Basketball Betting Tips: Smart Ways to know when to bet and not to bet

NBA is one of the most favored sports betting pastimes in the USA because of the number of games that are played unlike, say, football, which sees far fewer games.

In the NBA, the teams in each conference play 82 games home and away in a regular season and the top teams then proceed to the playoffs.

As with any other game, betting is based on taking advantage of the basketball betting line. Over time, this betting has progressed from simple win/lose to a whole array of bets such as points scored, betting on each quarter or each half, and so on.
Betting systems. The three most popular forms of betting are described below:

Point spreads. In this form of betting, bookmakers handicap the favorites and bolster the underdogs by determining a point spread that will be subtracted from the score of the favorites and added to the score of the underdogs.

This was done to make betting on both teams attractive and hence distribute the bets. If team A shows -6 against its name, they are the favorites and required to win by more than six points for you to win your bet.

Similarly, team B, their opponents, would require to lose by less than six points for you to win your bet. The wards would normally be the same and you would require betting $110 to win $100.

Money line bets. These are the simplest form of bets and you simply pick the winner. If you pick the favorite, you will look normally win less than the amount of your bet whereas, on an underdog, you would normally win more. The favorite will be indicated by a + figure which represents the amount that you need to bet to win $100. The underdog will be indicated by a - figure which is the amount that you will win for a $100 bet.

Totals. In the line, the bookmakers will also indicate the total number of points if they expect to be scored by both teams put together in the game. If you think the score will be more, you bet the Over and, if you think the score is going to be less, you bet the Under. Here are some tips that will help you to win consistently:

1.Use the under/over to get the best value from your bets. Research extensively to pinpoint the teams that score highly and the teams that use defensive tactics and then bet accordingly.

2.Bets that let you bet on the performance of one player versus another are called prop bets. Use player statistics to make intelligent bets.

3.Do not spread your bets too much and concentrate on the types of bets that give you the best results.
4.Similarly, concentrate on just a few teams so that over some time, you can focus your homework to increase your knowledge about these teams.

5.Spare a thought for halftime lines because, if you get decent odds, you can always recoup losses on other bets on that game.

6.Stay up-to-date on injury reports and bench strength on the teams that you follow.