Nba Betting Lines Explained
Having a bet on the NBA can be fun and exciting. It can turn an otherwise boring game between 2 teams without a star player into an edge of your seat affair.
NBA Playoffs Odds. NBA Playoff odds show which teams are most likely to secure one of their conferences playoff berths. The Eastern Conference has, for a long time, been considered to be the weaker of the two conferences and this can be shown in the records for teams entering the playoffs. NBA BETTING LINES EXPLAINED. There is a vast selection of NBA betting lines that you can choose from. You can bet from outright winners, match result, draw no bet, over/under wagers, next points, odd/even, and handicaps. Below we explain some of the most popular NBA betting lines.
If you love watching the NBA and have a wealth of knowledge but are new to betting it can be daunting to get into it at first, so this article will help get you up to speed. Bookmark it and refer back to this page if you’re ever stuck, and you can always contact the Playup customer support if you’re unsure on what a bet means, they will be happy to help!
The main ways to bet on the NBA
The most popular bets people place on the NBA are:
- Match winner
- Lines
- Totals
- Multi bets
- Player Performance
- Futures bets
Bet On the NBA Match Winners
This one is pretty easy to understand, you are simply betting on which team will win the game. A match winner bet on the NBA include any extra overtime periods. So if a game goes to overtime and your team wins, then you still win your bet.
To bet on NBA bets like this at PlayUp, after you’ve created and funded your account, you just need to head to basketball by clicking on Sports in the left Menu > Basketball > NBA and then click on the odds for the team that you want to add it to the bet slip, and enter in the amount that you want to bet on them. In this example below, Playup is offering $3.05 odds to bet on the Chicago Bulls, and I’ve entered in a $50 bet. When you click Confirm, you will get a bet alert confirmation to let you know the bet has been placed.
Betting On NBA Lines
Lines are like an imaginary head start given to one team.Depending on how the bookies see it playing out, it could be a small line ifthey expect a tight contest, or a massive line if they’re expecting a blowout.
Lines normally (but not always) have a .5 at the end, toensure there is an outcome either way.
For example:
The Kings Vs Warriors game has a line of 4.5 at Playup, so if you bet on theKings with the -4.5 you need them to win by 5 or more to win your bet. If youbet on the Warriors, then if they lose by 4 or less, or win you will collect onyour bet.
The easiest way to work it out is to just mentallyadd/deduct the line from your team’s total at the end of the game and see ifthey would still win.
E.g. If Kings beatthe Warriors 111-107
Then you would have to minus the 4.5 from their side whichwould make the final score: 106.5-107
This changes them from a 4 pt win, to half point losers. Badnews if you bet on the Kings, but great news if you took the Warriors!
The best way to look at lines for games like this: if youfeel like a team is going to win comfortably, and the 1.53 odds isn’t juicyenough to make it worthwhile, then consider taking them against the pointspread and beef up your payout to 1.95 odds if they win.
Conversely, if you want to take the underdog to win becauseyou think they will be in with a fighting chance, but you’re second guessingyourself and want the extra security of having that cushion on the scoreboard,you may want to sacrifice a little bit in the odds to go for a safer bet.
Note line bets include the final score after any overtimeperiods and the match is decided.
Betting On NBA Game Totals
Totals are another fun type of bet on the NBA. Bookies will offer a single number for the game, and you have to pick if the total points combined for both teams will go over or under that number.
So the Kings Vs Warriors example above has a total offeredat 209.5, meaning you can either take Over: and bet that the two teams willscore 210 combined or more. Or you can take Under: and bet that the two teamswill score 209 or less.
Game totals bets include any overtime periods. It can help tolook at what each team’s recent games have been like, what they normally dohead to head, whether they defend the perimeter well or poorly.
Here’s a spreadsheet you can use to follow along with NBAtotals to give a projection for the total they’re on pace to reach:
So all you need to do is enter each team’s score in the blue columns in the left, and as the game goes on, update how many minutes are remaining in each quarter, and it will calculate the total they’re headed towards.
