Flow State Script Pixel

How to Bet on the NBA

The NBA is by far the most popular basketball competition in the world and millions of fans are watching every game. A lot of them try their luck with betting on the NBA, too, and it’s only natural that most online sportsbooks offer odds on the league.

If you want to find the best among them and make money from NBA betting, we are here to help. Our team has collected all the resources you need to bet on the NBA, including a list of top NBA betting sites, general information about the league, strategy tips, and more.

We also have the latest NBA betting odds, as well as a constant flow of predictions and picks prepared by our pro basketball betting experts.

How We Rate

Gambling safety and security

Safety & Security

You should be able to gamble online without fear. So we only recommend licensed sites that use the latest security and encryption techniques.

Gambling bonuses and promotions

Bonuses

Maximize your bankroll with fantastic bonuses. Our recommended sites offer valuable bonuses with fair terms and conditions, including manageable wagering requirements.

Casino games

Games & Betting

The best sites have the best wagering options. That’s why you will find extensive games and betting opportunities on our recommended sites.

Gambling banking methods

Banking

Getting your money to and from your account shouldn’t be a hassle. We only recommend sites with a variety of convenient banking methods, including cryptocurrency and e-wallets.

If you want to head straight to all the latest on betting on the 2021 NBA, you can use the following links.

If you are looking for more general information and tips about NBA betting, we cover the following topics.

Latest NBA Odds

We constantly monitor all the NBA betting lines and you can find the latest odds here. We update the main futures markets, so you can quickly take a look and see what’s available.

NBA Finals Odds 2021

Let’s start with the NBA Finals odds for 2021. The leading sportsbooks offer the following odds for the NBA Championship this season.

Team Odds
Los Angeles Lakers +330
Los Angeles Clippers +550
Golden State Warriors +600
Milwaukee Bucks +800
Brooklyn Nets +1200
Miami Heat +1400
Boston Celtics +1600
Denver Nuggets +1800
Toronto Raptors +2000
Philadelphia 76ers +2500
Dallas Mavericks +2800
Houston Rockets +2800
Portland Trail Blazers +4000
Utah Jazz +4000
New Orleans Pelicans +6000
Phoenix Suns +6600
Oklahoma City Thunder +8000
Chicago Bulls +10000
Memphis Grizzlies +10000
Atlanta Hawks +12500
Indiana Pacers +12500
Washington Wizards +15000
Minnesota Timberwolves +20000
Sacramento Kings +25000
San Antonio Spurs +25000
Orlando Magic +30000
Charlotte Hornets +50000
Cleveland Cavaliers +50000
Detroit Pistons +50000
New York Knicks +50000

CLICK TO SEE MORE

NBA Conference Winner Odds 2021

Here are the latest NBA betting odds for the winner of the Eastern Conference.

Team Odds
Milwaukee Bucks +375
Boston Celtics +425
Brooklyn Nets +425
Miami Heat +450
Toronto Raptors +750
Philadelphia 76ers +1200
Atlanta Hawks +3300
Chicago Bulls +3300
Indiana Pacers +3300
Washington Wizards +3300
Orlando Magic +10000
Cleveland Cavaliers +12500
Detroit Pistons +12500
New York Knicks +12500
Charlotte Hornets +17500

Here are the NBA odds for the Western conference.

Team Odds
Los Angeles Lakers +275
Los Angeles Clippers +375
Golden State Warriors +400
Denver Nuggets +1200
Houston Rockets +1200
Dallas Mavericks +1400
Portland Trail Blazers +1800
New Orleans Pelicans +2500
Utah Jazz +2500
Phoenix Suns +3300
Oklahoma Thunder +4000
Memphis Grizzlies +5000
Minnesota Timberwolves +12500
Sacramento Kings +12500
San Antonio Spurs +12500

Check out the following page for more of the latest NBA betting odds and lines.

NBA Predictions for 2021

We know that some of you simply want to get help finding the best NBA bets right now. That’s where our basketball betting experts come into play. They follow the league closely, constantly check all news around the league, and watch how the teams are developing.

That allows them to make solid predictions on how any given season is likely to play out. Here are the current NBA predictions for conference winners in 2021, along with the ultimate NBA Championship winners.

NBA Championship Eastern Conference Winner Western Conference Winner
Noah Davis LA Lakers Brooklyn Nets Brooklyn Nets
Michael Wynn LA Clippers Boston Celtics LA Clippers
Jerry Summer Boston Celtics Boston Celtics Denver Nuggets

If you want the reasoning behind each of the predictions above or more predictions for various futures and props, feel free to take a look at our NBA betting predictions page.

