Basketball is one of the most popular sports on the planet, having been played in literally every corner of the world. Still, this sport gets the biggest followership in the United States, the country in which it was born. There are some basketball events that attract the attention of tens of millions TV viewers in America, with 2016 NBA Finals Game 7 setting the record with 44.5 million viewers.
Not only do fans love watching basketball, but they also love betting on this sport! And the number of bettors is going to increase drastically in the foreseeable future as this form of betting is no longer illegal in the United States.
If you’re a newbie in the world of online gambling, you might find it difficult to find a place where to bet basketball. If that’s what’s worrying you, here are a couple of things you ought to pay attention to when looking for the best NBA sportsbook.
NBA Betting Markets
If a sportsbook has basketball events in its offer, it allows you to bet on standard markets such as the outcome of the game, with or without extra time included. The number of points (Over/Under) markets should also be in the offer, as well as point spread.
But, for some bettors, that’s just not enough. Some players would like to make the things more interesting by betting on some more exotic markets, such as those related to the performances of individual players.
Player Betting
If you’re a basketball fan, you probably have some favorite NBA players. And you might want to back them by betting they’re going to score a certain number of points. For instance, you may want to bet James Harden will score over 60 points in one game, same as he did against the Knicks last season. Or, there might be some players who get on your nerves and you want to bet they will score less than expected.
If so, your ideal sportsbook needs to have such markets in its offer. A great thing is that many of them do, together with many other player markets. We’re talking things like the number of fouls committed, the number of 3-point goals, the number of minutes played, and so on.
Live Betting
Basketball is one of those sports where plenty of points are scored all the time. And when it comes to NBA matches, a game almost never ends with under 100 points in total. Actually, such a thing hasn’t happened yet in the 20th century!
And that means that the score changes all the time, which makes basketball games ideal for live betting. If the favorite is losing in the first quarter, the odds on them are bound to go up. And if you’re allowed to bet live, you can get fantastic value from it. Of course, under the condition that the favorite actually turns the game around to their favor.
Futures
Instead of betting on the winner of an individual event, you might want to wager your money on the winner of the tournament. The most popular and best NBA betting sites will allow you to bet on which team is going to win the NBA Championship ring at the end of the season and similar markets.
Apart from futures bets involving teams, there are also those focused on individual players. You can put your money on the player who’s going to get crowned the MVP of the Championship, the Rookie of the Year, and so on.
Other Leagues and Competitions
Even though the NBA is the most popular basketball competition, it isn’t the only one. Only in America, there are a few other competitions loved by fans and bettors alike. We’re talking about NCAAB (college basketball) and WNBA (women’s basketball).
Apart from basketball competitions taking place in the United States, there are many other championships around the world that you might be interested in. In Europe, for instance, there’s the EuroLeague, a competition featuring the best basketball teams from the Old Continent.
This competition regularly features such giants as Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow, and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Then, there are also competitions involving national basketball teams. The FIBA World Cup is definitely one of them and so are the Olympic Games.
Obviously, there are plenty of interesting basketball events out there and you surely want to be able to bet on them. But only the best sportsbooks will provide you such the luxury to place bets on any basketball match you want.
Basketball Betting Bonuses & Promotions
If there’s some major event happening soon, sportsbooks might decide to get involved. And the way they’ll do it is by offering some exclusive bonuses the bettors who decide to wager their money on that event. For instance, you might get a bonus on your wager if you bet on a game from the NBA Play-Offs.
Plus, there might be some promotions in which you get a chance to win tickets to an NBA game. You might even get a chance to meet some of your idols. And there could also be some consolation prizes like jerseys, hats, etc.
License is the Key
Since 2018, sports betting is no more illegal in the United States. But, so far, not many states have actually finalized the process of legalization. Only a handful of states have passed laws that make sports betting legal, while the number of states where online betting is legal is even smaller.
Some Americans just can’t wait for online sportsbooks to get licensed in their states, so they’re using offshore books to place basketball bets. According to existing US laws, you can’t get in trouble for doing so unless your state has explicitly banned betting.
However, this doesn’t mean you should pick just any offshore book. The thing is that offshore bookies have nothing to do with American laws, so if a problem occurs, your country won’t have your back. You will have to rely on the gambling authorities of the island nation where the license is issued, e.g. Curacao, Gibraltar, Malta, etc.
If this makes you think you shouldn’t care about a sportsbook’s license, we beg to differ. It’s extremely important to make sure you’re betting at licensed books. Otherwise, you could get in trouble at home. The US laws treat betting at unlicensed books as illegal gambling. And that’s a serious offense. So, our advice is to play it safe and stick only to those sportsbooks with a legit license.
