Bloomberg (Manuela Davies/Getty Images)
Photo: Bloomberg (Manuela Davies/Getty Images)

From the industry’s humble beginnings when it first moved online, the entire online betting scene has exploded over the last decade, continuing to offer a bigger and better experience to all. Across the many sports now covered as a standard by online bookmakers, basketball betting has experienced one of the most impressive evolutions, which is probably credit to its increasing popularity.

Where you used to only be able to bet in very narrow basketball markets for only the biggest events, you can now delve into the intricacies of each game as well as bet in-play. There’s no doubt that many bettors across Canada and the rest of the world made the most of the expansive basketball betting scene in the absurdly close Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, which saw Golden State sneak a win by a single point.

Building basketball betting up from the basics

The basketball section wasn’t the staple of online betting websites that it has now become. Due to the legal state of betting across the US in years past, there wasn’t a huge need to include markets like that of the NBA in the very early days as the market mostly pertained to the European audience. But bookmaker websites quickly expanded, realizing that bigger really is better, making sure to include all of the major league sports leagues in North America.

Soccer and other more popular sports in Europe took precedence over basketball, however, and so for a long time, basketball betting was held to money line betting and a few other markets such as under-over or handicap betting. Like many markets across the world, it became hard for the online betting industry to ignore the rampant popularity increase of the NBA across the world, leading to bookmakers to explore deeper markets within the sport. Now, basketball betting is as comprehensive and in-depth as soccer betting.

Use your in-depth knowledge to make the most of modern basketball betting

One of the greatest additions to basketball betting across the best online sportsbooks is the use of in-play betting. As you will know as a basketball fan, when watching a game, you can sense when momentum is shifting. With in-play or live basketball betting, you can quickly make last-minute bets to back your hunch and capitalize on the action unfurling before your eyes. While the pre-game odds are based on the calculations of oddsmakers and the trend of betting, in-play odds give power back to the bettor, allowing you to react to in-game events and get even better odds for outcomes.

While the focus is on the NBA betting markets for much of the year, as well as the NCAAB in big games, the popularity of basketball betting is shown by the plethora of leagues covered by the best bookmaker sites. You can find outrights, match bets, and in-play markets from leagues across the world, including the women’s EuroBasket as well as the LNB Pro A, BBL, Liga ACB, and NBL.  

The most intriguing for most basketball fans, however, are the player markets put up for all NBA games and major matches across the world. Here, fans can back the number of points, assists, or rebounds that certain star players will tally as well as combined special markets of under-over on players’ totals across their stat line.

Basketball’s popularity continues to grow around the globe, and so too does the strength and depth of the basketball betting markets. Basketball fans can now enjoy a complete betting experience, putting their in-depth knowledge to the test.