Many new bettors struggle with deciding on how to bet on sports. It's an especially intimidating undertaking for bettors without a background in statistics. However, it doesn't take a stats genius to learn and enjoy sports betting. Bettors just need to understand probabilities to get started. This Sports Betting 101 Guide will help you get started.
Beginner's Guide To Sports Betting
Anyone asking themselves, 'How does sports betting work?' has come to the right place. Our beginner's guide will help bettors:
- Understand what they're looking at when they open a sportsbook
- Create basic strategies to manage their bankrolls
- Find the best sportsbook – or sportsbooks – to create accounts for
While Gaming Today can't reveal every winning wager, we can give bettors the tools to do it themselves. The best sports betting sites include:
The initial bet for each system was $100 (except for the bet everything method, which initially bet $1000). Each system started with a $1000 balance, and the simulation ran for each method until the 500th bet or until their balance was zero). The five betting systems are explained below: Betting Strategy A: Bet It All, Every Time. For Michigan online sports betting, FanDuel already offers DFS, so it is in pole position to also introduce sports wagering. FOX Bet is a new online sports betting site that is currently available in NJ and PA. But with anticipation of online sports betting going live in 2020. It clears a path for this major brand to enter Michigan. Online Sports Betting at SportsBetting.ag. SportsBetting.ag is your ‘top spot' for the best in sports betting excitement. No matter what your favorite game might be you'll find it on the board along with a huge variety of sports and betting options.
- PointsBet
If any of these sports betting sites are available, they're solid choices for newbies. We have reviews for each of these top sports betting apps on Gaming Today.
Most Common Types Of Sports Bets
Bettors will find these core bets at every sportsbook:
- Straight bets
- Futures bets
- Prop bets
- Parlay bets
Since these bets are everywhere, understanding them is critical to becoming a successful sports bettor.
Straight Bets
Straight bets are the foundational basics of sports betting. They're single bets on single games. These include:
- Moneylines
- Point spreads
- Point totals
For example, if a bettor wanted to wager on the Patriots beating the Titans, they could place a moneyline wager on the Patriots. It's one bet on one outcome. No matter how any other bets turn out, the Patriots wager would win or lose on its own terms.
Futures Bets
Futures bets are high-risk high-reward wagers on a season's outcome. That includes everything from Championship winners to award winners. A wager on the Packers winning the Super Bowl would be a futures bet. So would a wager on Aaron Rogers winning an MVP award at the end of the NFL season. The odds of betting correctly is challenging, even for sophisticated statistical models. But the rewards are massive for bettors who wager correctly. So, high-risk bettors with strong opinions may be drawn to these.
Prop Bets
Prop bets are also called fun bets. They're wagers that have nothing to do with a game's outcome. They're on random events during the game. They could include everything from the first team to score a set number of touchdowns to the length of the high note at the end of the National Anthem. They're fun random wagers, and are good for parties.
Parlay Bets
Parlay bets are a string of bets that all have to come true for the bet to win. So, bettors could create a parlay bet that wagers the Broncos and Notre Dame will both win their games. In a parlay bet, both wagers have to win for the parlay to win. There's no partial credit. It's risky, but it boosts the odds and increases payouts.
10 Common Question About How Sports Betting Works
Many bettors have similar questions at the beginning. Here are the top ten.
What Is A Point Spread?
Point spreads are the number of points a team has to win or lose by. Here's what they mean:
- -2.5 means the favorite to win has to win by at least three points.
- +2.5 means the underdog has to lose by less than three points.
That gives bettors who wager on their favorite teams the same chance to win bets as bettors who wager on the best teams.
Any betting guide worth its salt can answer that.
What Is A Moneyline Bet?
Moneyline bets are the most basic of sports betting basics. It's a bet on who will win the game. Here's an example from an NBA's live bet:
- Milwaukee Bucks: -530
- Orlando Magic: +380
These are the odds from the third quarter, so bettors have a lot of game information to work with. Anyone confident the Bucks would carry the game could wager on the Bucks to win. But anyone confident in a comeback from the Orlando Magic could bet on them to win.
What Is A Favorite And What Is An Underdog?
A favorite is the team expected to win the game. The underdog is the team expected to lose. Favorites are marked with a negative sign, and underdogs are marked with a positive sign. Those signs tell bettors how risky their wagers are. The lower the negative odds, the higher the chances the favorite will win. The higher the positive odds, the lower the chances the underdog will win.
What Does Over/Under Mean?
Over/Unders refer to point total bets. Bettors who wager over the point total are betting that the two teams will score more combined points than the sportsbook says. Unders wager that fewer the teams will score fewer combined points than the sportsbook says. For example, a sportsbook might offer something like this:
- St. Louis Blues: O 5.5
- Colorado Avalanche: U 5.5
Either the Blues have to score six or more goals, or the Avalanche has to score five or fewer goals.
What Does -125 Mean?
-125 tells bettors a few things. First, these are odds on the favorite. Whichever team this is is predicted to win – in this case, 55.6%. (Online odds calculators can convert sportsbook odds to probabilities.) These odds also mean that bettors have to wager $125 to win $100. Since this team is more likely to win, sportsbooks aren't going to pay more out than they accept. Bettors may profit individually, but underdog wagers and house advantages are going to keep sportsbook profits up.
Where Can I Place A Bet?
Since placing bets is integral to sports betting, bettors should know how to find sportsbooks. Many states list licensed sportsbook operators either on the Department of Revenue website or the Lottery Division website. (It depends who runs sportsbooks in that state.) Bettors can also search for sportsbooks at casinos or find sportsbook websites and apps in states that allow online wagering.
