NBA betting guide for 2022

Want to learn how to bet money on NBA games? Here at OGCA, we consider ourselves experts in all forms of sports betting and can help you get started by showing you how NBA betting odds work. To that end, let’s talk about how to read NBA odds by reviewing the betting line for Game 1 of the 2021 NBA Finals:

The Suns are the five-point favourite in the game. This means to win a bet against the spread, they need to win by more than five points. Our odds calculator below will show you that it will take a C$110 bet to win C$100. But if you were confident in the Bucks and go for the moneyline, had they won, a C$100 bet would have resulted in you winning C$290 (a C$190 profit plus what you originally staked).

Try out our NBA odds calculator below to work out other types of odds, betting stakes and potential winnings:

Novice bettors among you may not be aware of the many ways in which you can bet on the NBA. Of course, to stand the best chance of winning, you need to be able to recognize the various NBA bet types for wagering real money.

Check out some of the most popular below:

A popular form of basketball wagering, the moneyline bet is simply wagering on which team will win. But to really understand how it works, it helps to have moneyline NBA betting explained.

When you make this type of bet, you’re betting that one team will win outright, so you may just want to pick the favourite. Betting on the underdog is the riskier choice, as oddmakers have already predicted this team isn’t going to win. Then again, the rewards are always greater.

For instance, had the Bucks won Game One of the 2021 NBA Finals, a bet on the moneyline would have resulted in you winning C$290. On the other hand, fans that bet on the Suns needed to bet C$222 to win C$100.

To account for one team being better than the other on paper, sportsbooks will set a point spread to level the playing field. The better team, represented by a minus sign, has to win by more than the point spread offered by the sportsbook.

Meanwhile, the underdog – represented by a plus sign – has to win the game outright or lose by an amount smaller than the point spread. Bets like this are often referred to as ‘against the spread’ (ATS).

Take the example we used earlier. In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Suns were expected to win by five points. Since they won by 13, bettors that backed the Suns to win against the spread won their wagers.

Rather than picking one team to win, bettors will sometimes feel more comfortable going for an over/under NBA bet – also known as a totals bet. Instead of choosing a winner, you decide whether you think the final combined score will be more or less than a given number.

For example, for the NBA Finals game, the total was listed as 219.5 points. You could therefore choose for the combined total to be over or under that amount.

NBA prop bets, or proposition bets, are wagers fans can make on aspects of a game other than the final outcome. It’s not unusual to see over 100 of these bets for any given game during the regular season. Prop bets will almost always be listed as totals (over/under) bets.

Some common prop bets are:

• Alternate spreads
• Who scores first basket for each team in the game/each quarter/each half
• Halftime score
• Score by quarters
• How many shots a player or team will make/miss
• Number of three pointers by a particular player or team
• Number of assists/rebounds by a particular player or team

As you’ve probably guessed, NBA futures are bets made on the outcome of events happening in the future. Some of the more popular futures bets include betting on conference winners, division winners, the NBA championship winner, as well as various awards.

NBA parlays are a great way to increase your winnings, but be aware that they also mean taking on additional risk. The potential to win will increase exponentially with each leg you add to the bet.

A leg can be a bet on the moneyline for one game, against the spread for another and the over/under from a different matchup. Most sportsbooks will also let you do same game parlays with each leg consisting of different prop bets (number of assists by Player A, points by Player B, and combined assists/rebounds by Player C).

Parlays can be as long as the sportsbook allows, but remember: you can win eight legs of a nine-leg parlay, but losing one leg means you lost the bet!

NBA betting continues even when matches are in-play thanks to live betting. Top NBA betting sites will offer you live markets to gamble on, offering odds for things like the spread, moneyline, the final score, etc, as the game progresses. Be aware that odds shift constantly based on what happens on the basketball court.

When picking a team to bet on, either for a certain match or championship, we recommend doing your homework and finding out any NBA betting data info and data.

For the regular season, a review of last year’s playoffs and regular season is a great place to start. That way, you can get a good idea of the teams ready to compete now, the teams to watch and which ones might slide down.

The current NBA champions are the Milwaukee Bucks. Prior to their win, the Los Angeles Lakers were defending champs. In recent years, the most successful team has been the Golden State Warriors. They appeared in the NBA Finals from 2015-2019, winning three times. The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics are tied for the most wins with 17 each.

Regularly looking at expert picks and NBA betting predictions is also great way to increase your chances of winning real money. Some of the NBA basketball betting tips we recommend here at OGCA are looking at team form, NBA rankings, head-to-head history and player injuries.