Understand the basic bet types in basketball betting

Understand the basic bet types in basketball betting

By Michael Gales Mar 4, 2013

Tweet

As a fast-paced end-to-end game, basketball offers bettors an exciting way to try and make a profit. To help players get started, we’ve explained a few basic bet types that are vital to basketball betting.

Moneyline basketball betting

Moneyline markets are the most common and the simplest market for a player to understand the cost of a bet. Basketball bettors are simply betting on which team will win the game. For example, look at these moneyline odds for the Boston Celtic vs. the Utah Jazz:

Boston Celtics: 3.440

Utah Jazz: 1.364

In this example, the Utah Jazz (1.364) are the favourites to beat the Celtics (3.440) at home. If you staked 10 on the Jazz, you would get a return of 13.64 – which includes your 10 stake. The profit would be 3.64. However, if the Celtics had won, you would win nothing and lose your 10.

If the Celtics win, your return would be 34.40 including your initial 10 stake, which would leave you a profit of 24.40.

Handicap basketball betting

Betting on the handicap is a valuable tool for bettors when one team is heavily favoured over their opponents. To counter the perceived bias in ability, bookmakers offer a handicap to level the playing field.

The handicap number (displayed as either + or – a value, such as +7.5 points) is factored into the final score to determine the game’s outcome for the purpose of the bet. This means that the handicap result is sometimes different from the actual result. For example, look at these two handicap bets:

Golden State Warriors +7.5 2.050

Indiana Pacers -7.5 1.862

If the Pacers won the game (100 – 96), bets on their handicap would actually lose. This is because for the purpose of this bet they started the game with -7.5pts, and therefore we have to subtract 7.5 from their final score. This makes the match outcome 92.5 – 96 in the Warriors’ favour.

If the Pacers won 104-96, the adjusted handicap result is 96.5-96, which means the Pacers still win. This is referred to as “covering the handicap”.

Total basketball betting

Total betting (also known as totals) is a bet on whether the combined points scored in a game will be over or under a set number. For example, look at the totals odds for the Sacramento Kings vs. Miami Heat below:

Over 210.5 1.962

Under 210.5 2.110

If you bet 10 on the game to be over 210.5 points, and the result was 116-98 (an aggregate total of 214 points), you would make a return of 19.62 (9.62 profit). If you had backed the total score as under 210.5 with the odds of 2.110, you would have lost the bet.

Read more about totals betting – with baseball examples – here.

Despite this article outlining the basic basketball bet types, giving the bettor a solid grounding in understanding how to bet on basketball, there are more advanced bet types such as live betting, accumulators, teasers, futures and props which will be discussed in a separate article.

Click here to see the best basketball odds online at Pinnacle Sports.

*Odds subject to change

If you have feedback, comments or questions regarding this article, please contact the author.