The list of states with legal online sports betting is growing by the year. Currently, almost two dozen states have legal online sportsbooks or are in the process of launching sports betting. Some of the most popular states where sports betting is legal include Michigan, Colorado, and Illinois.
What Is Live Betting?
Betting on sports games is one thing, but betting during them can be exhilarating. Live betting allows bettors to make wagers during a game. Sometimes, teams will have a rough start, but bring it together in the end. Other teams have a great start then finish poorly. (Broncos anyone?)
Live betting lets bettors take advantage of these changing odds. It tests a bettor's ability to guess how the game will change during play. It's a fresh challenge for bettors who pick the basics up quickly.
How Much Should I Bet?
Best Way To Bet On Sports Online
No more than you're willing to lose. Learn how to bet on sports one at a time, first. Then you can make a few wagers at a time. Eventually, bettors will be able to put several wagers on one bankroll. Professional bettors know how to distribute their bets so they can balance wins against losses. They begin to run their bet slips like sportsbooks run books.
And it all starts from learning how to make one bet at a time.
What Sports Betting App Offers The Best Odds?
It depends. Some sportsbooks offer strong odds on the favorite, the underdog, certain sports, or offer so many boosts and promotions that they beat the competition. Here are some common trends:
- DraftKings: Competitive odds on favorites
- FanDuel: Competitive odds on underdogs
- FOX Bet: Bet boosts that can improve odds over other sportsbooks
- SBK: Competitive odds, overall
No sportsbook will have the best odds every time. The best way to bet on sports is to understand your own preferences, then find a sportsbook that matches them.
Best Bet On Sports Scam
What Are The Most Common Betting Mistakes
Betting on your favorite team instead of the best team is the best way to burn through your money. If you keep losing wagers, don't keep trying to make the same strategy work. Chasing losses doesn't work in Vegas, and it doesn't work on DraftKings. Failing to learn and adjust will hurt new bettors more than most things they can do. (It's as true on the field as it is off the field.)
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Understanding sports betting means understanding that feelings can't be part of your wagers. Deliberate strategies beat feelings over the lifetime of a sportsbook account.
Sports Betting 101 FAQs
Pick a sportsbook. Bettors don't have to know the ins and outs of sportsbooks to start betting. They just have to choose a licensed brand, create an account, and start betting. Bettors shouldn't deposit more than they're willing to lose, though. Responsible gaming is important. They should also take welcome bonuses into account when they're making their first deposits and wagers.
Some states allow them. Sports betting has spread across the United States, but not every state has implemented it the same way. Some sportsbooks only allow retail sports betting. Others have online and mobile sports betting. Bettors can check their states' laws to see whether mobile betting is on the table for them.
Here are the states that legalized online sports betting and whose online sports betting industries are live:
- Michigan
- Virginia
- Nevada
- Colorado
- Iowa
- Illinois
- Indiana
- West Virginia
- Pennsylvania
- New Jersey
- New Hampshire
Reliable payouts, site security, and state regulation. In Colorado, licensed sportsbooks are required to keep enough cash on hand to pay bettors. Most states require security audits before sportsbooks go live so social security numbers aren't stolen en mass. Finally, state governments can twist sportsbooks' arms into operating legitimately. The risks of abandoning these protections aren't worth the potential rewards of using illegal sportsbooks.
Are the 'better' odds associated with illegal sportsbooks aren't worth your social security number?
Yes. Licensed sportsbook sites are audited by either state or independent authorities to ensure player data is safe. The most common security measure is end-to-end encryption. That means a hacker can't even see what bettors are typing into their screens. It's the kind of security bettors should expect in an industry handling such sensitive information.
In most states, 21. However, three states with legalized (but not necessarily live and operational) sports betting allow 18-year-olds to gamble:
- Washington
- Montana
- Rhode Island
Each of these states probably has a fascinating history that explains why it lets 18-year-olds gamble. But in the meantime, all we can say is not to blow all your college money at a sportsbook.
Of the four major American sports, the NBA is still regarded as the easiest to predict on a nightly basis. This perceived predictability is a double-edged sword; on one side, it's nice to be able to handicap a matchup on your own and be fairly accurate more often than not. On the other side, the bookmakers are close to or spot on with their opening lines with more regularity than we'd desire.
Still, betting on NBA basketball offers great profit potential to those who know how to navigate this unique betting landscape. One big key to staying profitable in NBA betting is to understand how the lines are made and what they mean. Staying sharp in this area will allow you to find spots where the lines are off and ready to be hammered, and also when to stay away, which is a big skill in keeping a good margin in NBA betting.
Our ultimate NBA betting strategy guide comes directly from experts who have put their money where their mouths are and have made their livelihood as advantage bettors for years. They're happy to share their insights and expertise to give you helpful strategies to improve your NBA betting prospects. Whether you're new to NBA betting or you're a seasoned gambler looking for a way to sharpen your basketball betting acumen, we're very confident that you'll find our tips useful.
Our guide is broken down into sections to help give you an easier read and help make things easy to find if you ever need to come back and get a refresher on a particular topic. Good to go? Let's get started.
I. The Basics
These basic skills and strategies lay the groundwork for solid and informed NBA betting. You always want to have a good foundation to start with, and these tips help lay that groundwork. You might find some of these tips to be obvious, but simple disciplines go a long way. In the long run, keeping your betting game on the rails is one of the biggest factors that will separate you from winning and losing significant units of money.
While some of the tips in this section can be applied to most other forms of sports betting, they are listed here because of their unique value to betting the NBA.
