Basketball Straight Bets and Money Lines
Avid basketball betting enthusiasts would bear testimony to the fact that betting on basketball is a lot more profitable and cost-effective than football betting or any other sports betting. Basketball betting is lucrative because gamblers have a huge number of games to choose from. There are at least 100 games played out every season. The playing season is also pretty long as compared to other sports. Basketball also witnesses fewer player injuries. As such, predicting the outcome of a basketball game is probably lot simpler than football, because a large part of the outcome is dependent on the skill of players rather than luck. Basketball betting is widely popular during the professional NBA season and the NCAA college season.
In most cases, basketball betting is straight betting. This entails placing bets on the final outcome of a game, which is to say that the gambler needs to pick the winner or loser of the game. Basketball money lines do not have point spreads attached to them. They are also a subtype of straight bets because the winner is predicted ‘straight up’ rather than other finer nuances of the game. Basketball money lines are often more expensive than point spread bets. Common sense demands that more money will have to be risked for events whose probabilities are more predictable.
A straight bet tries to find the ultimate winner of the game. A basketball money line is almost always quoted on a $100 base. For example, if in the Lakers versus Bulls game the Lakers are being quoted at -200 and the Bulls are going for +110, this signals a clear bias in favor of the Lakers. Hence, because the Lakers are the favorites, gamblers will need to spend more to win the same amount of money. Here, the gambler will need to spend $200 to win $100. The underdogs in this game are the Bulls. The gambler will need to bet $100 in order to win $110.
While basketball moneylines often exclude point spreads, a straight bet can include point spreads. Both straight bets and money line bets are placed on the outcome of a single event. The difference lies in the point spreads riding on them. Basketball moneylines are more about the amount of money that needs to be hedged in order to win the bet.
Basketball Point Spread
Like football games, a large proportion of basketball bets come with predetermined point spreads. A point spread is particularly used when there is a clear winner or loser in any one game. A point spread can be viewed as a predicted gap between the relative scores of the two playing teams in a game. However, in reality the point spread is a predicted point wherein the amount of money bet on either side of the equation are more or less the same. The total amount riding on the game gets evenly split across both sides, making for a more evenly poised betting scenario.
The point spread often shifts as and when the games progresses. As such, the point spread at the start of the game could be quite different from the point spread at the end. In order to win a straight bet with a point spread, the team must win or lose within the predicted margin. For example, if the Lakers are favored to win a game against the Bulls with a 6 point spread and ultimately the Lakers win only with a 2 point margin, gamblers who bet on the Lakers could still lose the bet. Conversely, those who bet on the Bulls to lose by 6 points could win their bets if the result is better than expected.
Vigorish ie. Vig
Most bookmakers charge a small commission on the bets placed called the Vigorish or simply Vig. Some online bookmakers offer reduced Vig basketball betting. The cost of purchasing the bet is reduced to the extent of the Vig. For instance if the operating odds are -110, then the discounted Vig betting odds could read -105. Gamblers can leverage the benefit of betting $5 less to win the same amount of money.
Basketball betting is often most profitable with straight bets. Unlike other variants commonly found in basketball betting, the commission or Vig in straight bets are often low. The fact that they are quite reasonably priced entails that they are more profitable in the long run.
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