How to bet on Basketball
Basketball is one of the biggest sports in the United States and it is quickly gaining more and more attention from the rest of the world. Find out how and where to bet on basketball online.
How to Bet on Basketball
Basketball is growing more and more popular each year, leading to increased demand for online basketball betting.
Basketball leagues often tend to have a very hectic schedule and as such, there is some serious money to be made from having a bet on a game.
For those not too well acquainted with the sport though, coming to grips with the league structures and the betting markets can be quite difficult. That’s why we here at Bonusbets.com have come up with the following guide on how to get started betting on basketball.
The most popular league in basketball is the NBA, the National Basketball Association, which takes place in the USA.
The structure of the NBA can take some getting your head around if you are new to the sport. There are 30 teams split across two conferences, each split into three divisions each.
The season typically runs from October through to April, with the playoffs normally running from the end of April to the start of June.
College basketball is also a massive attraction in the United States and there are games running throughout the typical season as well. This is where the stars of tomorrow are found, and there are often some very good betting odds to be found when betting on the sporrt.
Outside of the USA, basketball is becoming increasingly popular with audiences around the world.
In Europe, countries such as Spain and Italy have both developed strong domestic leagues, while in South America, the sport is big in Argentina and is growing in Brazil and elsewhere.
The rise of all of these leagues and the sheer number of games taking place in each division means that there is pretty much no time during the calendar year where you can't bet on basketball.
Types of Basketball Bets
The more popular a sport becomes, the more varied its betting markets become. These are the most common types of bets placed on basketball:
Match Result: The simplest type of bet in any sport is the results bet. In this type of bet, you bet on what you believe the full-time result of the game will be. There are three options available here - the home team, the away team, or a draw.
Total Points: Another type of market that is incredibly popular in team sports is the points or goals total market.
In this market, you will bet on how many points will be scored in a game. These are often presented as either over/under markets or in margins. So you could often see it presented as over/under 190 points, or 190-220 points, for example.
These types of bets are becoming increasingly popular in all sports, and due to the high scoring nature of basketball can often be a very nice way to make some extra cash.
Outrights: Another popular type of bet is the outright bet, where you select who you believe is going to win a specific tournament, league or competition.
These bets can often prove to be quite profitable, especially if you place them pre-season, which is often when the best odds are available. Of course, if you do this then you may find yourself waiting quite a long time to see any sort of returns on them.
Handicap Betting: A handicap bet is incredibly common across all types of sports betting and it effectively imagines a hypothetical scenario where one of the two teams, usually the team who is the favourite, starts the game on fewer points than their opponent.
For example, in a handicap match, Team A may start the game with -8 points, meaning that they would have to outscore the opposing team by at least 9 points to win the match.
This can be an effective way of evening the odds in a game where one team is a runaway favourite and wouldn’t be worth betting in a singles bet.
Where to Bet on Basketball
Thanks to its ever-increasing popularity across the world, most online sportsbooks now have a fairly wide range of odds available on basketball.
Almost every good betting site will offer odds on the NBA and the WNBA, but not every sportsbook will cover all of the European, Asian or South American leagues.
Many betting sites will also have special bets on, especially during the NBA playoffs.
You can find details of the best basketball betting sites on this page, as well as the online betting sites offering live streaming basketball to registered members as well.
We have also information on any bonus offers and free bets which you can use to bet on basketball.