Make a Bankroll Management Plan
Most folks budget when it comes to basic stuff like food or housing, but for whatever reason, they completely abandon this concept when it comes to gambling. But the bottom line is this: if you want to be able to gamble consistently and win, you have to have some basic bankroll management.
How you keep tabs on your betting bankroll is up to you; we're not trying to force financial advice upon you. But NBA betting can be very intensive, and there is a lot of action to be had each night. To keep from hemorrhaging cash in a short amount of time, you want to have a good plan for what your overall bankroll is and what your standard bet will be based on the balance.
No matter how basic your method may be, having a way to keep an eye on your bankroll will help keep you from going off the rails with huge bets that could cripple you if they miss. You'll also be more likely to avoid the temptation of chasing losses. A good plan is the best way to stay in the pocket with your betting system and find out what works and what doesn't over an extended period of time.
Stay Informed on Player Injury and Rest Updates
There is no worse feeling than playing a betting line you think is way off base, only to realize after your loss that the line was 'juicy' because a star player on the team you bet was out for the night with an injury or was being rested. Not only do you feel like a square for losing, but you feel regret because you know you could have made a better decision simply by checking out the injury updates.
This kind of stuff happens all the time, and it's just a black hole for your bankroll. Please make sure you're staying up to the minute on personal news when betting. In addition to knowing who's in or out of a game, make sure you have the latest on things like minute restrictions or if a guy is playing banged-up and won't be as productive. Incorporate the information however you wish; just make sure that you have it in the first place. Don't bet blind.
We're not blowing smoke just to make a point; this is a huge priority for any serious NBA bettor. This is because injury news about players often doesn't break until very close to game time – sometimes mere minutes before tip-off! You must stay apprised of injuries or other happenings all the way to game time, and our advice to you is to place your bet as close to tip-off as you can.
This might sound cumbersome, but not only is there amazing value in saving money on a play you would have otherwise made, but you also will find easy profit opportunities betting the other way thanks to breaking news. There's a reason the big sharps have little closed-circuit TV monitors in their private booths – they relish the opportunity to race a ticket in before the book can change a line or take it off the board altogether.
When news breaks, it takes time for books to adjust the lines. The sharks take advantage of this. The fish miss out or get eaten alive because they didn't know the facts. Don't be a fish; BE A SHARK!
Pay Attention to Schedules and Schedule Tracking
The premise is simple; teams don't perform as well when they're fatigued as they do when they're fresh. Much like the injury tracking above, it's also good common sense to make sure your betting horse isn't limping into the arena on tired legs. But what was long held by sharps as a hunch has now become a legit game changer in the age of data. We're sure some big shot at the books played a role as well, but the bottom line is that schedule tracking is a big thing to watch out for now.
What is schedule tracking, you ask? Schedule tracking is looking at a team's schedule and looking for rough patches in the schedule that would lead the team to be tired or fatigued. The hope is that on these particular games, the betting line fails to reflect this crucial factoid and a team is overvalued, giving great value to a bet against that team. This is especially valuable for teams that the betting public likes no matter the case, as books have to keep the lines high to keep their action balanced.
There are multiple angles to look for when using scheduling to influence your betting. The most well-known example of a schedule-based betting trend is the 'back-to-back,' which is the popular way of saying that a team will play on consecutive nights. Back-to-backs are a part of most NBA daily betting analyses when it's in play, especially when the particular team's games are on the road or have a road/home combo.
However, simply finding a team on a back-to-back is not enough to guarantee profit on your play. Like we said earlier, this is a majorly tracked trend now. The bookmakers now know that this kind of money will come in big and they've adjusted accordingly. Staying that crucial step ahead will require a bit more keen strategy. Thankfully, we've got just that in the next section, which focuses on skills you will want to incorporate specifically for NBA betting.
II. NBA Betting: Get the Edge
Having basic betting principles down is a great way to ensure that you're not simply throwing your money away. Beyond that, you'll want to have some skills specifically tailored to the sport you're betting. Below are some of the strategies and tactics our experts employ to find the best lines and stay up on the books. We're happy to share, and we encourage you to use them and improve upon them at home!
Read the Bookmaker
One of the most important principles Sun Tzu teaches in The Art of War is to know your enemy, and that's what this tip is all about. Learning to think about the bookmaker's intentions when putting out a line is definitely one of those 'separator' skills – by that we mean that it's one of those defining betting skills that separate the consistently profitable pros from the losing recreational bettors.
This is a 'game behind the game' tip, but it's extremely important in NBA betting (just as much as in NFL betting, in our opinion). The principle is to ask a very simple question: why did the book open the line at that number? Expert sharps consider it second nature to ask this question, but most folks never even think to.
We could list examples for days, but let's discuss one to show you what we mean:
A and B are two evenly matched teams playing in a highly anticipated game where a lot of betting volume is expected. Team A is at home. After all the factors like home court advantage and such are factored in, the game is a true pick'em. So, what do you think the opening line will be?
Team A – (-1)
That's right; if you thought zero, you're wrong.
In this example, we said the game is a true pick'em, and it is. So why did the book open the line at -1? Great question! Now you're learning.
This is a common example of the public's inclination to bet the home team in true coin-flip situations. Another common perception (even amongst experienced NBA bettors) that are leveraged by the books in this example is that if a team is going to win, they'll likely win by more than one point, so it's worth it to lay the point and pay less vig than you would on a moneyline bet.
Bookmakers capitalize on these common perceptions by putting pick'em games out at Home Team (-1) or (-1.5) to make the public pay a premium on their habit. They'll also put out Home Team (-1) opening lines even if the home team should open as a 1-point underdog.