So the example in the screenshot above, shows that if the score is 36-25 with 9 and a half minutes to go in the 2nd quarter, the projected total is 201.9
Here’s the link for the excel file<<
Feel free to link this page to anyone that likes to bettotals that would find that spreadsheet useful!
This takes out the guess work for how your bet is doing,with excel doing the calculation leaving you free to scream at the TV screenafter each missed free throw and turnover!
Betting On NBA Multis
So, what is a Multi Bet?
A multi (also known as an accumulator, or a parlay bet) iswhen you go for broke and put all your bets together in 1 betslip, and you needto get all of them correct to get paid out at much higher odds.
For instance, an 8-leg multi would mean you’ve picked out 8 bets, and put them all in your bet slip and the odds for each one is combined for a potentially huge payout. The downside is whether you get 1/8 correct or even if you get 7/8 correct, your bet will lose all the same. But if you hit on each and every selection the payout on your bet can be glorious!
So for example, if you have a $10 bet on three underdogteams paying at $7.50 odds, $6.10 odds, and $5.30 odds like this example on theright, then if all 3 win, the collect can balloon out to a huge sum.
$10 x 7.50 x 6.10 x5.30 = a $2,424.75 win! Off just $10 being risked.
If you’re anything like me and my mates you will experiencethe soul crushing defeat when your last leg of a multi lets you down, butnothing beats the feeling when the stars align and you bag a massive multi!
Bet on the NBA Player Performance markets
With my background playing a lot of NBA fantasy league overthe years, these types of bets are the most fun for me – betting on how anindividual player will perform in a game.
If you follow the NBA obsessively, you begin to get used tosubstitution patterns, which players will take shots at certain times, whichplayers get on a roll, which are due for a good game, and you start to noticevalue in the odds being offered
I find there’s often a ton of value to be found in thesemarkets, because if you’re staying up to date on Fantasy Basketball News Sites,reading Twitter Updates from beat reporters and things of that nature, you canoccasionally find yourself a gem of a bet.
It sometimes helps to look at a player’s Splits (their statswhen starting vs when they’re coming off the bench). This is sometimes a goodindicator of what they are capable of doing when the player ahead of them isinjured.
Taking a look at an example of this, we can see SpencerDinwiddie, who is stepping up in a big way in the absence of Kyrie Irving:
Undoubtedly the bookies have adjusted their lines forDinwiddie by now, but this is one to keep in mind for later in the season whenKyrie is back and filling up boxscores again – if he sits a game for rest, beready to slam the over on Dinwiddie.
Another really good indicator of a player worth betting onovers, is their per-36 minute production.
It could be a player that rarely starts or gets a lot ofcourt time. A perfect example of this is Boban Marjanovic. Throughout hiscareer he has averaged under 10 minutes per game, but his statisticalproduction when he gets court time is off the charts:
Knowing this, it makes a lot of sense to keep track of whichplayers are leading the NBA in certain stats in the per 36 minutes rankings. Sothat if one of those players gets an opportunity to start and get big minutes,then you could find some excellent bets to place.
Betting on NBA Futures
Futures bets are both good and bad at times, it means yourfunds are locked up for quite a while, but also can give you much more bang foryour buck with year-long entertainment following your bet. This includes thingslike, NBA Championship winner markets (which team will win the NBA Title),Division Winners (Which team will win their Division).
Futures Bets also include betting on which players will winthe various NBA awards like MVP, Most Improved Player Award, Rookie of the Yearand more.
These can often have great value if you notice a trend of aplayer building up a lot of big numbers and media hype. For instance LukaDoncic started the season at very long odds for MVP, something like 100-1, andis now into $5.50 at Playup.
It also makes it fun to follow how a player and team doesfor the season. Keeps things interesting!
