Basketball Online Gambling
Thanks its close games and high points totals, basketball is one of the most entertaining sports for online gambling. If you think it's exciting watching a close game run down to the buzzer, just imagine what it's like for all the online sports bettors out there with real money hanging on the outcome of the game.
Betting on basketball games is also relatively easy for even the newest of online sports bettors. Most of the bets are simple and straightforward, with the point spread bet being the most popular type of bet.
Basketball Point Spread Bets
Basketball games typically have high point totals so the point spread bet is the most common type of online basketball gambling bet. Point spread bets are simple bets where you pick which team you think will win and then hope they actually do win.
The catch to the point spread bet is that the favorite team has to win by a certain number of points for it to count as a win for the bettor. If you bet on the underdog and the underdog loses the game, you can still win your bet as long as the underdog only loses by a few points.
So let's say you've got a game coming up between the Nuggets and Hornets. In this match up, the sportsbook thinks the Nuggets are the favorites and the Hornets are the underdogs. In this case, the sportsbook could stipulate that the Nuggets have to win by at least 10 points for it to be considered a win.
If you bet on the Nuggets and they win, but only win by 5 points, you will lose your bet. If you bet on the Hornets and they lose by 7 points, you will still win your bet because the Nuggets didn't "cover the spread."
Basketball Moneyline Bets
The moneyline bet is another common bet and in this one there is no points spread that one team or the other must cover. This is just a straight up bet on the winner of the game. In order to make fair, however, people who bet on the favored team have to wager more money than people who bet on the underdogs.
Moneyline bets at online sportsbooks look like this example:
Hornets: +110
Nuggets: -120
In this example, the Hornets are still the underdogs so they have a positive number next to them. This number means that for every $100 you wager on the game, you will win $110 if they win the match.
The Nuggets are the favorites but as the negative sign shows, you have to wager $120 for every $100 you will win if they win the match. This isn't as good of a deal but it's more likely that the Nuggets will win the game.
Sportsbooks use both the Moneyline system and the Point Spread system to keep the action equal on both sides of the bet. If the games were just straight up bets, everyone would bet on the favored teams every time and the sportsbooks would end up having to pay off all their bets out of pocket.
Basketball Point Total Bets
These are the simplest bets of all. In the points total bet, your objective is to guess whether or not the combined score of the two teams will exceed the number set by the sportsbook. You'll see the basketball point total bets listed as something like this
Over 185.5
Under 185.5
You have the option to take either side of the bet. If you pick the Over and both teams combine to score 186 points or more, you'll win this bet. Sportsbooks use half points to prevent there from being games in which the points total lands exactly on the set amount.
Basketball Prop Bets
Basketball prop bets are straight up bets on a wide variety of issues. These are fun bets because they are only limited by the imagination. In prop bets you can bet on anything from who will have the most points of the game, who will score first, who will score last and many more.
Some prop bets are also accompanied by moneylines to keep the wagering even. In bets like "which team will score first" the moneyline is used to keep the betting on the favorite and the underdog even.
Other Popular Sports
Make sure to read our basketball betting tips article before getting started. These tips may really make a difference in terms of odds depending on what your current strategy or game play is.