
Author:
David Genge
Last Updated:
July 3, 2022
Experiences:
Sports Betting Guru
Experiences:
Sports Betting Guru
Loading ...
An easy comparison of the best basketball odds like the one here at betting.net can save you time and make sure you get the best basketball odds for today, tomorrow and every big game coming up.
If you’re looking to place a wager on the latest basketball game, obviously you’re going to want to do it at the best odds possible. Visiting each sportsbook separately can work, but will take a long time – and, by the time you’ve finished your journey, that good price you saw earlier may have changed.
To make the biggest basketball profits, you need the best basketball odds. While you might think that the prices to place the same bet would be exactly the same at each operator’s sportsbook – in reality that is not the case.
A simple check of the odds in upcoming games here at Betting.net will show that prices will vary from one sportsbook to another, especially a week or more before the start of the game. This is important as getting the bet you want at 5 in decimal odds (more on that later) instead of 4 on a wager means you end up with an extra $25 in your pocket.
This might not seem like much, but that is from just one game. If you do the same at 5 or 10 of the games you visit as you travel through the season, then you could end the season much better off, just because you compared the best basketball odds for exactly the same bet.
If you do not usually bet online or have never placed a bet online before, there are some compelling reasons for doing this rather than visiting an offline betting outlet. Most obviously you would have to travel to bet offline which can be time-consuming and may also limit which wagers you can place.
On the other hand, many operators, including all of the best sportsbook operators, have apps you can download to your Android or Apple device so you can bet without having to make a special trip or even stop what you are doing. Not only that, but these apps also allow you to take advantage of the latest offers which can change quickly and save you a trip to the bookmaker.
Another advantage of having the apps for all of the major sportsbooks on a mobile device is that you can place a bet on whichever one of them you want, whereas if you are at a single offline outlet, you are limited to what they have to offer.
While basketball betting odds often concern who will win any given game, the more popular NBA wagers concern how many points a team will win or lose that game by. This is known as spread betting, and there will be a more in-depth explanation of how that works later on.
The ‘spread’ is typically less than 20 points either way, but anomalies do occur. On December 17, 1991, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Miami Heat 148–80 which is the largest recorded spread in NBA history.
Basketball betting odds for spread betting and the more straightforward wagers are displayed in three different formats, which you can usually switch between using a toggle on the top right hand corner of an operator’s website. The three formats that most sports betting odds – including boxing betting odds and the best golf odds – are displayed in are decimal, fractional and American.
Calculating the odds explained above is a difficult task which is affected by many factors. In general a similar process is used for calculating the best golf odds or the soccer odds for today, but the defining factor is the operator’s expert knowledge of the sport in question.
The initial prices will depend on the team’s relative standing in the sport. So, if the top of the championship table (or last year’s champions) are playing the bottom of the table, you would realistically expect the ‘better’ team to be favorites.
The next factor is current form and if any team is experiencing a winning or losing streak, which may alter the gap in the prices. Other factors affecting best basketball odds are injuries or suspensions to star players, or off the field factors such as a coach being sacked, or a team being taken over by new owners.
The closer the game gets, the more the best basketball odds can change as the effects of these factors become known. It is how different operators respond to these factors, or how quick they are on the uptake of a change, that causes the discrepancies in odds between operators. This presents the opportunity, by using a comparison like the one here at Betting.net to make a greater profit from pacing exactly the same bet in the right place at the same time.
It is when a particular operator has (in your opinion) misread a situation that it is possible to place a ‘value’ bet, where the odds offered by a sportsbook operator are different to your expectations. Occurrences like this are at the root of betting strategies, which with analysis (or following somebody else’s ‘system’) can increase the level of your winnings.
Techniques like working out where teams score most of their points, and how that lines up against the opponents defensive strategy, whether one team has had a busy schedule while the other has had some downtime, or just had a confidence sapping loss but are still showing as favorites for the next game.
Spotting discrepancies like this can add to your basket betting odds profits, but only if you are careful about which games you pick. A common mistake is to make a betting strategy fit the games you want to bet on, rather than the other way around.
As with all betting strategies based on statistical analysis, the weak point is usually the bettors’ reluctance to stick to the plan and instead do what they think is best. Remembering to do what the plan says, even if there isn’t a qualifier for weeks on end, is the best way to profit in the long term.
Like all sports, basketball has markets in which more bets are placed than others. While you might expect moneyline bets (where you select the winner of the game) would be the most popular bets, they are not.
Both moneyline and Parlay bets (where your payout is dependent on a number of factors at compounded odds) do take up a share of the money, but the most popular betting market for the best basketball odds tomorrow is point totals and point spread betting, which are explained in more detail later on.
As mentioned before, in basketball betting odds, it’s not so much about who wins or loses, but how much they win or lose by. One way this is reflected by operators is to place a bet on the number of points a team will score, which you will find in the ‘total points’ markets.#
Another way is to place a wager on how many points a team will win by, or how close the underdog can get to the winning score. This is known as point spread betting.
When placing a bet, the point spread is the number of points a sportsbook decides must win by, or stay within, for your bet to be successful.
When this is displayed on an operator’s sportsbook, the favorite will have a number of points with a minus sign in front of it. If they win the game by more than that number of points, they have ‘covered’ the spread and any bet on that outcome would win.
Conversely, the underdog in this situation will have a similar number preceded with a plus sign. If this team either wins or stays within that spread number, bets on that outcome would win. As a bettor, this operates as a more flexible alternative to a straight moneyline bet, and has several options on odds comparisons to increase the profits on a winning bet.
The point spread options can vary, but will usually be in half points as opposed to hole points. This means a spread might be displayed as +7.5 instead of +7. The half point technique is used to avoid something called a ‘push’ where the final score matches the spread exactly and the bet is void and bettors refunded. Because it is impossible to score half a point, having a +7.5 point spread can either be exceeded or not, but never matched exactly.
Odds comparison is not just for basketball, but works for a number of sports, such as the NFL, soccer both here and in Europe, and you can even find cricket odds comparison here at Betting.net. However, odds comparison is particularly suited to basketball:
Firstly, odds comparison saves the time and energy you would spend looking through all of the different options one at a time, looking for the various prices, both online and offline. Secondly, odds comparison allows you to see the best odds or value bets at a glance, and act quickly to capitalize on them for maximum profit. Lastly, odds comparison like the one here at Betting.net connects to reliable and trusted sportsbooks, so you know the results are legit.
Overall odds comparison is an essential tool for the savvy bettor, and the one offered here at Betting.net should be an essential stop on your journey to making bigger profits from your winning bets.