Photo: Calgary Crush

Now more than ever, it’s important to find hobbies that can safely be enjoyed indoors and without necessarily socialising. Although many places around the world are emerging from coronavirus lockdowns, the possibility of local lockdowns – imposing certain restrictions on areas depending on the severity of their outbreaks – is looking more and more likely. With that in mind, there’s never been a better time to pursue a hobby like online casino gaming or NBA betting, in which you place wagers on the outcome of games or the performance of certain players. The two have lots in common, so if you’ve ever been an online casino gaming aficionado, you’ll already know the basics of NBA betting. Here are some of the transferable skills and concepts between online casino gaming and NBA betting.

You need to find a good platform

There are countless platforms online offering both casino gaming and sports betting – including NBA betting – to players. In order to make a profit on NBA betting and casino gaming alike, you must have a thorough knowledge of where the best places to play are. Thankfully, there are lists out there that consolidate all the best casinos into a single place. Let’s say you’re looking for casinos that offer the iDEAL payment method. That’s where a list collecting the best platforms offering this service, like this list according to idealecasinos.nl, would be invaluable. The same is true of NBA betting; payment methods, payout amounts, and bet diversity are all crucial factors, so knowing where to bet is just as important as knowing how.

Knowledge is important

You won’t get very far as an NBA bettor or an online casino player without having deep knowledge of your chosen subject. While it isn’t necessarily absolutely essential to know everything about the NBA or about basketball before you bet on it, knowing the status of players and of the industry as a whole will prove infinitely advantageous when you’re placing those bets. If you’re a complete NBA beginner, it pays to at the very least brush up on the absolute basics before embarking on any kind of betting endeavour. Keeping track of individual plays and developments within games will be a lot harder if you don’t know what’s going on, just like not knowing how slots pay out or what poker hands mean would make casino gaming difficult.

You should develop a strategy

To a certain extent, of course, all gambling is dictated by luck. However, there’s a reason that some are able to make gambling a profession; it’s because they realise that not every decision and opportunity to make a profit is out of their control. That’s why developing a strategy is paramount to any level of success when it comes to both online casino gaming and NBA betting. Gather knowledge by reading up on the NBA, listening to NBA podcasts, and watching as many games as possible, then identify trends and opportunities within that particular season. Are any players looking strong? Do certain teams perform better at home than away? Using these observations, you can start to develop your own betting strategy that will work for you consistently. Remember – you’re not aiming for a 100% victory rate, but more than 50% means it’s probably working. 

A bankroll is essential

In regular life, it’s recommended by financial experts that you budget for every aspect of your spending so that you can keep track of it. The same holds true in both online casino gaming and NBA betting. Not only should you have a “master bankroll” – a maximum amount you never exceed when betting – but you should also stipulate a smaller series of individual maximum bet amounts. Making sure to bet in micro terms rather than macro terms will keep your losses small and your winning streaks going. Trouble usually begins for your bank balance when you forget how much you’ve set aside for gambling and shirk your budget, so make sure that your bankroll is always at the forefront of your mind when you’re betting.

Some risk will always be involved

While it’s possible to develop a reliable strategy for both online casino gaming and NBA betting, you’ll always incur some level of risk by placing bets on both. That’s because, as we said earlier, gambling is inherently based on probability rather than pure human skill and strategy. You need to be aware that there is a possibility of losing money even if you do everything according to a rigid, dependable strategy. However, in this regard, it’s not too dissimilar to investing, which also contains a significant degree of risk. It’s not about whether the risk is there; it’s about how you manage and deal with the risk in order to emerge victorious anyway. That’s the difference between successful gamblers and those who don’t manage to make any profit.

Both are fun

Perhaps most crucially, both online casino gaming and NBA betting can be incredibly enjoyable. There’s nothing quite like the rush of placing a bet; even if you lose, there’s an endorphin rush associated with the simple act of gambling in itself. Similarly, in NBA betting, even a losing bet can feel like a success if you know your strategy was implemented well and you just got unlucky. The enjoyment is doubled if you’re already an NBA aficionado; after all, what could be better than not only enjoying your favourite sport but also managing to make a profit from that enjoyment? If gambling is no longer an enjoyable pastime for you, that’s when you know it’s time to stop, but for most people, both NBA betting and casino gaming are addictive in the best possible sense.