The reason? If public perception is that the game is a flip, the bookmakers know they're going to receive more bets on the home team. Therefore, they want that side of the action to pay the vig so they make their profit on the percentages in the long run. And overall, they do just that. So long as the game outcomes fall on the 50/50 line, they make money on the point and all the times the supposed 'dog' comes through. You profit in this scenario by avoiding the trap of hammering what you think is a betting favorite only laying a point at home.
We aren't saying that every opening line out there is a trap by the books. What we are saying is that by asking yourself what the book is trying to accomplish with a particular betting line (or price) and why the lines are where they are, you'll find great opportunities all over the board on a regular basis.
Find the Shaded Lines
'Line shading' is a term referring to when a bookmaker anticipates heavy betting action on one side of a matchup and moves an opening betting line toward that side. Line shades can be small (one point) or large (3+ points) and are a great profit-seeking area of betting if you know how to find them.
Let's say the Boston Celtics go on a hot streak (both in wins and ATS) that gets a lot of media attention. In such a case, more public bettors will start to come in wanting to ride the wave. To keep their betting handle balanced, the books respond by inflating lines involving the Celtics by a couple of points. So if the Celtics were supposed to be a (-9) favorite in a game, the books will put them out at (-11) instead.
There is nothing wrong with what the bookmaker is doing here. If the Celtics stay hot, the books could lose a lot of money each game from lopsided betting on them. So shading the line is the correct move on their part so long as it evens out their action. They can discourage enough sharp bets on the Celtics who want to bet for value, and they make the public take a bigger risk of a dog cover.
In scenarios like these, the value play is often (but not always) to bet against the shaded line and take advantage of those underdog points. Both the books and the sophisticated bettors know that the line has been swung to disfavor a cover by the Celtics. It's literally a gift to you. Take it! More often than not, the public will be disappointed, while the sharps enjoy a nice score and keep on trucking. The bookmaker is satisfied that they got enough action on both sides, and all is well in the betting world.
The only downside with this sort of play is that it is based on short-term perceptions, so you can't really plan for it. The only real way to find these opportunities is to keep up with NBA news and events and build up a bit of a bettor's intuition of when the masses have caused a line shade.
Another great scenario where books shade lines hard is on second-half lines where the action got super lopsided in the first half. This is covered a little bit later in the guide in the Middling Second-Half Bets section.
The overall principle here is to remember that line shading can happen for any reason. Much like the first section talking about reading the bookmaker's intentions, a big part of finding a shaded line is to try to find out if the book is trying to encourage or discourage action on a certain side. The best way to do that is to stay informed.
Fade the Public
We're sure you see this a lot; it's part of almost any expert betting advice on any sport that's out there. Well, it's there for good reason! The books are there to make money, and they make money by forcing the public to pay a premium for their popular notions.
Even if a notion has merit, it will lose value in the betting market by way of having everyone doing it. It's not that being with the public is always wrong; it's just that in this business, it's going to be very costly to do so over time. Awkward as it might be to tell your best buds that you bet against the hometown team this evening, it beats losing money to mere sentiment. Being a contrarian bettor is a skill you simply must embrace to keep your bankroll intact.
Betting against the public is a great intuition to have, and just by embracing it, you will find yourself sniffing out inflated lines and finding trends where the public is giving too much or too little credit to a team based on reputation or media coverage or whatever whim of the day.
Our tip to you is just to make sure you don't overdo it. It's nice to have the skill and the fortitude to go the other way when it's the right play, but make sure it's the right play. It's not enough to find the public's money and go the other way. That is a losing system. Instead, make sure you combine your plays against the grain with other supplemental factors that make your bet more of a high percentage prospect, e.g., an inflated line or a scheduling trend.
Know How to Middle the Second Half
Now we're betting some NBA! This is a sweet play that you'll want to learn; it's an absolute moneymaker, and it's a part of every professional bettor's arsenal.
For those not familiar, the term 'middle' or 'middling' refers to instances where swings in the betting lines allow for opportunities where a player can bet both sides of a game and potentially win both bets.
Atlanta is playing Boston, and the line opens with Boston as a (-5) favorite. You bet on Boston.
An hour before tip-off, it is announced that Atlanta is resting two of its best players that evening and they will not play. Betting action comes in very heavy on Boston, and the book responds by swinging the line on all the way up to a (-10) favorite.
Any betting guide worth its salt can answer that.
What Is A Moneyline Bet?
Moneyline bets are the most basic of sports betting basics. It's a bet on who will win the game. Here's an example from an NBA's live bet:
- Milwaukee Bucks: -530
- Orlando Magic: +380
These are the odds from the third quarter, so bettors have a lot of game information to work with. Anyone confident the Bucks would carry the game could wager on the Bucks to win. But anyone confident in a comeback from the Orlando Magic could bet on them to win.
What Is A Favorite And What Is An Underdog?
A favorite is the team expected to win the game. The underdog is the team expected to lose. Favorites are marked with a negative sign, and underdogs are marked with a positive sign. Those signs tell bettors how risky their wagers are. The lower the negative odds, the higher the chances the favorite will win. The higher the positive odds, the lower the chances the underdog will win.
What Does Over/Under Mean?
Over/Unders refer to point total bets. Bettors who wager over the point total are betting that the two teams will score more combined points than the sportsbook says. Unders wager that fewer the teams will score fewer combined points than the sportsbook says. For example, a sportsbook might offer something like this:
- St. Louis Blues: O 5.5
- Colorado Avalanche: U 5.5
Either the Blues have to score six or more goals, or the Avalanche has to score five or fewer goals.
What Does -125 Mean?
