How To Bet On The NBA: Basketball Betting Guide & Tips

While most sports bettors in the U.S. will be looking to place bets on the NBA or NCAA, some sportsbooks allow you to bet on Summer League or foreign leagues as well.

Regardless of league, let’s look at the different types of basketball bets available through online sports betting.

NBA Moneyline

The moneyline is the most straightforward way to bet on basketball. You’re betting on which team will win outright.

The team doesn’t need to win by a particular amount of points or even in regulation. A one-point overtime win counts the same as a 20-point blowout.

Sportsbooks assign moneyline odds to each team based on their likelihood of winning and to balance the handle on both sides.

Minus odds indicate a favorite, while plus odds indicate an underdog.

For instance, if oddsmakers heavily favor the Phoenix Suns in a game against the Indiana Pacers, the Suns might have odds of -250. In this case, you would have to wager $250 on Phoenix to win $100.

If oddsmakers list the Pacers as +300 underdogs, you stand to win $300 with a $100 wager.

NBA Spread

The spread is another common single-game basketball bet available on sportsbooks. It represents the expected margin of victory for the winning team and margin of defeat for the losing team.

The spread helps create close to even odds (usually around -110) for both teams in a game, even if one team is an obvious favorite to win. 

Sportsbooks assign a certain amount of points for the favorite to “cover,” or win by, for the bet to cash.

For example, say the Boston Celtics are favored by 9.5 points against the Washington Wizards. In that case, the Celtics must win by at least 10 points to cover the spread. 

The Wizards would be listed as +9.5 underdogs in that scenario. If they lose by fewer than 9.5 points or win the game outright, they’d cover the spread.

There are typically alternate spreads available for each game, so you can wager on your own spread if you think a team will win by more or fewer points.

NBA Point Totals

A point total, also known as an Over/Under, can be team- or game-specific. You can bet on the total points scored in a game by both teams combined, or you can wager on how many points one team will score.

If the point total of a game between the Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors is 226.5, you can bet that the combined score will be greater or less than 226.5 points.

Point totals usually have close to even odds (-110) on both sides.

A team-specific point total is the same concept, but you’re betting the Over or Under on how many points one of the two teams will score. For example, you could bet on the Heat to go over or under 112 team points.

Like spreads, totals can also be adjusted upwards and downwards.

NBA Parlays

Parlays combine multiple markets into one wager for longer odds and a greater potential payout. These markets can either come from multiple games or the same game.

However, all parlay legs have to hit for the bet to cash. Parlays are thus difficult to hit because they require getting all your bets right, and even the best bettors are typically only successful on little more than half their wagers.

There have been instances of people betting pocket change for six-figure payouts. One of the most unlikely parlays to hit on basketball in recent memory came in 2022 when three friends put down $0.50 to win $130,000 on a six-leg, first-basket parlay.

Parlays have a higher hold for sportsbooks than straight bets such as the moneyline since they lose more frequently, so chasing parlays shouldn’t be your main betting strategy.

NBA Player Props

Player props (propositions) are bets made on an individual player to accomplish or fall short of a specific statistic.

There are many different statistical categories that you can bet on for player props, including points, rebounds, assists, 3PM (three-pointers made), turnovers, steals, blocks, triple-doubles and double-doubles. Depending on the sportsbook, you can also bet combinations of multiple categories.

First Basket

The “first-basket” bet is another straightforward wager. You predict which player will score the first bucket in a game. It’s a highly speculative type of prop bet.

First-basket bets can get more specific, such as which player will score the first basket in a game and in which fashion (three-pointer, two-pointer, etc.). 

These bets can be interesting for bettors preferring quick action and long (less favorable) odds. We don’t recommend these bets for trying to build a sports betting bankroll.

Game Props/Margins/Race To

Game props can include a variety of bets, including margins, the race to a certain number of points in a particular quarter, or whether or not a game will go to overtime. 

Betting on margins is much more speculative than the moneyline or the spread. It requires you to guess by how many points a particular team will win.

You can get significant odds with these bets, but it is extremely tricky to correctly guess the differential at the end of a game. Margin bets can include the amount a team wins by (exact or within a range) or the amount a team is winning by at the end of a particular quarter.

Stat Leaders

The stat leaders bet is not available in every online sportsbook, but it is on some and can be interesting. An example of a “stat leaders” bet is “Steph Curry to finish with the most points.”

However, it wouldn’t be limited to just the Golden State Warriors. You would win the bet if Curry had the most points of any individual player on either team. 

This type of bet is an alternative way to gamble on a player’s point total prop.

NBA Futures

Future bets do not pay out immediately, as you wager on the outcome of an event in the near or long-term future. You often have to wait until the end of the season.

Future bets can be on a player to win an individual award: 

• Most Valuable Player 
• Defensive Player of the Year
• Rookie of the Year
• Sixth Man of the Year

You can also bet on a team to win its respective conference, division, the NBA Finals or even just get to a certain amount of wins (win total).

Futures odds can change dramatically throughout the season due to a variety of factors, including trades, injuries and performance.

