The NBA remains one of the popular professional leagues to bet on when it comes to the overall action that today’s online sportsbooks take in. First of all, you have a lengthy 82-game regular season involving a 30-team league so from late-October right into the month of April these is betting action almost every night of the week. Next up is an extensive playoff run filled with best-of-seven game series that lasts for almost two more months. With this much action on the table, there is a strong need to develop some NBA betting strategies that are designed to maximize your opportunity to generate a positive return on investment.
The first strategy in light of all these betting opportunities is to pick and choose your spots. If you cannot find a game that you like on a particularnight then save your money for another time. You will be much better off in the long run trying to pick six winners out of 10 games over the course of amonth than trying to pick 60 winners out of 100.
Another important factor that goes into winning NBA games is studying a team’s current form. With such a long season there are bound to be ups and downswith even the best teams in the league. The Golden State Warriors recently set a new NBA single-season record for straight-up wins at 73, but looking back at this amazing run there were four different stretches were they failed to cover the spread in three or more games in a row. You should always try and ride a team that is hot, but you can also win just as much money going against a team that is not.
One of the other realities of such a long season in the NBA is brutal stretches of games that can have a negative effect on any team. Playing three or four road games over a relatively short period of time is bound to take its toll towards the end of the trip, especially when that team is matched up against an opponent that has played its last few games at home. You need to take the time up front to study the schedule so you can make note of any potential mismatches like this well in advance of the actual game.
Sportsbooks are well aware of the fact that the betting public as a whole loves to bet on favorites. Often times this will lead to a heavy favorite getting overvalued in a point spread against an obvious underdog. One of the biggest red flags to avoid is when this heavy favorite is playing on the road. Unlike college basketball, the NBA is made-up of the best of the best in the game and on any given night even the worst team in the league can beat the best team or at least keep things closer than a huge double-digit spread. A favored team’s job is to win the game and it could care less how much it is favored by. Conversely, a poor team is well aware of the large spread and sometimes they are simply looking to avoid getting blown-off the court, especially if it is playing the game in front of the home-town crowd.
One final betting strategy to keep in mind when it comes to the NBA is to look for opportunities on the total line. A good starting point is to get a good feel for a team’s tempo of play and how many possessions it averages a game. Possessions directly translate into points based on a team’s average shooting percentage and its rate of turnovers. A good recipe for playing “overs” is finding two up-tempo teams that love to run up and down the court all night long. A good pairing for an “under” would be two defensive minded teams that put a premium on making the other team work for every shot it takes.
