NBA betting sites

The bets on an NBA game

You bet an NBA game the way you bet football. The spread asks a favorite to win by more than a number, the moneyline asks who wins, and the total asks how many points both teams score together, all usually at -110. Most books also deal each half and each quarter as separate games, with their own spreads and totals. If those terms are new, start with the spread.

What makes the NBA its own market is that one player can be worth several points on the line. When a star is ruled out an hour before tip, the spread can jump, the total drops, and every prop around him is rebuilt.

The injury report is the market

Teams rest players, and decide late. That makes the hours before tip-off the busiest part of an NBA bettor's day, and the most dangerous part of a book's. A book that hasn't moved its number when the news breaks is giving away a price, and the people who take it are quick.

So books protect themselves. Most take small bets on the NBA early in the day and raise the limits as tip-off gets near and the lineups are known. Many pull a game off the board for a few minutes when news breaks. When I'm choosing an NBA book, I watch how fast it moves on the news and how it settles a prop on a player who doesn't play. Most void it. Read the rule.

Player props

Points, rebounds, assists, threes, and combinations of them, on nearly every player who gets minutes. This is where most of the NBA menu is now, and where the book's cut is higher. A two-way prop at -115 each side carries a cut of about 6.5 percent, against 4.5 percent on a side at -110, and you need to win 53.49 percent of your -115 bets to break even.

The book's defense is the limit. Prop limits are a fraction of the side limit, because a book can't price several hundred props a night as well as it prices one spread, and it knows a bettor who has studied one team's rotation can beat it. I'd say the soft numbers in the NBA are mostly in the props on the role players. The props page explains how they are priced.

Basketball live betting

A basketball game has a score every possession, so the live line never sits still. Runs are normal in the NBA, and a 15-point lead can be gone in a few minutes. That makes live betting look full of chances, and the model knows the swings better than your eye does. Where live basketball suits a bettor is the halftime line, which gives you a few minutes to think. Elsewhere I'd treat the live board with suspicion.

How to bet on the NBA championship

A championship future is a bet on a team to win the title, placed any time from before the season to the finals. Say you put $50 on a team at +800: if it wins, you get $450 back, your $50 and $400 profit. The money is tied up until June, and the book's cut on a futures board is much larger than on a game, so shop the price at two books. The futures page shows how to measure it.

The public bets the stars, the famous teams and the overs, and it bets them every night for months. An 82-game season gives you a lot of chances to bet. I'd use very few of them, and stake 1 or 2 percent of the bankroll on each.