much more accessible to far more people than ever before.
When you place a bet the amount you bet is your stake. If your bet is successful, this amount is returned to you, plus your winnings that are generated from the odds on the bet. A simple bet is an ‘evens’ bet, also called a 2-to-1 (2/1) bet. Here, if you bet £1, you would receive a return of £2. Your £1 stake and £1 profit; 2-to-1.
Keep It Simple, Slowly Build a Bankroll
Betting on sports should be kept at small stakes that you build slowly over time. Start with a small ‘bankroll’. This should be your initial investment in your new hobby, and hopefully, one of the few you will have to make. Use this to draw small stake wagers from and build it back up over time with your winnings. Begin with a £20 bankroll, for instance, and bet in stakes of just £1 or £2.
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The Spread Betting Basics
Spread betting is probably the most popular type of betting on basketball games, and it also works well when used on both American and European football. On some online sports betting sites, it may be called ‘line betting’.
A spread bet essentially adds a handicap to the favored team’s score. For instance, a spread bet could be ‘Celtics – 5.5pts versus Sonics +5.5pts’. This would mean you could bet on the Celtics to win, but they have to win by 6 or more points to beat the spread. You could also bet on the Sonics to cover the spread, which means they can win the game or lose by less than 6 points for you to win too.
Take Big Chances with Small Stakes
Sport is filled with tales of the underdog. These sporting ‘Cinderella stories‘ will see a team or a player succeed against all the odds, including the betting odds.
Moments like these in sport can be difficult to see coming, but if you read the signs, you can see the writing is one the wall. With the right set of circumstances, you can turn pennies into pounds, often hundreds of pounds. The odds will often jump out at you, Lakers to Lose at 25/1, for instance, and from just a few pounds, you can win hundreds.
Knowledge is Power – Stay Informed
Keeping up to date with the sport becomes even more important if you want to place some bets. Most basketball fans go to great lengths to stay informed about the game, the teams, the players, and most importantly, the injuries.
Basketball is a sport that is full of statistics, and these can help guide your betting and make better wagers. Injuries can impact a game more than any other single factor. Having to rest key players can completely change a team’s effectiveness on the court. Betting against a team with two or more regular players on the sidelines is a pretty safe bet.
Basketball is a fantastic sport that provides end-to-end action and creates plenty of opportunities to place a wager.
You can make any game of basketball, or any sport, a little more interesting by raising the stakes ever so slightly. With some simple small stake bets on a game, you can add a lot of fun and drama to a sport and even make a little extra money if you are lucky. Try some of these strategies to add some action to your team’s next game.
