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Basketball has soared to new heights in terms of popularity and consequently reached unprecedented levels of profitability. Its rise to prominence has coincided with the widespread legalization of online sports betting, so it’s no surprise that hoops is among the most popular sports in the world.

Interested in becoming an NBA bettor? Welcome to the club! It’s one of the easiest and most fun leagues to bet on, with action happening almost every night. Jumping headfirst into basketball betting can seem daunting at first, especially if most of the terms are unfamiliar to you.

Fear not, we’ve got you covered. Read on to find out everything you need to know about NBA betting, including odds, different types of bets and where to find the best and most up-to-date tips and advice.

NBA Betting Explained: The Complete Guide to Basketball Betting

The first step to becoming an NBA bettor is learning the basics of betting in general. You will need to know how to read the odds, the difference between spread, moneyline and over/under bets and the meaning of other terms such as «parlay», «player prop» and «futures» bets.

This comprehensive guide should provide you with all the basics you will need to begin your NBA betting journey, which will hopefully lead to you becoming a confident and successful sports bettor.

Types of NBA Betting and Understanding the Odds

Many different types of bets exist in all sports, including the NBA. Basketball odds are pretty easy to understand once you know three basic and traditional betting terms:

• money line
• point spread
• over/under total

These are odds makers’ projections of how the game will play out, including winner/loser, margin of victory and final points total. Let’s go into a little more detail.

NBA Moneyline

The concept behind basketball moneylines is simple: Each team in a streak is assigned a number — either positive or negative — that represents their odds of winning. When bettors pick the outright winner of a game and place money on it, they are betting on the money line.

A negative number (usually -105 or more) usually represents the odds for the favorite, also known as the team that sportsbooks expect to win. A positive number (usually +100 or more) represents the odds for the underdog or the team that is less likely to win.

You will always receive a lower payout on a winning bet with negative odds and more profit on a winning bet with positive odds.

Moneylines allow oddsmakers to set and adjust odds for games based on the implied probability of each team winning. No sportsbook would ever give you 2 to 1 odds on an outright winner if that team was widely known to be the better of the two in the matchup.

In the NBA regular season, NBA Cup, or even the playoffs, we often see one-sided or uneven games. Moneyline odds allow bookmakers to pick out clear winners, while also allowing sportsbooks to limit their exposure to heavy favourites.

How to read Moneylines

Reading the money lines is simple. Favorites have negative (-) odds, where the number indicates how much you would have to risk to make your potential profit $100. The subgroups have plus (+) odds, where the number indicates what you would win on a $100 bet.

Let’s say you have some interest in betting on the Celtics instead of the Hornets. If Boston is listed as a -350 favorite, that means you would have to risk $350 to make a net profit of $100 if the Celtics win.

If you think the Hornets will make a mistake, you can bet $100 on them at +350 and walk away with a $350 profit if Charlotte does pull off a W.

NBA Spread

Another way oddsmakers determine the odds for a game is through the spread. This is the process by which oddsmakers analyze the two teams in a matchup, consider their strengths, weaknesses and other factors, and assign a point range that predicts how much the favorite will win.

Spread bets trade moneyline odds for points. Points are deducted from the favorite, while the underdog receives them.

If a team is expected to win, that favorite must win by a set amount – the spread – to cover. Similarly, teams predicted to lose can only cover if that underdog either (a) wins or (b) loses by fewer points than the set spread.

Let’s go back to the hypothetical Celtics-Hornets matchup. Boston was listed as a -350 favorite, which roughly translates to a -8 favorite against the spread. That means you should bet Boston to win by more than eight or Charlotte to lose by less than eight.

If the Celtics win by exactly eight, that’s a push and your initial bet would be refunded (for this reason, sportsbooks usually add half a point to each spread amount, since teams can’t win or lose by half a point).

Point spreads always have a second set of odds alongside them that indicate the cost of placing a bet (also known as «vig» or «juice»). Most point spreads have a vig of -110 — to win $100, you would have to risk $110. Vigs can be adjusted depending on the betting campaign and may vary from book to book.

