Best Strategies for Betting on the NBA

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Basketball is one of the most popular sports on the planet, with the NBA being the leading professional league in the world, not to mention the most famous. In the US, 1.59 million viewers on average watched regular season games in the 2022-23 season across ABC, ESPN and TNT, according to data on the website of consumer and market data company Statista.

It’s easy to see why so many people tune into NBA games. The regular season offered some fabulous basketball moments, such as LeBron James scoring 36 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder in February, which transformed him into the leading scorer of all time in the NBA. Then there’s the high-scoring game between the Sacramento Kings and the LA Clippers, which ended 176-175 to the Kings in double overtime and became the second highest scoring game in NBA history.

NBA is also a popular sport for betting on. Many fans will check out the NBA Championship odds and see who the sportsbooks make to walk away with the NBA Championship. If you’re thinking of placing a wager on who the champions will be, here are some of the best strategies for betting on NBA games.

Follow the schedule.

Teams play much better when they’re fresh than when they’re fatigued. Take a look at the betting schedule and see if a team has gone through any rough patches. The hope is that the sportsbooks won’t have considered this and reflected it in the betting lines. As a result, they may have overvalued the team. Things to watch out for include whether the team has played back-to-back games, has played three games in four nights, is in the middle of a long road trip or is coming off a game that has gone into overtime.

Study injury reports and rest management

Load management is an issue in basketball teams, and you can make better decisions even by just checking who is injured and who is fit. As well as checking who’s playing, stay up to date on who’s injured. Even small injuries can have repercussions for their performance. Note that news of injuries often doesn’t break until close to game time, so bet as close to tip-off as you can.

Watch out for moving lines.

Sometimes the public bet with their hearts instead of following a strategy. If the media begin to talk about how one team is fabulous and under-rated, that team can win the hearts of the public, who then start to bet heavily on them. If you see the betting lines shift from the favorite to the underdog but then back to the favorite, this could be because some bettors out there are betting with their heads and not their hearts. You might want to follow their lead if you suspect this is the case.

Be careful about betting on your favorite team.

Always be careful when betting on your favorite team. You should be sure that there is something in your strategy that makes it rational to bet on them. It’s hard not to be biased, so sometimes the best thing to do is avoid betting on your favorite and instead bet on one of the many other games going on out there.

Be aware, too, of how the public and media glamorize stories and underdogs. They also have a tendency to hype up games and make you think they’re going to be much closer than they turn out to be. Don’t let this interfere with your betting strategy. Be selective about who and where you get your information from.

Take advantage of live betting

The score can change in an instant in basketball. Teams are shooting more three-pointers and are faster than ever. This is a good time to take advantage of live betting because you may see more value in this than betting based on the original betting lines. You have to be able to withstand the mental anguish of a team going down early in the quarter, as teams can go for runs of several minutes alternately without scoring.

Study how teams score their points.

Studying how teams score most of their points is an excellent way to check for consistency. Three-pointers look great, but it’s not as easy running up to the basket and slamming the ball into it. They can soon dry up.

Keeping this in mind is helpful when picking a winner and is especially useful in NCAA basketball, in which winning teams hardly ever score most of their points from beyond the arc. Long-term consistency and deep runs aren’t their thing, but NCAA teams are great if you’re looking for teams that could cause an upset.

The NBA is exciting to watch and exciting to bet on. The Boston Celtics were the favorites to lift the title, but the Denver Nuggets have overtaken them following a victory over the Phoenix Suns, so there’s everything to play for now.