The NBA MVP odds at Playupcan be seen here, check the website for the most up to date odds:
There are many more types of bets offered at Playup, withliterally hundreds of betting options for every game. This includes everythingfrom which player will score the first basket of a game, to who will have morerebounds out of 2 players head to head. No matter what your betting preference you’ll find what you’re after.
Best of luck with your NBA bets this season!
NBA lines are easy to read! If you’ve ever bet on NFL action, you know that the National Basketball Association is a similar cash play on a straight pick, point total or ATS.
But wait – what if you’ve never wagered on football either? Or what if all of it seems confusing anyway?
Here are some basic explanations of how basketball lines work.
Betting the NBA Against the Spread
Let’s start off with an example of a pro hoops game with the point spread listed:
Chicago Bulls +6 (-110)
LA Lakers -6 (-110)
In these lines, Los Angeles is a 6-point favorite over the Chicago Bulls. Remember, the team with the minus (-) sign is the favorite and the number listed after is how many points they are favored by. That means you could bet on L.A. to best their opponent, but they must prevail in the contest by more than 6 points for your wager to pay off. ‘
If the Lakers prevail by less than 6 points, your bet would be a loser, and if Los Angeles prevails by exactly 6 points, your wager would be a “push” or tie, meaning your wager would be nullified.
On the other side of the ledger is Chicago at +6, this means the Bulls are “getting” 6 points (or are 6-point underdogs). A wager on Chicago would score for you if the Bulls either prevail outright, or lose by less than 6 points (e.g. Bulls 101, Lakers 105 would give you a winning bet if you took the Bulls +6).
The next number, after the point spread, represents the “vigorish,” or juice, that the book requires to place your bet. In the example above, both numbers are -110 (which is fairly typical). This means you must wager $110 to win $100 (or $55 to win $50, etc.). This number does change on occasion, so be sure you check it before placing a wager.
Basketball Money Line Odds and Betting
Betting the “ML” simply means picking who you think will win out-right. The only caveat is that you will need to wager more on a favorite to receive a substantial payoff, while a winning underdog comes with a better payout. Here’s an example:
Miami Heat -260
Charlotte Bobcats +220
The Heat are the favorites here, so a gambler would need to put up $260 just to win $100 on Miami. If she wanted to take on more risk for a bigger reward, she could bet $100 on the Bobcats. If the Bobcats prevail, payoff is $220.
National Basketball Association Over/Under Wagers
Bookies always set a number that represents how many points the teams will combine to score in the game, called the Over/Under, or O/U. You simply pick whether the final score will be greater than (over) or less than (under) the number the odds-makers set. Here is an example:
Atlanta Hawks vs. Miami Heat – OVER/UNDER 190.5
Nba Betting Lines Explained Lines
Remember that over/under bets will also always have some kind of vigorish (usually -110), so be sure to take that into account when placing this type of wager.
To determine what the scoreboard will look like after 4 quarters, take a look at schedules and injury reports for each side. If a team is in midst of a long road trip or suffering from injuries, they are more likely to have a slow-paced, half-court offense worked into their game plan. But if they’re coming in with fresh legs and/or playing at home, you can expect a lot more running than usual. It’s never a sure-fire prediction, but it’ll help get you above 50% accuracy.
Another scenario that leads to more fast-break basketball is when a coach is trying to play his team into shape in the earliest stretch of the preseason or regular season. However, that tends to happen more often in prep and NCAA basketball than in pro action.
Football Betting Lines Explained
Also, be sure to investigate both squads’ tendencies in “garbage” time. When a contest is a blow-out, pro coaches like to substitute their bench onto the floor. Depending on what type of youngsters are playing out the minutes and who is coaching them, there could be a lot of running – or a more low-scoring half-court game.
But if a strong defensive team manages to rout an opponent, the score will often be something like 91-72 – easily falling under the O/U line on most nights.
Nba Betting Odds Explained
Basketball bets are some of the most straightforward in Las Vegas, but still require skill and research to get your handicap above 50%. Happy stakes!