Betting on the 2021 NBA Playoffs

There’s a huge difference between betting on the NBA regular season and betting on the NBA playoffs. Once the post-season is here, the whole atmosphere changes and that affects every single game. We have a guide to NBA playoffs betting that can help you understand the main differences and how to exploit them.

It also features the latest NBA playoff odds and updates on everything that’s going on. The page is always up to date, so you should check it out if you want to bet on the NBA playoffs.

Betting on the 2021 NBA Finals

The NBA season culminates in the Finals that always draw the attention of millions of people from all over the globe. Even casual fans that usually don’t bet on the NBA for real money try their luck when we’re down to the best teams from the East and the West.

The top sports betting sites gladly offer tons of markets for every game, as well as various exciting NBA props. If you add the exclusive bonuses and promotions, it’s easy to see why the NBA Finals represent an excellent opportunity from a betting perspective.

If you want to make the best of it, we encourage you to check our page on NBA Finals betting. It features the latest odds and news, predictions by our experts, as well as advice for betting on the NBA Finals that can help you improve your results.

How to Bet on the NBA Online

If you are serious about betting real money on the NBA, you should do it on the internet. The top online betting sites offer much better conditions that the brick-and-mortar sportsbooks. You can consistently get higher odds, better NBA sports betting bonuses and promotions, and more markets.

Not to mention that all of that is available from the comfort of your home. If you want to try NBA online betting but you don’t have any experience, we are here to help with all the information you need. The key here is to start by finding a trusted sportsbook, the rest is easy, which leads us to our first piece of advice.

Top NBA Betting Sites

The sportsbooks above have proven that they are the best for NBA betting online for numerous reasons. For a start, they all operate under a legitimate gambling license and protect their customers from hackers and other risks.

On top of that, you will find some of the highest NBA betting odds and loads of bonuses and promotions that bring extra value to every fan of basketball gambling. There are other advantages such as fast payouts and plenty of options for depositing your cash.

If you want to know more about the top NBA betting sites and our ranking process, we recommend you visit the following page.

NBA Betting Apps

Most online sportsbooks that offer online NBA gambling have a mobile version, too. Some have developed native apps for different platforms such as iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. In other cases, you can simply open their mobile-responsive site and enjoy their services.

The point is, you can comfortably bet on NBA games on the go or try one of their many futures and props. If that sounds tempting, feel free to take a look at our selection of the best NBA gambling apps.

NBA Betting Bonuses

 If you want to make real money by betting on the NBA online, utilizing the bonuses and promotions provided by most sportsbooks will help. All of our top-rated sites for gambling on the NBA offer a large welcome package for every new customer and that’s an excellent start.

Once you’re done with the opening deal, you can usually find many other ways to earn cash. There are reload bonuses, enhanced odds, various NBA contests, and exclusive promos for selected NBA games from the playoffs.

Don’t hesitate to squeeze all the extra value you can get. That could be the difference between winning and losing in the long run.

If you feel ready to bet on the NBA online, just follow the simple steps below and you’ll find action before you know it.

Pick an NBA Betting Site

We strongly recommend you to join one of our trusted betting sites, as they offer the best terms for betting on the NBA. If you prefer to conduct your own research, make sure to stick to safe online bookmakers with a proper license.

Open a New Account

Once you pick a site, simply open a new account. The process takes a few minutes and requires you to fill in information such as your name, date of birth, and country of residence. You should also choose a password and username that serve as your login credentials later on.

Deposit Money

The next step is to pick a suitable banking method for your first real money deposit. The leading NBA betting sites work with various proven providers such as credit and debit cards, e-wallets like PayPal and Skrill, Bitcoin, wire transfers, and more. When you select the one you like, just add the cash, and don’t forget to claim your NBA welcome bonus!

Start Betting

At this point, nothing stops you from betting on the NBA for real money. Just explore the latest odds and place your wagers. If you are successful and would like to withdraw your winnings, you can do that using the same method you deposited with. If that’s not possible, the sportsbook will offer other alternatives.

NBA Betting Basics

You now know how to bet on the NBA on the internet, but that doesn’t mean you need to jump straight into the action. That’s one of the most certain ways to lose your cash if you are a beginner. We can help you avoid the most common NBA betting mistakes by dissecting the basics here.

Here are the topics that we cover.

  • How NBA odds and lines Work
  • Types of NBA wagers
  • How to pick your NBA bets

We can help you learn more about all of the NBA betting basics with the information you can find below.

Understanding NBA Odds and Lines

If you are new to NBA basketball betting, you probably should start by learning how the NBA odds work. Simply put, they represent the profit you are going to get if your wager is successful.

If you see a positive price like +100, for example, it represents the winnings for a bet of $100. In other words, your overall return for is $200 that include your initial wager and your profit.

