Basketball Betting: Make Your Favorite Sport Even More Exciting

The second most popular sports in the world after football (soccer) should be basketball. It is a game that attracts many fans and viewers from across the globe, and there are lots of basketball games and tournaments out there. Though the sports is more popular in the United States of America than other paces, it also holds its own in the entire Europe, Africa, South America and other continents. Because there are many games of basketball played every day, many people enjoy betting on basketball games. In the NBA, which is the biggest and most famous basketball league for instance, each team encounters a total of 82 games within one season, comprising of 41 home and 41 away fixtures, and there are 30 teams in total. With this, the opportunity to gamble or bet is presented to lovers of betting, as these games happen every day within a 7 months period.

Below, we'll be looking at betting in basketball on a general note. However, for you to be able to wager on basketball games and win, you'll need to know the rudiments of the game. Just like football betting, there are numerous markets to wager on apart from the win and lose money-line option. But we have to start with the factors that affect the result of each single game of basketball.

Factors That Affect the Result of a Basketball Game

One thing every potential bettor should understand is the head-to-head nature of the game of basketball. In the game, any team that scores more points within the duration of the game wins. So, in determining who comes out victorious in any basketball game, some emotional, psychological and physical factors must come into play, and you need to gauge and examine these before you bet on games.

Character

Character issues are very important in determining game results. Here, we talk about the level of determination and reliability. No matter the amount of skills in a team, if the players are not properly motivated, they won’t do well. In this aspect, issues like inspiration and momentum come in. When a team is properly inspired by the words and actions of the coach, the trophy to be worn, revenge, or any factor, they put in more momentum, and this can get them a win. So, consider the factor that motivates each team in a game.

Opponent’s Reputation

Teams win or lose games based on their knowledge of the opponent. That is why it is always difficult to predict who will win between a bigger team and an underdog, because it’s possible for the bigger team to become overconfident and underrate the underdog, handing them the chance to spring up a powerful performance and win. In some cases, smaller teams also become afraid of bigger teams, and out of the fear loose games against them.

Psychological Factors

There are many of these, but the most viable is the issue of the home court advantage. When players have their fans in their home court cheering them up, and with the belief that it’s their home and that no one should come there and disgrace them, they may put up a great performance and win. So, consider this when placing bets on basketball games.

Strategies

There are different strategies applied by different coaches to win. Consider how they match players against those on the opposing team and the type of substitutions they do. These have serious effects.

Mental Factors

Mental factors include how well the players on each team know the game and the rules guiding it. This will help them not to get penalized for wrong doings too often in order to avoid losing the game.

Tactics

Check how tactical the players are and consider those of their opponents. Offensive and defensive tactics must be considered here. Passing, screening, driving, blocking and stealing abilities of teams will determine how well they do.

Physical Factors

Here, you consider two major things - the height of players and their fitness level. Teams with taller and fitter players would have a very good advantage over their opponent. But this will be more lethal if they top it up with good mental abilities.

Benefits and Flaws of Basketball Betting

Basketball bets come with some advantages and disadvantages, and they are outlined below.

In making a parlay bets for instance, you can land huge wins because the betting odds are higher than what you get in the individual contests. This is a bigger risk, and therefore comes with a bigger reward. With the right $10 bet here, you can win up to $2000. But on the cons side, only a few understand the workings of the parlay bet. It involves combining up to 2 wagers, and this makes it very easy to lose. The statistics is that only 10% of people that make parlay bets win.

On the parlay bet issue, you must have full information of streaks, stats, trends and the form of the two teams involved in several games, making it a real task. So, you have to spend enough time studying those. However, the advantage here is that it makes you rooted in the game and the teams, and turns you into a more knowledgeable gambler.

Now, another advantage of making basketball bets is that they are fun, especially when you lump many games in a parlay bet. But the con is that the bettor is devastated most times when the bet is lost.

Basketball does not command the same betting volume as soccer, and this makes those who engage in it to enjoy lines that seldom adjust, and therefore, more gainful betting. However, it is difficult to pick a winner in the game, especially in NBA games.

Another pro is that there are lots of games to enjoy every day. Other sports like soccer would most probably reserve their games for weekends. But basketball games happen every day, and so a professional gambler can make a career out of it.

Unique Characteristics of Basketball Bets

Yes, there are some things that are quarantined to basketball bets alone - things you won’t see or rarely see in bets on football and other sporting activities.

It’s actually a sport that involves not more than 10 players taking part at the same time. The game is set in a way that coming out a winner or loser is determined by many things. For instance, shots into the basket do not have the same points, depending on where you shot from and the type of shot you made.

While basketball has fewer events than soccer, the number of options you can wager on in a basketball game could be more than what you will have in a soccer game.

Again, there are differences between the margins in the American competitions and European competitions.

Basketball Bets Compared To Bets on Other Sports

Bets on basketball and bets on other sports activities have more similarities than differences. Both of them contain the money-line/winner or loser bets and some other side bets. Now, while the former will definitely remain the same relying on who scores more goals or points, the side bets will always vary, because they are based on actions in the game.

Both in basketball and other sports, bets on the winner and loser are the most popular, and they are in most cases the lowest paying options.

In both types of sports, you can bet on the scores of the games and player metrics too. They come in different modes.

The differences come in the fact that the rules of basketball makes it to have fewer options than soccer which has many options to go with.

For other sports like football, you will have more participants. However, there are some sports that command lower patronage than basketball.

While the United Kingdom and other European nations could be regarded as the mainstay of football bets and others, basketball bets are popular in the United States.

Common and Unique Types

• The most common and unique types of bets on basketball are:
• The money-line bets that choose the winner and loser of the games
• The handicap bets that is about going against teams favored to win over others
• The totals bet that focus on predicting the combined points to be scored in a game
• There are also the points spread, the propositions and the parlays.

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