How to Take Your Love of Basketball to the Next Level with Sports Betting

If you love basketball and you have deep knowledge of the sport, then you should definitely consider betting on basketball games. The NBA is one of the most exciting leagues with 82 games being played every year plus the playoffs. If you have a good idea of who is who in the league and understand things like playing style, rivalries, and trends with teams or certain players, then you could have a lot of success. But you have to understand some of the basics of betting first. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why you should consider betting on basketball games, where you can bet, and a few tips to follow.

Why is Betting on Basketball Games a Good Idea?

The NBA is one of the most popular leagues in the world for betting, and there are many reasons why. The fast-paced action and the large number of options every night of the week are some of them, but there are specificities about the NBA that make it even more enticing for gamblers. One of the biggest benefits of the NBA is how much individual players can have an impact on the game. As a matter of fact, we can’t think of any major sport where single players can make such a difference in the outcome of games.

Most teams will have one or two players that will control the pace of the game and its outcome. Teams with two genuine stars usually do well and those with three legit stars will usually be in contention for a championship. On the other hand, teams that have only one or no stars never do well and rarely upset teams with true stars on them. This is one of the reasons why betting on NBA games is much more predictable than other leagues.

What About Other Basketball Leagues?

You should also know that you can bet on other leagues like the EuroLeague, the NBL, the NCAA, or the Israel SuperLeague, among others. All of these leagues offer great options and could allow you to capitalise on misguided odds on different bookmarking sites. The dynamic in these leagues is pretty similar to in the NBA because of the nature of the game, so if you know some of the top stars in those leagues, you could make some pretty consistent wins.

One of the great things about betting on smaller leagues is that the level of talent between teams is even more lopsided than in the NBA in most cases, and upsets are really rare. Sure, bets don’t always offer the best value, but when you are almost guaranteed to win, you can’t pass on the opportunity. The most important thing is having real knowledge of these leagues before you get started.

How to Bet on Games

The first thing you’ll need to do if you want to bet on basketball games is find a good sports betting site or online casino that offers basketball bets. Finding those can be harder said than done, however, mainly because of the sheer number of sites out there. The online gambling sector is a major target for fraud too with fraud activity said to have increased by 55% during the pandemic. This is why we would suggest that you source a review site similar to Online Casinos before you spend a single penny on a betting site. You’ll get an idea of what’s on offer, how safe the sites are, and the quality of their customer service. You’ll also get an idea of which ones offer the best welcome deals, gameplay, and the pros and cons of each platform.

Picking from a review site will reduce the chances that you play at a fraudulent site as good review sites spend a lot of time and effort making sure that everything they review is legit. It would also be a good idea to learn about the main licensing bodies in the industry and make sure that any betting site you play on is licensed.

Basketball Betting Tips

The NBA is a pretty simple league to bet on, but you still need to have some sort of strategy if you want to make consistent wins. One of the best things you can do is bet early, especially if you have inside information on a team. Oddsmakers are sometimes slow to make adjustments to betting lines, and if you start betting as soon as the markets open, you could capitalise on some of the mistakes bookmakers make.

You should know, however, that there might be news during the day that could have an impact on the outcome of games, like injuries, trades, or firings, for instance. So, we suggest that you bet on the NBA in shifts and make your surest bets in the morning. You can then follow the news and see which teams could benefit from an announcement that has been made later during the day.

Another thing you should be paying very close attention to is back-to-back matchups. These sometimes escape oddsmakers as they don’t always factor things like age and durability into the equation. Understanding team or player tendencies can also play in your favour. If you notice that an older team that is known for being inconsistent with their effort on defence is going against a younger but lower-ranked team that is relentless in transition on game two of a back-to-back, then you could cash in on the upset.

Another thing we suggest when you look at betting lines is issues with teammates or with the coaches. If there’s a mutiny on a team or a certain player is having a bad stretch and plays a pivotal position like point guard, then you could spot opportunities for upsets there as well.

If you’re a hardcore basketball fan and you want to make the game a little more interesting, then you should get into basketball betting. Make sure that you start slow, however, and have a clear plan before you put any money down.