If the odds are negative, that’s the amount you have to bet to win $100. For example, -150 means that you need to place $150 for a total return of $250 which equals a pure profit of $100.

The following visual example of how NBA betting odds work will make it even easier to understand.

  • Bet $100 on a price of +100: Get $200 if you win
  • Bet $150 on a price of -150: Get $250 if you win

Here’s how the main markets for a random NBA game would look like.

  • Utah Jazz (moneyline); -110
  • New Orleans Pelicans (moneyline); -110
  • Utah Jazz (+1.5); +100
  • New Orleans Pelicans (-1.5); -120
  • Over 221.5 points; -110
  • Under 221.5 points; -110

As you can see, the NBA gambling sites clearly display the outcome you can back and the odds you could get. The same principle applies to futures such as the following example.

  • Utah Jazz over 42.5 wins; -110
  • Utah Jazz under 42.5 wins; -110

It’s important to understand that the NBA odds also represent probabilities for the outcome to become true. The higher the potential return, the lower the probability to win. If you want to learn more about that and see how the fractional or decimal odds work, the following page delivers.

NBA Betting Options

There are plenty of NBA betting options available online and we recommend you consider them all. Specializing in one or two areas brings a lot of benefits, but you should always keep your eyes open for more opportunities to find value.

The most popular way to bet on the NBA would be to go after the individual games from the league. There are over a thousand of them in the regular season alone, so you will have plenty of chances to make some money betting on NBA games.

The best NBA betting sites offer various markets, but three of them are available everywhere.

NBA moneylines
The simple moneyline market allows you to back any of the teams to win the game and that’s it.
NBA spreads
A sportsbook provides an NBA point spread for each game, so the underdog starts with a handicap. You can either go for the favorite to cover it or back the underdog.
NBA totals
A sportsbook sets a line for the total points scored by both sides, let’s say 215.5 points. You can then place a wager on whether the teams will go over that line or stay underneath. The winner of the NBA game doesn’t matter for this one, only the total number of points scored by both sides.

Learning how to bet on NBA games successfully is not an easy task. We have a page that can help you win money, as well as a guide to the totals market. We recommend you check both for more details.

Another way to bet on the NBA would be to go after futures. That’s a group of markets related to long-term events. Many people ignore them because you have to wait for your wager to be settled, but that’s a mistake. You can often discover profitable wagers in the NBA futures and outright markets.

Here are several examples of such betting options that are offered by most NBA gambling sites.

  • NBA Championship Winner
  • Eastern/Western Conference Winner
  • Regular Season MVP
  • Rookie of the Year

There are futures for almost every award or major event in the NBA. You can learn more about them and also explore some betting tips for NBA futures on our dedicated page.

The final large group of NBA betting markets that deserve your attention are props. NBA prop bets can include all sorts of options, both for single games and for the duration of the season. For example, you could bet on the number of points scored by a selected player in a single NBA fixture or go for the average points per game by any athlete for the regular season.

There are also numerous prop bets related to trades, the draft, the NBA Finals, and everything important around the competition. We have a special guide to betting NBA props that features plenty of tips and more on the topic, so make sure to check it out.

How to Pick Your NBA Bets

Knowing how to bet on the NBA and what wagers you can place just the beginning. Learning how to carefully select the best NBA bets is the key to success. There are several factors that you should consider when picking your NBA wagers.

  • Bet for value instead of trying to guess
  • Stay selective with your NBA wagers
  • Don’t follow the hype, conduct your own research
  • Apply at least some level of data analysis
  • Follow strict bankroll management

If you want to learn more about that, you can explore our NBA betting tips further. The following page is where we provide the fundamentals required to make money from betting on the NBA and they apply to pretty much every type of wager.

Live NBA Betting

All of our top-ranked NBA sportsbooks also offer the opportunity to bet on the NBA in-play. That means you can place your wagers while the games are running. Many successful bettors prefer in-play action because the bookies often make more mistakes.

You can combine the numbers and the traditional ways to prepare with the eye test which could be a powerful tool in the hands of any person with a good understanding of basketball and the NBA, in particular.

The live betting markets for the NBA include both traditional and unique wagers. You can go after moneylines, spreads, and various totals, but also interesting options like backing a team to score 10 points first and several other unusual markets.

Engaging in NBA live betting can be highly profitable, but it involves some risks and we mostly recommend it to advanced players. Our guide to in-play NBA wagers can help you get there fast, so don’t hesitate to check it out.

More NBA Betting Resources

We promised you to provide you with even more useful NBA betting advice and resources and it’s time to deliver. Our section dedicated to the most popular basketball competition in the world covers all aspects of betting on the NBA for real money for those of you willing to read and learn.

