Top 10 Basketball Betting Tips

Betting on basketball is popular because basketball teams play a large amount of games every year. As opposed to the National Football League (NFL) where teams only play once a week and sixteen times a year, basketball is played multiple times per week. A college team plays, on average, about thirty regular season games a year before possibly entering into the postseason. Professional basketball teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) play eighty two games a year before the playoffs begin. There is plenty of opportunity to bet and win on a daily basis during basketball season.

Understanding how to bet basketball will improve your odds of winning. This article compiles the top 10 basketball betting tips to help you make the correct betting choices.First off, you have to know who is in the lineup. That’s one of the most important factors in a game. Sometimes a player might get hurt pregame or the day before a game. Sometimes a player is sick and won’t play. This alters the line of a game and dramatically shifts the odds. Know who is healthy and who is not. Secondly, know who is hurt but still in the lineup. Players often play hurt and, unfortunately, their injuries sometimes hinder their performance. Educate yourself on who might be playing hurt and factor their condition into your decision. The third tip is to always know where the game is going to be played. Some teams play poorly on the road and play great while at home. Find out who the home team is and study how both teams perform at home and on the road.

The fourth tip is to understand the line of the game. If you are not betting straight up, there will be a betting line that will give one team points. You can bet the underdog and get more points or bet the favorite and give up points. Understand what this means. Just because your team wins doesn’t mean they have covered the spread. The fifth tip is to make sure that you understand how a line may change throughout the day. The line of a game might change as the game gets closer and more variables become obvious. If a player gets hurt and can’t play, the old line from a few days ago will probably change. Understand they the line depends on the time you have placed your bet and you may want to wait until the game gets closer to see how the line will move.

The sixth tip is to follow the teams at all times. You don’t want to only follow a team when you plan to bet them. You want to measure their progress, look for strengths and weaknesses and detect trends. Our seventh tip, and this is also very important, is to measure how the two teams play against one and other. One team may simply have the other team’s number. If you detect that a certain team doesn’t play well against another team, and you think the betting line is closer than it should be, take advantage of your research.

The schedule is a tool that will help you. If an NBA team is on a west coast road trip, factor that into your betting. At the end of the road trip, they may be tired. If it’s the last game on the trip, they might pack it in and not give full effort. Look for teams that don’t play well at the end of long road trips. Tip eight also deals with schedule. If a team has been playing at home for awhile and seems to be picking up steam, you may want to take advantage of their schedule. Look for home hot streaks where teams seem to be feeding of their crowd.

Tip nine advises you to look ahead. As mentioned earlier, a line may move as a game gets closer. If you think a team will get hot and they have a favorable line for a game that is still a few days away, take advantage of the early line and bet based on your research and intuition.

Lastly, tip ten is to never bet frustrated. Gamblers often bet big after losing in an attempt to win back their lost money. Don’t get frustrated and big bigger sums of money as you try to win it all back in one shot. Stay patient, do your research and bet smart.