-125 tells bettors a few things. First, these are odds on the favorite. Whichever team this is is predicted to win – in this case, 55.6%. (Online odds calculators can convert sportsbook odds to probabilities.) These odds also mean that bettors have to wager $125 to win $100. Since this team is more likely to win, sportsbooks aren't going to pay more out than they accept. Bettors may profit individually, but underdog wagers and house advantages are going to keep sportsbook profits up.
Where Can I Place A Bet?
Since placing bets is integral to sports betting, bettors should know how to find sportsbooks. Many states list licensed sportsbook operators either on the Department of Revenue website or the Lottery Division website. (It depends who runs sportsbooks in that state.) Bettors can also search for sportsbooks at casinos or find sportsbook websites and apps in states that allow online wagering.
The list of states with legal online sports betting is growing by the year. Currently, almost two dozen states have legal online sportsbooks or are in the process of launching sports betting. Some of the most popular states where sports betting is legal include Michigan, Colorado, and Illinois.
What Is Live Betting?
Betting on sports games is one thing, but betting during them can be exhilarating. Live betting allows bettors to make wagers during a game. Sometimes, teams will have a rough start, but bring it together in the end. Other teams have a great start then finish poorly. (Broncos anyone?)
Live betting lets bettors take advantage of these changing odds. It tests a bettor's ability to guess how the game will change during play. It's a fresh challenge for bettors who pick the basics up quickly.
How Much Should I Bet?
Best Way To Bet On Sports Online
No more than you're willing to lose. Learn how to bet on sports one at a time, first. Then you can make a few wagers at a time. Eventually, bettors will be able to put several wagers on one bankroll. Professional bettors know how to distribute their bets so they can balance wins against losses. They begin to run their bet slips like sportsbooks run books.
And it all starts from learning how to make one bet at a time.
What Sports Betting App Offers The Best Odds?
It depends. Some sportsbooks offer strong odds on the favorite, the underdog, certain sports, or offer so many boosts and promotions that they beat the competition. Here are some common trends:
- DraftKings: Competitive odds on favorites
- FanDuel: Competitive odds on underdogs
- FOX Bet: Bet boosts that can improve odds over other sportsbooks
- SBK: Competitive odds, overall
No sportsbook will have the best odds every time. The best way to bet on sports is to understand your own preferences, then find a sportsbook that matches them.
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What Are The Most Common Betting Mistakes
Betting on your favorite team instead of the best team is the best way to burn through your money. If you keep losing wagers, don't keep trying to make the same strategy work. Chasing losses doesn't work in Vegas, and it doesn't work on DraftKings. Failing to learn and adjust will hurt new bettors more than most things they can do. (It's as true on the field as it is off the field.)
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Understanding sports betting means understanding that feelings can't be part of your wagers. Deliberate strategies beat feelings over the lifetime of a sportsbook account.
Sports Betting 101 FAQs
Pick a sportsbook. Bettors don't have to know the ins and outs of sportsbooks to start betting. They just have to choose a licensed brand, create an account, and start betting. Bettors shouldn't deposit more than they're willing to lose, though. Responsible gaming is important. They should also take welcome bonuses into account when they're making their first deposits and wagers.
Some states allow them. Sports betting has spread across the United States, but not every state has implemented it the same way. Some sportsbooks only allow retail sports betting. Others have online and mobile sports betting. Bettors can check their states' laws to see whether mobile betting is on the table for them.
Here are the states that legalized online sports betting and whose online sports betting industries are live:
- Michigan
- Virginia
- Nevada
- Colorado
- Iowa
- Illinois
- Indiana
- West Virginia
- Pennsylvania
- New Jersey
- New Hampshire
Reliable payouts, site security, and state regulation. In Colorado, licensed sportsbooks are required to keep enough cash on hand to pay bettors. Most states require security audits before sportsbooks go live so social security numbers aren't stolen en mass. Finally, state governments can twist sportsbooks' arms into operating legitimately. The risks of abandoning these protections aren't worth the potential rewards of using illegal sportsbooks.
Are the 'better' odds associated with illegal sportsbooks aren't worth your social security number?
Yes. Licensed sportsbook sites are audited by either state or independent authorities to ensure player data is safe. The most common security measure is end-to-end encryption. That means a hacker can't even see what bettors are typing into their screens. It's the kind of security bettors should expect in an industry handling such sensitive information.
In most states, 21. However, three states with legalized (but not necessarily live and operational) sports betting allow 18-year-olds to gamble:
- Washington
- Montana
- Rhode Island
Each of these states probably has a fascinating history that explains why it lets 18-year-olds gamble. But in the meantime, all we can say is not to blow all your college money at a sportsbook.
Of the four major American sports, the NBA is still regarded as the easiest to predict on a nightly basis. This perceived predictability is a double-edged sword; on one side, it's nice to be able to handicap a matchup on your own and be fairly accurate more often than not. On the other side, the bookmakers are close to or spot on with their opening lines with more regularity than we'd desire.
Still, betting on NBA basketball offers great profit potential to those who know how to navigate this unique betting landscape. One big key to staying profitable in NBA betting is to understand how the lines are made and what they mean. Staying sharp in this area will allow you to find spots where the lines are off and ready to be hammered, and also when to stay away, which is a big skill in keeping a good margin in NBA betting.
Our ultimate NBA betting strategy guide comes directly from experts who have put their money where their mouths are and have made their livelihood as advantage bettors for years. They're happy to share their insights and expertise to give you helpful strategies to improve your NBA betting prospects. Whether you're new to NBA betting or you're a seasoned gambler looking for a way to sharpen your basketball betting acumen, we're very confident that you'll find our tips useful.
