The NBA is extremely interesting this year, with several teams in the mix for winning the Larry O’Brien trophy. And when we say several, we don’t think three or four, but at least seven teams have the ambition to take the title.
Due to this, the attention in betting is massive, and NBA picks and parlays are among the most frequent bets taken globally. It’s why we want to present a few hints on how to make NBA betting more successful and profitable.
First of all, we need to say that there are three most popular and, let’s say, basic NBA bets – moneyline, spread, and totals.
Moneyline betting is the one where we pick up the winner of the matchup and nothing else. It is the most common and the most simple action in betting. Here is one plain example. Betting on the Bulls, who are -150, and the Hornets at +175 goes like this. If you pick the Bulls, you will need to put $150 to profit $100, and if you do that on the Hornets, the potential profit would be $175.
Now comes the spread. The spread marks the number of points one side needs to cover in order to win. To put it simply, instead of having a moneyline bet, the bookmakers make sure that the odds are even by trimming or adding points to either side. For instance, Bulls -5.5, means that the Bulls need to beat the rivals by a six-point margin and cover the spread. At the same time, the Hornets 5.5 need to win or lose by at most five points. It’s basically balancing the chances to win.
Regarding the totals, it is the number of points in one contest. The Bulls vs. Hornets game has an over/under line (or totals, it is the same thing) set at 232.5 points. Their combined number of points scored in this event is the only thing that matters here, and depending on our bet, it will determine whether we won or lost. The odds, in this case, are also even, -110 usually.
You have other types of betting here, such as parlays, which is when you put several picks on one slip, or in-play betting, which takes place during the game itself, etc. Yet we won’t bother you too much with that.
What is next on the menu, are tips for increasing the winning probability. Over the following few lines, you will have a chance to read a few mandatory factors that need to be analyzed before making a bet.
At the top of the list is the units’ quality, but we also need to include the current form. The more quality one team has, the bigger the chances for them to win. However, sometimes All-NBA players and superstars can’t help when one team is on a cold streak, which is why the form of a team is fundamental.
Injuries are the next on the list. Not having one player available for the game can disrupt everything. Let alone not having one of your starters or the leaders in one stat category.
Head-to-head records can reveal many things. We often saw in the past champions constantly losing to a specific mediocre team. Simply, that “weaker” team knows how to play against them, or has favorable matchups, etc.
Bear in mind one more situation. Road trips. NBA teams often face long travels that see them playing several consecutive games away from home, some of them on back-to-back nights. That’s when they usually rest some of the key players and play with lower intensity.
Following all these tips isn’t that hard and could be extremely beneficial. Even though it seems there are many items here, it really isn’t like that, but most people don’t even try to play along. We hope this article will be of use to you in future quests.
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