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Basketball is a game where two teams of five players each try to score points by throwing the ball through the opponent’s hoop. The team with more points at the end of a game is usually declared the winner. In most cases, this is done by shooting the ball with one hand from a set distance in alternating sequences during games of two-ten, four quarters per game.
Basketball is a fast-paced and exciting sport that can be played with either 5 or 6 players on each team depending on skill level and league type.
Basketball is a great game, but even it has a few downfalls. The most common is shot-blocking — a defensive tactic for guarding players on the perimeter in which one player goes to block an opponent’s shot and other players close in around the blocked player. While many have adopted the practice, it’s still far from perfect; blocking shots can lead to missed shots, incorrectly directed rebounds, or too much contact between opposing players.
Betting on basketball teams — both on individual players and on the spread — is a popular pastime for many sports fans. However, it has its risks as well. The current spread for the NBA Finals features an underdog Golden State Warriors squad against a much-favoured Cleveland Cavaliers team with a two- to three-point advantage.
Such disparities can create situations in which online betting sites will accept bets on both the spread and actual game results.
Rules on betting on basketball vary from state to state and even from website to website. In general, however, players of basketball are advised to check the legal requirements of their jurisdiction before placing a bet and check our betting strategies page
One such requirement is that betting must be legal in the state in which the game is being played. If an online sportsbook doesn’t accept bets from residents of the state where the game will be held, they probably don’t offer bets at all.
In sports betting, especially in basketball with the amount of money that is involved, you have to know how betting works. Most people figure their odds out from simply knowing what their team’s percentage chance of winning the game is and multiply that by the amount of money they are willing to bet. Most common basketball bet is the over/under.
In this bet you will be betting on the amount of points that an individual team will score or under score in the game. This is useful for when you don’t have a great idea on one of the teams so you can just bet on the total score to help analyze who will win the game. “Moneyline Picking” Moneyline picking is when you are just looking at who is favored to win in a “head-to-head” matchup and picking them to win.
The most basic types of basketball bets are moneyline and point spread. Moneylines represent the probability of a team winning. Point spreads represent the allotted points to each team, with more points equaling a larger point spread. Winning moneylines and point spreads require different strategies for beat the Vegas odds.
Moneyline:
A moneyline is a type of bet that does not take into account where the game will be played or who will be playing it, just how much one team is favored over another on an even playing field. In other words, moneyline bets are made on the point spread. A moneyline bet makes the winning team an odds-on favorite, or a “favorite,” in gambling lingo.
Example: The Chesepeak Storm is favored over the visiting San Juan Waves with a point spread of -11. That means you would bet on the Storm to win by more than 11 points. In this case, the Chesepeak Storm can be found at -250 and the San Juan Waves at +200. If you were to bet on the Waves, it would cost you $200 for every $100 you would win. You could also bet on the Storm with a $100 bet, and win $250 if they won by more than 11 points. For example, if the Storm won by 12 points, they would cover their spread. If they won by 13 points, they would “push” their spread. Whatever the final result is, the total points scored in the game is irrelevant to an individual moneyline bet – only how many points a team has to cover.
Point Spread:
A point spread is determined by dividing the favorite’s line by-point margin—the difference between the selected team’s predicted score and that of an opponent—and adding that quotient to the underdog’s line. The final sum is the point spread.
Example: The Chesepeak Storm are 11-point favorites over the San Juan Waves. To get that number, you would take -11 and divide it by 11, which would give you 0.944. You would then add that to +200. The total of +244 is the final point spread on this game. To place a point spread bet, you are betting on whether the San Juan Waves can beat the Chesepeak Storm by 11 points or more.
Additional Basketball Bet Types:
There are other types of bets that can be wagered on during a basketball game such as parlay bets. Parlay betting requires a bettor to correctly predict the outcome of multiple games in order to win. The number of games needed for a winning parlay is different for each sportsbook, with many books offering parlays as long as fifteen games long.
A parlay can be made up of any combination of the following occurrences:
Example: The Chesepeak Storm are 14.5-point favorites over the San Juan Waves and you want to make a parlay bet, which would require you to correctly predict all five games played in this basketball game. The game’s first and second quarters must be correct as well as the third quarter. You can bet on the Storm to win by 12 points in the first quarter, 14.5 points in the second quarter and 13 points in the third quarter. The total of these numbers is 28 points and if you predict this correctly, you would win $500.
Some basketball bet types allow bettors to counter bets that are significantly better than their original wager, while sportsbooks make sizable payouts if teams go over expectations.
Example: The Chesepeak Storm are 18-point favorites over the San Juan Waves and you are betting on the Storm to win by 15 points. Since this is a game that will likely fall between a 12- and 15-point spread, there is room for you to accept points at odds that are lower than the original wager. This practice will allow you to bet on the Storm by 12.5 points, which would give you approximately 575/1 odds on this game. Since the line dropped from 18.5 to 15, you can accept that line as your counter bet and win approximately $250 on this wager.
The amount of money wagered on each team can be ascertained by looking at their odds to win. For example, if a team has a thirty percent chance of winning, they are given a -30 point differential. An upwards point spread means the team has an advantage throughout the game despite having a lesser number of points in comparison to their opponent.
Example: Even though the Chesepeak Storm are 18-point favorites over the San Juan Waves, there is still a chance they will not cover the spread, which would put sportsbooks in a position to lose. The odds to cover the spread have an added X2 because it will only get paid out if a team wins straight up. In this case, with these teams playing against one another, the odds would be -220.
Over-Under bets are very popular in sportsbooks, as the over and under amounts can vary depending on the game being played and who is playing it. Over-under bets offer an advantage to bettors who are paying attention to the lines of their games and place their wagers accordingly.