NBA Point Total or Over/Under

People like to bet on the over/under, also known as the total, and most casual bettors almost always prefer to bet on the OVER. Total betting is simple: a sportsbook provides a predicted total for the game and you bet on the two teams finishing with a total score OVER or UNDER that total.

It couldn’t be simpler. If the combined total is higher than the predicted total, the OVER wins. If the final total is lower than predicted, then LESS wins.

NBA Parlays

Parlays are very popular. In short, parlays allow players to combine multiple bets (also known as legs) into one large bet for a larger potential payout. The odds of winning are longer because all bets in the parlay must win in order for the entire parlay to pay even a penny. So the potential reward is greater.

Bettors only need to combine two legs to make a parlay, but the most popular parlays are usually in the 3 to 5 leg range. The more bettors add to parlays, the greater the potential profit and the greater the risk.

Sportsbooks like BetMGM typically allow bookies to add anywhere from two to 12 plays in a basketball game. Some books will also allow you to include player or game props, also known as over/under stats props.

How to Calculate Parlay Payout

Now that you know the definition of a parlay and how you can bet it, let’s quickly break down how to calculate the value of a parlay bet.

Once you have determined the odds for each match, bet or offer, divide the total payout by the bet amount.

Let’s imagine a parlay bet of $100 on these teams:

Celtics (-150)
Hornets (+170)
Knicks (-120)
Boston: -150 to win 100 with a payout of $250 250/150 = 1.6666
Charlotte: -100 to win 170, with a payout of $270 270/100 = 2.7
New York: -120 to win 100, with a payout of $220 220/120 = 1.8333E

Each of these three numbers we calculated is your multiplier. Now just multiply these numbers to get your parlay odds. 1.6666 x 2.7 x 1.8333 = 8.2495.

This final number is 8.25, which means that your winnings would be 7.25 for every dollar you bet on a particular game. Translation: your $100 bet just turned into a $725 win.

If you hate math or just don’t want to go through the trouble of manually calculating parlay odds every time, fear not. Most sportsbooks do the work for you, and you can also find a ton of independent parlay calculators all over the internet.

NBA Player Prop Bets

Betting on players has become extremely popular, much like fantasy sports have become so popular since the beginning of the 21st century. Props allow you to bet on a player going OVER or UNDER a set stat amount.

If Anthony Edwards of the Timberwolves has an overall output of 24.5, you can bet on whether you think he will score OVER 24 points or UNDER 25 points. A side that is slightly favored may have a little more power (or «vig»), so the sportsbook can reduce your potential profit and receive a larger portion of the payout if you win. A side that is less likely (or generates less action or betting interest) will see slightly longer odds and a better potential payout.

You can bet over/under players on all types of stats. You can also place yes/no props on various hypothetical situations, such as «Will Anthony Davis record a double-double for the Lakers?» or «Will Devin Booker lead the Suns in assists?»

NBA Futures Betting

Another fun method of basketball betting is the futures market, which allows you to bet on whether or not something will happen in the future. You can place futures bets on teams that will win the NBA Cup, the Eastern or Western Conference Finals, or the NBA Finals, among many others.

You can also bet on the players who will win the NBA MVP. Because they are much less likely to predict much in advance, these futures bets often carry longer odds and therefore carry much larger potential payouts.

NBA betting tips and advice

The biggest tip new bettors should take into account: Stay informed. Watch the games – all of them – as often as possible. You can sign up for League Pass and get involved in all things NBA. The more you know about the league, the more you’ll learn about statistics, understand predictions, and become adept at scoring matches and winning probabilities.

Another important piece of advice is to make research a part of your everyday life. Use TeamRankings.com, one of the best sources of statistics and betting trends on the Internet. They track betting odds, trends, cover rates and data on split statistics such as home and away, rests vs fixtures and much, much more.

Another way to stay informed is to follow sportsbooks like BetMGM blogs and betting insights. Sportsbooks often share public betting data for specific games and futures contracts, providing insight into how oddsmakers view matches and future events, and how the public has perceived those games and changed odds.