NBA basketball games are exciting, nail biting affairs that often come down to the final basket, especially if you are betting the spread.  The best way to bet on the top basketball league in the world is at an online sportsbook.  Online sportsbooks offer the best odds, most variety, biggest bonuses and overall best NBA betting experience.

Best Sportsbooks For Betting On The NBA

How To Bet On The NBA Online

NBA Betting Online

It couldn’t be easier to start betting on NBA games online.  Here is a simple 3 step guide you can follow to get your bets placed on the NBA right away:

Bet On NBA – Step By Step Guide

  1. Sign up at one of our recommended NBA betting sites listed above. Creating an account is easy and it will only take a minute after you click on any of the above sportsbooks.  You will only have to provide very basic information about yourself and verify your email address.
  2. Deposit.  After your account has been created you will need to make a deposit in order to have some funds to bet on NBA games with.  Credit card deposits are the most popular method, but each of our recommended sportsbooks has a wide variety of deposit/withdrawal options to choose from including e-wallets, Bitcoin, bank transfers, and more.
  3. Place Your Bets. Now that you have funds online you are ready to bet!  Head over to the NBA betting section and bet on the NBA games of your choice.

Types Of NBA Bets

Point Spread

Spread betting is the most popular type of NBA wager.  With spread betting the favorite “gives” points to the underdog and this is called the spread.  For a bet on the favorite to pay out the favored team must win by more than the spread, while a bet on the underdog is a winner if the underdog either wins or keeps the game closer than the spread amount.  A better example of this can be found on the bet on basketball page.

Money Line (To Win)

The NBA is a very competitive league and for this reason moneyline bets are also very popular.  With a moneyline bet you simply wager on which team will win the game outright.  The odds for each team vary depending on the perceived likelihood of the team winning the game.

Total (Over/Under)

Total points betting is the other popular type of NBA bet.  The oddsmaker sets a total number of points to be scored in the game and you can wager on whether there will be more than or fewer than that number of points scored.

Here’s a screenshot from BetOnline.ag showing the spread, money line and total odds for a Bulls vs Heat game:

Other NBA Bets

Some other fun NBA bets include futures wagers or prop bets.  The most common future wager every season is betting on which NBA team will win the NBA Championship that year.  The odds vary throughout the season depending on how teams are performing.  Prop bets are also a lot of fun, especially in big playoff games, and they include anything that is not directly affected by the final outcome of the game.  Some examples of prop bets include: which team scores the first basket or whether Zion Williamson scores over or under 25 points in the game.

NBA Betting Tips

Here are a few tips you can use to help you win cash betting on NBA games online.

  • Take Back-to-Back Games Into Account – Playing two nights in a row affects NBA  teams a great deal.  The winning percentages of teams playing on the second of back to back nights is significantly lower than normal.
  • Matchups – There are favorable match ups in the NBA between certain teams and if you follow the teams closely you should be aware of them.
  • Injuries – The NBA is very much a “superstar” league seeing as there are only 5 players on the floor at a time and these players play the majority of the game.  This results in injuries to key players being much more significant than in other team sports.  Pay attention to which players are down with injuries and look at how well their replacement could potentially play.  CBS Sports has a great injury report that I suggest you check out.

Check out our general tips page for some more basic tips that you can apply to betting on any sport.

Bet On NBA Teams

The NBA is home to many storied franchises with massive fan bases. I’ve created dedicated pages outlining how to bet on some of the more popular NBA teams:

For more NBA specific news such as scores, injuries, team trends and more visit NBA.com.