Our guide is broken down into sections to help give you an easier read and help make things easy to find if you ever need to come back and get a refresher on a particular topic. Good to go? Let's get started.
I. The Basics
These basic skills and strategies lay the groundwork for solid and informed NBA betting. You always want to have a good foundation to start with, and these tips help lay that groundwork. You might find some of these tips to be obvious, but simple disciplines go a long way. In the long run, keeping your betting game on the rails is one of the biggest factors that will separate you from winning and losing significant units of money.
While some of the tips in this section can be applied to most other forms of sports betting, they are listed here because of their unique value to betting the NBA.
Make a Bankroll Management Plan
Most folks budget when it comes to basic stuff like food or housing, but for whatever reason, they completely abandon this concept when it comes to gambling. But the bottom line is this: if you want to be able to gamble consistently and win, you have to have some basic bankroll management.
How you keep tabs on your betting bankroll is up to you; we're not trying to force financial advice upon you. But NBA betting can be very intensive, and there is a lot of action to be had each night. To keep from hemorrhaging cash in a short amount of time, you want to have a good plan for what your overall bankroll is and what your standard bet will be based on the balance.
No matter how basic your method may be, having a way to keep an eye on your bankroll will help keep you from going off the rails with huge bets that could cripple you if they miss. You'll also be more likely to avoid the temptation of chasing losses. A good plan is the best way to stay in the pocket with your betting system and find out what works and what doesn't over an extended period of time.
Stay Informed on Player Injury and Rest Updates
There is no worse feeling than playing a betting line you think is way off base, only to realize after your loss that the line was 'juicy' because a star player on the team you bet was out for the night with an injury or was being rested. Not only do you feel like a square for losing, but you feel regret because you know you could have made a better decision simply by checking out the injury updates.
This kind of stuff happens all the time, and it's just a black hole for your bankroll. Please make sure you're staying up to the minute on personal news when betting. In addition to knowing who's in or out of a game, make sure you have the latest on things like minute restrictions or if a guy is playing banged-up and won't be as productive. Incorporate the information however you wish; just make sure that you have it in the first place. Don't bet blind.
We're not blowing smoke just to make a point; this is a huge priority for any serious NBA bettor. This is because injury news about players often doesn't break until very close to game time – sometimes mere minutes before tip-off! You must stay apprised of injuries or other happenings all the way to game time, and our advice to you is to place your bet as close to tip-off as you can.
This might sound cumbersome, but not only is there amazing value in saving money on a play you would have otherwise made, but you also will find easy profit opportunities betting the other way thanks to breaking news. There's a reason the big sharps have little closed-circuit TV monitors in their private booths – they relish the opportunity to race a ticket in before the book can change a line or take it off the board altogether.
When news breaks, it takes time for books to adjust the lines. The sharks take advantage of this. The fish miss out or get eaten alive because they didn't know the facts. Don't be a fish; BE A SHARK!
Pay Attention to Schedules and Schedule Tracking
The premise is simple; teams don't perform as well when they're fatigued as they do when they're fresh. Much like the injury tracking above, it's also good common sense to make sure your betting horse isn't limping into the arena on tired legs. But what was long held by sharps as a hunch has now become a legit game changer in the age of data. We're sure some big shot at the books played a role as well, but the bottom line is that schedule tracking is a big thing to watch out for now.
What is schedule tracking, you ask? Schedule tracking is looking at a team's schedule and looking for rough patches in the schedule that would lead the team to be tired or fatigued. The hope is that on these particular games, the betting line fails to reflect this crucial factoid and a team is overvalued, giving great value to a bet against that team. This is especially valuable for teams that the betting public likes no matter the case, as books have to keep the lines high to keep their action balanced.
There are multiple angles to look for when using scheduling to influence your betting. The most well-known example of a schedule-based betting trend is the 'back-to-back,' which is the popular way of saying that a team will play on consecutive nights. Back-to-backs are a part of most NBA daily betting analyses when it's in play, especially when the particular team's games are on the road or have a road/home combo.
However, simply finding a team on a back-to-back is not enough to guarantee profit on your play. Like we said earlier, this is a majorly tracked trend now. The bookmakers now know that this kind of money will come in big and they've adjusted accordingly. Staying that crucial step ahead will require a bit more keen strategy. Thankfully, we've got just that in the next section, which focuses on skills you will want to incorporate specifically for NBA betting.
II. NBA Betting: Get the Edge
Having basic betting principles down is a great way to ensure that you're not simply throwing your money away. Beyond that, you'll want to have some skills specifically tailored to the sport you're betting. Below are some of the strategies and tactics our experts employ to find the best lines and stay up on the books. We're happy to share, and we encourage you to use them and improve upon them at home!
Read the Bookmaker
One of the most important principles Sun Tzu teaches in The Art of War is to know your enemy, and that's what this tip is all about. Learning to think about the bookmaker's intentions when putting out a line is definitely one of those 'separator' skills – by that we mean that it's one of those defining betting skills that separate the consistently profitable pros from the losing recreational bettors.
This is a 'game behind the game' tip, but it's extremely important in NBA betting (just as much as in NFL betting, in our opinion). The principle is to ask a very simple question: why did the book open the line at that number? Expert sharps consider it second nature to ask this question, but most folks never even think to.
We could list examples for days, but let's discuss one to show you what we mean:
A and B are two evenly matched teams playing in a highly anticipated game where a lot of betting volume is expected. Team A is at home. After all the factors like home court advantage and such are factored in, the game is a true pick'em. So, what do you think the opening line will be?
Team A – (-1)
That's right; if you thought zero, you're wrong.
In this example, we said the game is a true pick'em, and it is. So why did the book open the line at -1? Great question! Now you're learning.
