Looking to get into a little bit of sports betting? Based on the numbers, odds are pretty good that basketball is going to be the sport you bet on. Bookmakers have the numbers to back up the claim that basketball is second only to football in the United States when it comes to the amount of money wagered each year. In fact, the major amateur March Madness tournament each year is the second highest grossing sports event for bookmakers in all of sports (Super Bowl is the first).
There is a lot of money to be made wagering on basketball, whether or college or pro, but in order to stand a chance of breaking even you have to know what you are doing first. This article is a guide for those just starting out in the basketball betting world.
Basketball Bets
Like football, basketball scores are typically very high because of the scoring system. This means that betting the spread in basketball is the most popular way to wager.
On a spread bet, the person placing the bet wins if their team “covers” the spread. This means that the team either wins by the number of points specified, or loses by less than the number of points specified. Here’s a look.
San Antonio Spurs -8New York Knicks +8
Betting on the Spurs to cover the spread means that they have to win by more than eight points to collect. If they win by exactly 8 points, it is a “push”. Your bet will be returned, but you will not win any extra money. If the Spurs win by only 7 points, they win the game but fail to cover the spread. In that case, you lose the money you wagered and those who bet on the Knicks collect.
Betting on point spreads can be a little bit tricky, so those new to sports betting might favor the money line instead. This is a bet on a team to win the game outright, and it does not matter how many points they win by.
In a money line bet on a pokerrepublik game, the team that is favored to win the game gives the most money to the person who bet on them. If the Spurs were favored to win the game, for example, the people who bet on the Spurs would give the most money to someone who bet on the Spurs. The Spurs would collect more than the people who bet on the Knicks because the people who bet on the Spurs would win more than the people who bet against the Spurs.
As long as you understand the basic rules, you should be able to bet successfully on basketball. The amount of action on basketball varies from team to team and game to game, but the more you know about the teams and players, the more successful you will be at betting successfully.
You can have a great time betting on basketball, and have a lot of fun doing it, if you know what you are doing. If you are serious about mastering the basketball betting system, you should spend a lot of time studying the teams and the individual players.