The NBA attracts somewhere in the region of 25 million American viewers every game so it goes without saying that the associated betting market is pretty substantial too with billions spent every year.
Despite that, a report produced by ESPN suggests that only 10% of punters actually make money from their bets. With that in mind, we’re going to detail five things you can do to help you win more NBA bets.
Before we dive into the tips, it’s important to stress that these are nuggets of advice. Most of them will still involve you placing traditional bets where your money is well and truly at stake. We cannot guarantee these tips will result in winning bets every time, however, following a consistent approach should see you win more than you lose in the long run. Also Read – What Makes Online Sports Betting So Successful
So, how can you win more NBA bets?
Table of Contents
Tip 1. Look out for arbitrage opportunities
In our opening paragraph or two, we mentioned that we cannot guarantee you winning bets. Well, actually, we said most of our tips wouldn’t. This one does. If you’re unfamiliar with arbitrage betting, it’s best explained as playing bookmakers off against one another. When bookie prices an event i.e. when they define the odds they’re willing to offer, they do so following their own data and methodology.
As everyone sees the world differently, there are instances where you can find contrasts in the NBA betting odds that are big enough to cover all outcomes of an event ensuring you walk away with a profit. You can click here to read more about those contrasts: extra.betamerica.com/nba/odds/
Most of the time, you’ll find these are smaller returns (between 2 and 5%) but given they’re effectively risk-free who are we to knock a 5% return for the sake of a few minutes of work. You certainly won’t find a savings account offering that sort of percentage. If you’re unsure of how to spot an arbitrage opportunity then there are tools out there that will help you. They don’t all charge either.
Tip 2. Consider following a professional tipster
Professional bettors are a real thing and to become one is no mean feat. For most of us, it’s just a pipe dream but with the world has advanced so far in recent times you can now get easy access to tipsters. Now, we don’t suggest you follow all the tips you might see posted over on social media. There are proper tipster networks that ‘police’ the tips being given to ensure they can deliver winning bets.
There are several of these sites out there but, for example, the tipster ‘Around the Orange Ball’ who operate on Tipstrr have averaged a monthly profit of over $200 per month across the last year. Based on their stakes, this is a 10% return on investment. We’re not saying use them specifically but following proven tipsters will generally increase your chances of winning as they conduct thorough research to find strong bets.
Tip 3. Use different bookies
As we’ve touched on under our first tip – arbitrage betting – bookmakers often see events differently. This means that when it comes to placing your bets it’s a smart move to shop around. Everyone knows this but very few people do it. You should. It can make a real difference to your profit over the longer term and, more importantly, failing to switch up your bookies simply means you’re risking the same stake for less in return.
How different can the odds be we hear you ask? Well, take the game between the Sacramento Kings to and the Golden State Warriors as an example. If you take the shortest odds offered for a Kings win i.e. the worst odds in the eyes of the punter, a $10 stake would return $17.75.
By taking the best available odds you could actually turn that same $10 stake into $18.20. In cash terms, it might not sound much but it’s a 2.5% increase. That shouldn’t be turned down when you’re potentially placing multiple bets every day.
Tip 4. Keep a log of your bets
We know, the idea of keeping a spreadsheet of your bets sounds a bit insane – particularly if you’re starting with small stakes – but, trust us, it serves a real benefit in the long term. We’ve already touched on using multiple bookmakers and, if you do, you’ll quickly lose control of what bets you’ve placed and won or lost. A log keeps that under control but that’s not the main reason we recommend you have one.
One column you must-have in your log is the market you’ve bet on be it the match outcome, handicap betting or point betting, etc.
Why? Well, as you place more and more bets you’ll be able to perform an analysis of your previous bets to understand where your wins and losses are coming from. If you’re constantly losing money on predicting the match-winner but are making good profits by betting on the over or under points market then you know where to focus your energy. It all feeds more profit and that is what we want. Suggested – Sports Betting Myths That You Should Stop Believing Now
Tip 5. Research is vital
Even if you tune into our advice of following a tipster we still believe doing your own research is vital as well. Certainly out of the gates you likely won’t be conducting analysis as deep as the pros but every snippet you can find will allow you to establish a more informed opinion. This would allow you to optimize how you follow a tipster. On top of that, you’ll be able to start placing smarter bets off your own back.
What does research look like? Well, it comes in various guises. You might look at the recent form of the teams playing one another, you might explore their records when playing against each other or you might simply look at how many points they’ve been sinking; all of this can be split between home and away matches too.
Then the other thing to consider is the players on the court. Take the LA Lakers, for example, without the NBA Finals MVP LeBron James in their team they’re much less likely to dominate a game of basketball. All of these factors alter the value of a bet.
There you have it, our five tips to help you win more NBA bets. Before we check out just remember to always bet safe and don’t wager more than you’re willing to lose.
Good luck and may the odds be in your favor!
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