This is a common example of the public's inclination to bet the home team in true coin-flip situations. Another common perception (even amongst experienced NBA bettors) that are leveraged by the books in this example is that if a team is going to win, they'll likely win by more than one point, so it's worth it to lay the point and pay less vig than you would on a moneyline bet.
Bookmakers capitalize on these common perceptions by putting pick'em games out at Home Team (-1) or (-1.5) to make the public pay a premium on their habit. They'll also put out Home Team (-1) opening lines even if the home team should open as a 1-point underdog.
The reason? If public perception is that the game is a flip, the bookmakers know they're going to receive more bets on the home team. Therefore, they want that side of the action to pay the vig so they make their profit on the percentages in the long run. And overall, they do just that. So long as the game outcomes fall on the 50/50 line, they make money on the point and all the times the supposed 'dog' comes through. You profit in this scenario by avoiding the trap of hammering what you think is a betting favorite only laying a point at home.
We aren't saying that every opening line out there is a trap by the books. What we are saying is that by asking yourself what the book is trying to accomplish with a particular betting line (or price) and why the lines are where they are, you'll find great opportunities all over the board on a regular basis.
Find the Shaded Lines
'Line shading' is a term referring to when a bookmaker anticipates heavy betting action on one side of a matchup and moves an opening betting line toward that side. Line shades can be small (one point) or large (3+ points) and are a great profit-seeking area of betting if you know how to find them.
Let's say the Boston Celtics go on a hot streak (both in wins and ATS) that gets a lot of media attention. In such a case, more public bettors will start to come in wanting to ride the wave. To keep their betting handle balanced, the books respond by inflating lines involving the Celtics by a couple of points. So if the Celtics were supposed to be a (-9) favorite in a game, the books will put them out at (-11) instead.
There is nothing wrong with what the bookmaker is doing here. If the Celtics stay hot, the books could lose a lot of money each game from lopsided betting on them. So shading the line is the correct move on their part so long as it evens out their action. They can discourage enough sharp bets on the Celtics who want to bet for value, and they make the public take a bigger risk of a dog cover.
In scenarios like these, the value play is often (but not always) to bet against the shaded line and take advantage of those underdog points. Both the books and the sophisticated bettors know that the line has been swung to disfavor a cover by the Celtics. It's literally a gift to you. Take it! More often than not, the public will be disappointed, while the sharps enjoy a nice score and keep on trucking. The bookmaker is satisfied that they got enough action on both sides, and all is well in the betting world.
The only downside with this sort of play is that it is based on short-term perceptions, so you can't really plan for it. The only real way to find these opportunities is to keep up with NBA news and events and build up a bit of a bettor's intuition of when the masses have caused a line shade.
Another great scenario where books shade lines hard is on second-half lines where the action got super lopsided in the first half. This is covered a little bit later in the guide in the Middling Second-Half Bets section.
The overall principle here is to remember that line shading can happen for any reason. Much like the first section talking about reading the bookmaker's intentions, a big part of finding a shaded line is to try to find out if the book is trying to encourage or discourage action on a certain side. The best way to do that is to stay informed.
Fade the Public
We're sure you see this a lot; it's part of almost any expert betting advice on any sport that's out there. Well, it's there for good reason! The books are there to make money, and they make money by forcing the public to pay a premium for their popular notions.
Even if a notion has merit, it will lose value in the betting market by way of having everyone doing it. It's not that being with the public is always wrong; it's just that in this business, it's going to be very costly to do so over time. Awkward as it might be to tell your best buds that you bet against the hometown team this evening, it beats losing money to mere sentiment. Being a contrarian bettor is a skill you simply must embrace to keep your bankroll intact.
Betting against the public is a great intuition to have, and just by embracing it, you will find yourself sniffing out inflated lines and finding trends where the public is giving too much or too little credit to a team based on reputation or media coverage or whatever whim of the day.
Our tip to you is just to make sure you don't overdo it. It's nice to have the skill and the fortitude to go the other way when it's the right play, but make sure it's the right play. It's not enough to find the public's money and go the other way. That is a losing system. Instead, make sure you combine your plays against the grain with other supplemental factors that make your bet more of a high percentage prospect, e.g., an inflated line or a scheduling trend.
Know How to Middle the Second Half
Now we're betting some NBA! This is a sweet play that you'll want to learn; it's an absolute moneymaker, and it's a part of every professional bettor's arsenal.
For those not familiar, the term 'middle' or 'middling' refers to instances where swings in the betting lines allow for opportunities where a player can bet both sides of a game and potentially win both bets.
Atlanta is playing Boston, and the line opens with Boston as a (-5) favorite. You bet on Boston.
An hour before tip-off, it is announced that Atlanta is resting two of its best players that evening and they will not play. Betting action comes in very heavy on Boston, and the book responds by swinging the line on all the way up to a (-10) favorite.
The middling opportunity here is if you bet Atlanta (+10). No matter what, you will win one of your bets. But if Boston wins by 6, 7, 8, or 9 points, both tickets get paid.
This may sound like free money, but there is risk involved: while one of your bets will come through, if both don't, you will be a slight loser by paying the vig to the house. Make sure you're aware of the probabilities versus the price before deciding to take a middle.
Now that we have middling down, let's make some money.
The tip we're suggesting you look out for is when you've already wagered on an NBA game, and then the first half results in a blowout for one side.
Chicago is playing Detroit, and you bet Detroit as a (+3) underdog.
Detroit blows out Chicago in the first half and leads by 15 at halftime.
The bookmaker puts the second half line at Chicago (-6).
BEGIN HAPPY DANCE.