Below are a few tips for basketball betting, regardless of whether it’s the NBA, NCAA or an overseas league. These tips include shopping your odds, avoiding the trap of overvaluing historical trends and adequately utilizing live betting to hedge your bets.

Following sound betting practices can help you build a sports betting bankroll.

NBA Odds Shopping

We recommend shopping around the odds on your favorite bets, whether they are part of a parlay or a single bet. Most sportsbooks don’t have significantly different lines, but you can get slightly better odds depending on which sportsbook you choose.

It’s especially important to shop parlay odds, as they can vary drastically based on the sportsbook. Slight differences in game or prop odds can add up over multiple legs.

Avoiding Historical Traps

You should pay attention to current trends but don’t weigh past performances too heavily. For instance, if it is late in the season, don’t emphasize performances from months ago.

An example of this is the incredible progression of the Dallas Mavericks throughout the 2023-24 season. After starting the year 26-23, they added reinforcements at the NBA Trade Deadline and went on a tear in the second half, going 24-9 the rest of the way and advancing all the way to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics.

Streaks and momentum matter in betting more than historical trends, such as a team’s record against the spread last season.

Utilize Live Betting

Take advantage of volatility.

In a basketball game, a swing of momentum is called a run. There are quite a few throughout the game and some last longer than others. When a team goes on an early run, there’s a likelihood for later regression, even if slight.

When the spread widens significantly during live betting, especially in the first half, grabbing the losing team plus the points can be advantageous.

This strategy won’t always prove profitable, but considering that the average winning margin in the NBA is between two and eight points, it can help to bet on a team that is down big early.

If nothing else, it could be a viable way to hedge a pregame bet.

Don’t ‘Tease’

If you’re not familiar with this form of betting, then no harm, no foul.

A teaser is similar to a parlay in that it has multiple legs (bets) that all have to hit to receive the payout.

However, the difference is that teasers can increase the point spread of each leg in your favor, giving you more cushion.

This bet type means you often have to pair two legs together to get the odds that an original spread bet would pay out. The reality with teasers is that they are only worth utilizing in football, where there are fewer possessions than in basketball and games are lower-scoring.

Gamble Responsibly

Remember that sports betting should be fun, so always gamble responsibly and don’t get carried away.

Set a budget, don’t bet more than you can afford to lose and don’t chase your losses. Stick to teams and players you know and focus more on straight bets than parlays, as the former have a higher chance of winning.

Sports betting can be addictive, so limit yourself or seek help if you feel that you may be developing a problem.

In states with legal sports betting, there should be multiple NBA betting sites available, including DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars and Bet365.

You will want to see which sportsbooks are available in your state and then evaluate which first-time user bonus you’d like to claim. Other factors for your decision include the sportsbook’s user interface and navigability. Sportsbooks are generally level when it comes to customer service.

To create a sportsbook account and claim a first-time user promotion, click a banner on this page to download the app to your mobile phone. You’ll just need to enter some personal information to verify your identity.

Once you’ve done that and made a deposit, you’re good to go.

It only takes a few minutes to register and create an account.

To best assist you in successfully handicapping NBA game and prop markets, we’ve compiled a few of our favorite statistical resources. Most of these tools are available free of charge—with basic information included—while some also include paid options. 

Dunks & Threes

This tool provides free and paid options, but the former offers valuable information.

For example, the site lists a team’s net rating, offensive rating and defensive rating, all adjusted for the strength of schedule. Dunks & Threes also offers stats on pace rating, offensive possession length and defensive possession length. 

Beyond those basic ratings, the site compiles how teams shoot and defend from certain areas of the floor. Furthermore, that section also offers insights into how teams distribute their shots between the rim, mid-range and from three-point land and how they defend those areas.

This information allows bettors to zone in on certain spreads—maybe a team is outperforming their net rating—and identify potentially profitable player props based on how teams defend certain areas of the floor.

To further examine the site, head to dunksandthrees.com. 

NBA Advanced Stats

You can visit nba.com/stats/teams/advanced for many stats useful in handicapping games. 

Although slightly inferior to Dunks & Threes—the site doesn’t adjust team stats for strength of schedule—there’s one inherent edge on the NBA stats page. Here, bettors can change the period of time for all stats. 

For example, bettors can see team stats for the entire season, the most recent game or the most recent month. That way, bettors can identify good buy-low, sell-high opportunities and see which teams perform differently than their season-long metrics over a smaller sample size.

Team Rankings

This database offers standard statistical measures and useful betting insights for all 30 NBA teams.

On the statistical end—found under the “stats” tab on the left-hand side—bettors can see wide-ranging metrics from scoring offense and defense to rebounding rate. Put simply, if there’s a trackable NBA stat, Team Rankings has it available.

Supplementing those statistics are breakdowns of how teams perform at home and on the road as well as team averages for the whole season, the last three games and the last game. 

From a betting standpoint—discovered under the “odds and trends” sidebar on the left-hand side—users can find team ATS records, average margin of victory and the average amount of points the team covers the spread by. Further, bettors can opt to see the over/under percentages for all teams and the average amount of points a team clears the total by. 

For this information, head to teamrankings.com/nba.