It didn’t take very long for the first betting upset of the 2019-20 NBA season to take place. It happened on the NBA’s Opening Night when Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers knocked off LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The upsets are going to continue throughout the remainder of the NBA season, too. With each team playing 82 games, there are bound to be underdogs who win contests outright almost every night.
If you’re planning on betting on NBA games or any other basketball games for that matter, there are basketball betting tips you should keep in mind before you place your bets. They’ll help you to end up on the winning side more often than not and make you a more profitable sports bettor overall.
Take a look at the most important basketball betting tips that you need to know below.
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Look at Betting Lines for Games as Soon as They Come Out
The betting lines for basketball games are usually released at least a day or two before they’re set to take place. Some are even available several days in advance if a team has a few days off.
You should keep a close eye out for betting lines and monitor them from the moment they come out to the moment a game starts. You can learn a lot about how a game might go based on which direction lines move in.
For example, the betting lines for the Clippers/Lakers game that we just mentioned came out more than two months before the game was actually played. And it indicated that the Clippers were a two-point favourite.
But by the time the game started, the Lakers were favoured by three or four points, depending on which sportsbook you used to bet on it. That meant that those who bet on the Clippers, either with the point spread or with the moneyline, were getting good value by betting on the Clippers.
Make sure you’re paying close attention to betting lines when you’re wagering on sports contests. It’s a good way to spot betting trends and to find value picks.
Do Your Research on Games Before Betting on Them
In addition to monitoring betting lines in the days leading up to a game, you should also do plenty of research on it. Your goal when betting on basketball should always be to try and find statistics that will give you a slight edge when you bet on a game.
Look at the offensive and defensive statistics for teams to see how they might match up. Evaluate each team’s win/loss record both at home and on the road and check to see how they’ve fared against one another in the past.
By uncovering these kinds of stats, you can place bets more confidently and feel better about them. You can also steer clear of simply betting on whichever basketball team has a better record, which is a strategy that almost never works.
Avoid Putting Too Much Stock Into a Team’s Last Game
Team A just beat Team B by 20 points. Team C, meanwhile, just lost to Team D by 15 points, several days after Team A beat Team D by 18 points. Now, Team A is playing Team C, and that means that they should win easily over them, right?
Maybe! But when you’re placing basketball bets, you shouldn’t ever put too much stock into what happened during a team’s previous game or even their last few games.
The basketball season is long, which means teams go through a series of ebbs and flows throughout it. They might blow a great team out one night and then get blown out by a terrible team the next night.
It’s why you need to be careful about looking back at a team’s previous games to predict how their next game is going to go. You could be playing with fire by taking that approach to betting on basketball games.
Watch Out for Injuries!
Injuries are a part of the game when it comes to playing basketball. No matter what level people play at, there are bound to be injuries during games.
Throughout a basketball season, players will get hurt from time to time. They’ll twist their ankles, tweak their backs, and even suffer concussions every now and then. That makes this one of the most important basketball betting tips of all.
You need to know who is injured and, more importantly, who won’t be playing because of an injury before you place a bet on a basketball game. The last thing you want to do is place a sizable bet on a team only to find out that they’re preparing to play without their best player.
Get into the habit of scanning through injury reports in the days and hours leading up to basketball games. You’ll find everything you need to know about injuries and make it easy to avoid betting on teams that have sustained injuries to their best players.
Try Not to Bet on Teams Playing on Back-to-Back Nights
The NBA has made it their mission to schedule fewer back-to-back games for teams this season. As a result, there won’t be too many teams playing on, say, a Sunday night and then following it up with another game on Monday night.
It’s still going to happen every now and then, though, and when it does, you should be very careful about betting on teams that are playing on the second night of a back-to-back. Even if they looked great the previous day, they might come out flat on the second night of action.
Certain players might not play as many minutes as they normally would, either. It can make it difficult for sports bettors to bet on these games all the time and win.
Never Underestimate the Importance of Home-Court Advantage
Home-court advantage is important in every sport. But over the years, studies have suggested that it might be most important in basketball.
In the NBA, home teams win about 60% of the time during the regular season. And that number jumps even higher once the postseason rolls around.
Other leagues around the world have experienced similar results. So if you’re stuck on which team to bet on when wagering on a basketball game, it’s not a bad idea to give the nod to the home team.
Remember That Any Team Can Win on Any Given Night
Back in 2016, the Golden State Warriors made history by finishing the regular season with a 73-9 record. They topped the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, a team that finished with a 72-10 record, by achieving the feat.
It was an incredible regular season for the Warriors, but you could argue that it should have been even better! The Warriors could have finished 74-8 if only they had been able to knock off the lowly Lakers at the start of March.
But unfortunately, the Lakers defeated the Warriors in one of the biggest NBA upsets of all time. That Lakers team—which finished with a 17-65 record—won the game by 17 points.
It proved that the Warriors were not untouchable. It also proved that any NBA team can beat any other NBA team on any given night. Don’t ever forget that when you’re betting on basketball games.
Consider Giving Over/Under Bets a Try
There are some people who are under the impression that betting on basketball always means betting on one team to beat another team. But that isn’t true!
Basketball bettors can also stay away from betting on individual teams and bet on the final scores of games instead. They can bet on whether or not the total points scored by two teams will go “over” a certain number by the time a game ends.
If you ever find that you just can’t seem to pick a basketball winner to save your life, think about giving over/under bets a chance. They’re a fun way to bet on a basketball game without worrying about which team is going to win.
Use These Basketball Betting Tips to Win Big
Are you planning on placing bets on the NBA this season? Or are you going to test your luck by betting on the National Basketball League in Australia?
Regardless of which leagues you choose to bet on, you should commit the basketball betting tips found here to memory and keep them in mind at all times when placing wagers.
Basketball is one of the most fun sports to bet on because of all the action that takes place during games. Basketball games often feature a lot more scoring than other sports’ games.
But you’ll have even more fun than usual watching basketball when you have money at stake and a good chance to win. You’ll feel a rush of adrenaline each and every time your team goes on a run and inches closer towards getting a win.
Would you like to see some of the other ways you can increase your chances of hitting your basketball bets? Go here to read about some other great sports betting strategies.