In this scenario, you already have an 18-point cushion for your (+3) bet on Detroit. Excellent.
But if you bet Chicago to cover the (-6) in the second half, Chicago can win the half by anywhere between 7 and 18 points and both of your bets will get paid (excluding O.T.). You now have an 11-point range where both bets will win. Most Excellent.
That example is not an exaggeration. Middling opportunities like these are out there throughout the NBA season. Sportsbooks make a ton offering half lines. But their weakness with some of these lines is that they have to put the line out based on where they think the bets will fall, the action that's occurred, and the action they've already taken on the game. They also have to be wary of what competitors' books are doing. And they have to do it all in very short time (while the teams are in the locker room).
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Look for opportunities like these and crush the books when they give you a big opportunity like this. It's a winning play that's yet to be corrected in the betting markets, and we highly encourage you to take advantage of it.
The best way to take advantage of this play is to have access to multiple accounts across betting sites. It allows you to line shop all over the world and increase your chances of finding these great plays. If you're interested, you can find information on safe and reliable sports betting sites on our main pages.
Here are some other great tips and trends to help you become a great NBA handicapper:
Energy and Morale
The art of gauging a team's energy level has many components. Part of it is being in tune with their schedule, and part of it is staying in tune with locker room tensions or stress (and how these tensions are affecting performance).
This is a difficult betting nuance to write about, especially for experienced bettors. So much of what you analyze in professional betting are hard numbers – spreads, stats, scores, rinse and repeat. Asking you to place actual value on something like locker room drama is a tough sell.
But the numbers we crunch are often just reflections of the trends we find by using our senses to observe the teams. How did player rest become a big trend in NBA betting? Because we observed it, bet on it when others weren't, and won big. More than any other method, this how the pros find new trends before anyone else.
Following this tip is asking you to trust your gut, scary as that can be for some. This isn't for everyone; if you just want to be a snipe-the-numbers bettor, that's perfectly fine. You can make good and consistent money just going the math route. But in our opinion, the truly elite sports bettors – the ones who make trends and bend lines – trust their intuition on how to gauge a team's energy level and determine when a team is ripe to over/underperform a line that's out there.
If you decide to use this factor in your betting system, our #1 piece of advice to you is simply to take notes on why you're betting a certain way so that you can track your results over time.
Don't Be Afraid of Road Favorites
More than the other major sports, NBA lines are influenced by two big betting habits: home court advantage, and a team's previous game(s). Most public bettors fear losing a bet because the other team got a charge from the home crowd or 'got home calls from the refs.' It's the reason they play so heavily on home teams.
As a result, there are often great value plays for good teams that hit the road. Books know they're going to get big action on the home underdog even after they shade the opening line toward them. Worse case, the sharps hammer them early, they move the line toward the road favorite, and they'll get the home team bets on the back end.
This is especially true of teams coming off a big loss in their last game. If a solid team is on a road trip and they get blown out in one game, take a look at them in the next game if they're a favorite. Not only are they a good team looking to bounce back, but they're probably playing a clearly inferior team if they're still listed as a favorite on the road despite the bad loss. You're might benefit from a more significant point swing in your favor, as well.
Sometimes it pays to be early in this spot, but all the same, the play is there. You'll have to sweat out some home calls here and there, but this play performs quite well over time.
III. NBA Betting: Keep the Edge
Once you have some solid betting strategies to wield, it's great to see good results come in. Staying ahead, however, means never being complacent and always looking for ways to improve your betting system. This section has just a couple of tips that we think you should consider to help tighten up your game.
Track Your Bets by Team; Consider Specializing
Every bettor has strengths and weaknesses in their game. Some of it is just natural. For instance, time zones alone can determine what teams a person sees more often than others.
This tip isn't about overall strategy so much as it's about tracking your bets and making sure your results are consistent across teams.
When you bet a game, you're betting on the performance of both the winning and losing teams. If you find that you're crushing your bets on one team and whiffing more often than you'd like on others, take a step back and ask yourself why. Hopefully, you'll reach the desired effect and find out if and where you might be weak in your observation of certain teams. Then you'll know exactly where you must either improve your analysis or just save some of those losing bets.
If you find that you're consistently doing well with a certain group of teams, e.g., the division your favorite team is in, consider specializing your bets to games involving those teams and branching out from there. You'll have a little less to chew on, and your laser-beam focus on just a few teams can keep your good results consistent.
Track Your Results by Bet Type
You certainly want to keep good records of your results no matter what sport you're betting – it's the mark of a good handicapper. But we think it's particularly important to track your NBA bets by bet type. By bet type, we primarily mean tracking your bets by:
- Spreads vs. money lines
- Straight bets vs. parlays (and if parlays, how many legs)
- Full-game bets vs. 1st/2nd half bets or bets on quarters
These are just the most basic examples, but you can track your bets by any kind of pattern that you think is worth a second look. The most important thing is that you actually do it. The point of it is to make sure that each type of bet you put down is making you money. If a certain bet you're making is a drain on your bankroll over time, save that bet or transfer it into a bet type that performs well for you.
Tracking your NBA bets will also help you ensure that you're not throwing away your money on certain types of bets. If you're performing well on full-game and second-half bets, but you're bleeding cash on first-half bets, stop betting the first half! Likewise if you're grinding out a nice profit on straight bets, only to give it right back by gambling on frivolous long-shot parlays.
Bottom line: tracking your results by bet type will make you money, save you money, and help you identify your strong and weak betting areas.
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We hope you found our guide helpful and fun to read, and we're rooting for you find those trends that work for you and pad your bankroll. No matter what happens, remember to have fun and enjoy the games!
