How to Bet on Basketball | Basketball Betting Explained 2025

Before I discuss how odds can change and how bookmakers set odds, let’s examine the different types of odds, which include decimal, fractional, and American. 

Decimal Odds

Decimal odds are a format typically displayed at European, Canadian, and other sportsbooks outside of the United States. However, most betting sites, including new betting sites, still allow you to view odds this way if you choose. 

These odds allow you to quickly determine how much you’ll win with a wager. 

For example, say you wanted to bet on the Los Angeles Lakers at 1.50 odds, and you wanted to bet $100. 

You’d take 100 and multiply it by 1.50, and you’d get $150. This includes the $100 wager, so you’d net $50 in profit. 

You could do it with any random amount, too.

Say the odds are 2.43, and you want to bet $247.

Again, take 2.43 and multiply it by 247. This would be $600.21, with a profit of $353.31 after subtracting the initial $247 wager. 

So, for American bettors, the decimal odds are quite different in how they’re displayed, but calculating your winners and profits is done quite quickly. 

American Odds

With American odds, you’ll see a “-” and “+” sign on most markets. 

The “minus” odds indicate the favorite in most circumstances, while the “plus”  odds signify the underdog. If both teams have “minus” odds, the team with the higher number associated is considered more favored. 

For example, if the Lakers were playing the Boston Celtics and the Celtics were -130 compared to the Lakers at -120, the Celtics have a higher implied probability of winning. 

With American odds, you can quickly tell how much you’ll win or need to bet when you look through the lens of $100. 

Let’s look at some examples: 

• The Lakers are -120. For this bet, you must wager $120 to win $100. Conversely, if the Lakers were +120, you’d win $120 with a successful $100 bet. 
• With “+” odds, you’ll win the amount associated with the odds on a successful $100 wager. 
• With “-” odds, you must bet that amount associated with the odds to win $100. 

Fractional Odds 

Fractional odds are typically found in the United Kingdom and British sportsbooks. 

These also readily help with estimating how much you need to wager to win a certain amount. Most often, it’s viewed through the lens of $1, but it all depends on the numerator and the denominator. 

Let’s look at some examples:

• The Denver Nuggets are 5/1 to win the NBA Finals. With these odds, you’ll take the denominator, and that’s how much you need to wager to win the number in the numerator. So, for every $1 bet, you’d win $5. Suppose you bet $1 on the Nuggets to win at 5/1 odds. In that case, you’d receive $6, including the original wager and the number in the numerator. 
• Now, let’s take the Lakers example above at -120 American odds. In fractional odds, it’s 5/6 odds. With this, you’d win $5 on a $6 wager. 

Why Do Odds Change? 

Odds can change for numerous reasons, including the money received on one side or the other. 

These odds can also change due to injury, coaching changes, players sitting out for rest, and more. 

How Do Sportsbooks Set Odds? 

Basketball betting sites set odds while considering many of the parameters mentioned above. They also use advanced algorithms that take into account numerous factors. These are known as the opening odds and can change before the start of the game. 

In addition to the betting markets mentioned above, there’s also live betting. 

Live betting, also known as in-play betting, is a totally separate market that sportsbooks often dedicate a unique page on their platforms.

With live betting, most of the markets mentioned above are available, but with basketball, the odds can shift extremely fast as you’ll be betting on the game in real time. You might be interested in betting on a game, but a player may have an injury heading into it, and you want to see how he plays before placing a bet. After seeing how the player does, you can let the first half go and place a wager during halftime. 

I love using live betting to hedge my pre-game betting line. With this, you can limit your losses. 

For example, if you bet the Lakers' moneyline at -120 before the game and they’re trailing by five points in the fourth quarter, you could choose to ride it out or bet on the opponent’s moneyline to help limit the losses in the event the Lakers don’t make a comeback. 

Some of the top basketball betting sites will not only provide an interface for betting on games live, but some have live trackers so you can keep up with the game, and some offer live streaming to watch the game on their platform. Sites also provide statistics during and before the game to help you make educated and informed decisions. 

As mentioned above, there are numerous basketball leagues you can wager on, which I’ll discuss below. 

The abovementioned betting markets are also available in all leagues, including the NBA, WNBA, college basketball, and the EuroLeague. 

Below are some advanced NBA betting strategies that you can deploy when you wager on basketball. These tips can also be used in other basketball leagues, but they could be weighted a bit differently, considering the length of an NBA season. 

Understanding Pace and Tempo

The pace and tempo of a team can play a massive role in how you bet on them. 

Teams that tend to play fast usually score a lot but also allow more points. 

For example, in 2023, the Washington Wizards led the NBA in possessions with 106 per game, but they also allowed a league-high 123 points per game. 

With two teams that like to play fast, totals tend to get quite high, as both offenses will have chances, and the defenses don’t typically keep up. 

Conversely, the New York Knicks averaged 98.5 possessions per game, the least in the NBA, and allowed the fifth-least points per game. 

Meanwhile, teams that play at fast tempos and possess the ball often do not cover the spread as much. 

The Wizards covered 45.6% of the time last season, while the Knicks did 53.3% of the time. 

Analyzing Team and Player Performance

Many factors can come into play when picking games, and sometimes, it can be as simple as assessing the number of points allowed per game or how well a team rebounds. 

For example, if a team allows a lot of offensive rebounds and there’s an opposing player with a high rebound average, you could look at his rebound player prop a lot differently. 

There are so many factors to consider, and opponents play a huge role in them. 

You could also look at the last 10 games to see how teams have performed recently and examine how certain players are defensively. 
Again, there are so many scenarios to consider on a game-by-game basis.

Rest and Travel Considerations

Like analyzing player and team performance, rest and travel can impact teams differently depending on who they’re playing in that stretch, whether there are injuries, and more. 

It's worth noting how teams perform against the spread (ATS), but again, it depends on who plays. 

For example, let’s look at the Chicago Bulls in the 2023-24 season:

• Record with No Rest: 7-7 ATS
• Record with 1 Day Off: 23-28-1 ATS
• Record with 2-3 Days Off: 12-4 ATS
• Record with 4+ Days Off: 0-2 ATS

So, they were the best team in the NBA against the spread with 2-3 days off but didn’t cover once with four days off and were under 50% with one day off. 

Then, there are teams like the Orlando Magic that played more than 50% of their games regardless of whether they had rest or not. 

These stats are definitely worth examining, but you need real in-season data to help assess and look for trends. 

Betting Against the Public

Betting against the public is a strategy that tends to be used as a contrarian play. Sometimes, teams receive a lot of wagers for money and tickets. When that happens, some bettors may bet the other way to be contrarian, especially if the lines and odds don’t change much.

Sometimes, the line moves in the opposite direction of how the public is betting. For example, 80% of the public bet on the Celtics, but the line moves in favor of Boston’s opponent. This is called reverse line movement, and it can indicate where the “sharp bettors” are placing their money.

There are resources online to track this data, and some sites may even provide the data themselves. 

Understanding the difference between money and tickets is important as you can see which team the public thinks will win.

While betting on basketball and analyzing ways to do it is exciting and fun, we cannot encourage responsible gambling enough.

If you or someone you know are experiencing problem gambling, we strongly encourage you to contact 1-800-GAMBLER or other in-state resources.

Basketball betting sites will provide resources to help with problem gambling, like setting limits on your account for deposits, spending, and time spent on the site. Other tools, such as self-exclusion, time out, and account closure, are also available.

Please visit our responsible gambling page linked above for more information on warning signs of a gambling problem and more.