Going through all these pages might be time-consuming, but they provide precious knowledge that can improve your results.

NBA Team Guides

If you want to make money betting on the NBA, you should know every single franchise well. You have to understand how strong the team is, what are the star players, and if there’s enough depth in the roster.

We cover all those in our dedicated NBA team guides that also feature the latest odds for markets related to the franchise, updates, and our predictions. Make sure to check them out every now and then if you lose track of any NBA team.

Eastern Conference Western Conference
Atlanta Hawks Dallas Mavericks
Boston Celtics Denver Nuggets
Brooklyn Nets Golden State Warriors
Charlotte Hornets Houston Rockets
Chicago Bulls Los Angeles Clippers
Cleveland Cavaliers Los Angeles Lakers
Detroit Pistons Memphis Grizzlies
Indiana Pacers Minnesota Timberwolves
Miami Heat New Orleans Pelicans
Milwaukee Bucks Oklahoma City Thunder
New York Knicks Phoenix Suns
Orlando Magic Portland Trail Blazers
Philadelphia 76ers Sacramento Kings
Toronto Raptors San Antonio Spurs
Washington Wizards Utah Jazz

NBA Draft Betting

The draft is one of the most exciting events of the NBA season and it defines the future of the league. Most people ignore the betting opportunities that come along, but we are always on the hunt. There are often interesting NBA prop bets related to the draft and the order of the players involved in it.

We have a special page that’s dedicated to the wagers that you could find around the draft. It features both general tips on how to bet on them and our latest NBA betting picks, once the markets are available. You will also find an explanation of how the whole draft process and the lottery work.

NBA Power Rankings

Our NBA gambling experts follow the league and every single team constantly, even during the off-season. That allowed us to develop our own NBA power rankings that could serve as an excellent reference point for your wagers.

We keep the standings updated, so feel free to explore our latest NBA power rankings below.

NBA Free Agency Betting

The free agency window is one of the most dynamic periods of the year from an NBA perspective. We often see some of the biggest stars in the league switch teams and there are plenty of minor deals as well.

It’s a wild ride and the best NBA betting sites provide various props related to many of the players who enter free agency. Learn how to make the best of them from our special page on the topic.

Our NBA Blog

Another useful resource for NBA betting predictions, analysis, and picks is our blog. It provides a constant flow of posts designed to help you make real money by betting on the league. Some of the articles there feature general instructions, while others are focused on specific games and events.

Here are the latest additions.

General Sports Betting Advice and Strategy

If you have no experience with sports betting in general, you should start with the fundamentals before moving on to the specifics of the NBA. The best way to do that would be to visit our guide to sports betting.

It covers all the basics required to build a winning strategy and the vast majority of them are applicable to the NBA as well.

NBA Betting FAQ

Is betting on the NBA online legal?
AThat depends on your country’s laws. Most regions allow online gambling one way or another, so betting on the NBA is legal. There are exceptions, though, and our section on gambling laws can help you understand the situation in your country.
Is NBA betting on the internet safe?
AIf you stick to our trusted NBA betting sites, you should be fine. There are other trustworthy sportsbooks on the web and the easiest way to recognize them is to check their online gambling license.
Can I make money by betting on the NBA?
AMost people who bet on the NBA lose money in the long run, but it’s possible to win real cash. It takes time and dedication, so don’t expect it to come easy.
What does “betting against the spread” mean in the NBA?
AYou will often find this term on the web and it simply means that you are backing the underdog in the NBA point spreads market.
What happens with my NBA totals bet if the game goes to extra time?
AThe terms of most betting sites state that if the NBA game goes in extra time, the points scored there count towards the total.
What happens with my NBA moneyline wager if the game is tied?
AIn most online sportsbooks, the moneyline NBA market includes extra time, so there’s no scenario in which the game ends in a draw.
What is the best strategy for NBA betting?
AThere’s no such thing as a single strategy that works universally. You have to find your own system based on various factors like statistical analysis, the latest news and trends, and other NBA aspects that affect the outcomes.
Does home court advantage matter in the NBA?
AThe short answer is yes, the home teams have a higher win percentage in the NBA and you shouldn’t ignore that. The difference is slowly diminishing based on the latest data, but the home court advantage is still significant.
Kevin Roberts
Kevin Roberts Administrator
Kevin Roberts, previously published under the pseudonym Noah Davis, is one of the more diverse writers at GamblingSites.com. Like many of his colleagues, he's a huge fan of both football and basketball. But he also writes about box office records, TV show prop bets, DFS, and all kinds of other subjects. When it comes to the NFL, Kevin's favorite team is the Green Bay Packers. He enjoys cheering them on with his wife and daughter. More Articles by Kevin