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Basketball Betting Strategies: Refine the way you bet on basketball with the top basketball betting systems

Last Updated on 09/26/2024
Fact checked by: Allan Howe

When it comes to basketball, do we really need to say it? We at Ballislife have made the sport, well, our life. On top of our knowledge and passion for the sport, we’re now able to combine that into developing strategies and guides for how to win your basketball wagers.

No matter what your experience in betting is, we guarantee you’ll learn something from our strategies below.

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Best Basketball Betting Strategies Explained

When it comes to sports betting, several basketball leagues are often wagered on. Between all these leagues and levels of the sport, there are plenty of basketball betting strategies that apply to all of them.

With that, we’ve come up with several basketball sports betting strategy options that you can use right away.

The following strategies are mixed between “general” sports betting and some dedicated to basketball betting systems.

Basketball Betting Systems To Follow

When preparing to place bets on basketball, its always advisable to plan properly. Have a gander at our tips below to ready yourself for your gambling session properly.

Monitor Injury Reports

Whether you want to consider this as one of the top NBA basketball betting strategies or for other leagues, it doesn’t matter—injury reports are vital to successful basketball betting. These reports come out every day, and they notify the betting public of the health and status of the players on their rosters.

If a notable player is on the injury report, this could drastically change how you bet on the basketball game you’re considering.

Create a Bankroll Budget

To set yourself up for the most success over the long term when betting on basketball, we recommend setting a budget and incrementally wagering that budget.

For example, if you have a budget of $500, we recommend keeping your wagers between 1% and 10% or between $5 and $50. It can be tempting to wager the full $500 on a single wager you feel best about, but if you wager incrementally, you’ll be able to diversify your betting portfolio.

Check Out A Team’s Schedule

Basketball is quite a cardio-driven sport. With that, players will get tired and this could lead to out-of-the-box betting opportunities. For example, if a basketball team is in the middle of a three-day road stretch, fatigue could start to hit them. When you see this, you can find value.

Fade The Public

This is a basketball betting strategy that’s as old as sports betting itself. The concept here is to, generally speaking, bet against the grain. Some online sportsbooks and other services will show how much cash is wagered on a certain team. For example, if a team is receiving 80% of the bets, this could be an opportunity to bet on the other side because the sportsbooks provide better line value.

Odds Shopping

Sports betting is available in over half of the United States, and most states have multiple sportsbooks. With odds shopping, you compare betting odds and lines between multiple sites to see what provides the most value. For example, let’s say you’re checking out DraftKings Sportsbook and want to bet on the Chicago Bulls moneyline at +120. From here, you can look at FanDuel, BetRivers, and SI Sportsbook to see if they provide better line value. Let’s say that BetRivers is +130—you’ve now found more value.

Odds shopping can also be used as a great over/under betting strategy when you’re looking for a lower point total if you want to bet the over or a higher point total if you want to bet the under.

Hedging: The Live Betting Strategy In Basketball

Hedging is a basketball sports betting strategy to limit your betting losses, break even, or perhaps still turn a profit. This is a fantastic live betting strategy because it can potentially offset your pregame wagers.

For example, if you bet $100 on the Kentucky Wildcats point spread at -5.5 with -110 odds. Still, they’re winning by just two points heading into the fourth quarter; you could implement this in-play basketball strategy to bet the other side to hedge your original wager. This now turns into a basketball fourth-quarter betting strategy too as the game is almost over.

In this example, with Kentucky up by two, perhaps the moneyline for the other team is +150. Well, you could wager $76.36 to have a total bet amount of $176.36, but with the odds, you wagered on, you have a hedge profit of $14.55.

It’s not the original profit you were hoping for, but thanks to this live-betting basketball strategy, you’ve put yourself in a position to win money either way if either bet you make succeeds.

Odd/Even Betting Strategy For Basketball

Not only is this a strategy you can deploy, but it’s also a bet type. Basically, you’ll wager on whether or not the final score will finish as an odd or even number. This is somewhat of a “50/50” bet in that the final score is, of course, going to finish one way or the other.

Focus On One Team

If you’re a massive fan of a single team, it might be best to, at first, focus on one team to bet on. With your knowledge of the team, it provides you with an innate advantage as opposed to trying to predict how a team you’re less familiar with will do.

Track Results

Whether you want to use the sportsbook tracking system or your own system, it’s important to keep track of your wins, losses, money received, and money lost. Ignoring this could result in you losing more money than you’d like and if you keep track of it, you’ll naturally be a bit more selective with your wagers and how much you want to bet.

Basketball Betting Guide By State

Sports betting became possible in May 2018 and since then, more than half of the country has had some form of sports betting, whether online or retail only. For online sports betting, it’s still more than half of the country.

Below is a table of a handful of these states and the age you must be to wager.

State Age to Bet
Colorado Sportsbooks 21
Illinois Sportsbooks 21
Indiana Sportsbooks 21
Iowa Sportsbooks 21
Michigan Sportsbooks 21
Nevada Sportsbooks 21
New Hampshire Sportsbooks 18
New Jersey Sportsbooks 21
New York Sportsbooks 21
Oregon Sportsbooks 21
Pennsylvania Sportsbooks 21
Rhode Island Sportsbooks 18
Tennessee Sportsbooks 21
Virginia Sportsbooks 21
Washington, DC Sportsbooks 18
West Virginia Sportsbooks 21
Wyoming Sportsbooks 18

College Basketball Betting Guide By State

While sports betting is available online in more than half of the United States, there are limits on what you can wager on from the college ranks. This directly impacts basketball betting, considering the prominence of the sport on that level.

  • New Jersey: You won’t be able to bet on teams located in the state.
  • Virginia: You cannot bet on teams in the state, props, or live betting.
  • Illinois: You cannot bet on props and teams from the state.
  • New York: You cannot bet on teams or games in the state.
  • Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia: You cannot bet on props such as NBA player props.

Getting Started Betting On Basketball Betting Systems

  • We have plenty of online sportsbook reviews. Check them out to see which one(s) you want to play at.
  • Head over to their site or mobile app.
  • Create an account.
  • Make a deposit.
  • Head back to the homepage and explore the various basketball betting pages. Most sites will have a “basketball” section in which you can sort through the various leagues that are available to bet on.
  • Find what you want to bet on, add it to the betslip, place your wager, and wait for the results.

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Conclusion on Basketball Betting Strategies

Regardless of what type of basketball you want to bet on, there are always more strategies you can use to further your progress and success. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a brand-new player, we hope that any of the betting on basketball strategy methods we’ve listed above will help you.

Additionally, we covered some legal parameters, which will set you up for what markets to research, especially if you like college basketball.

If you’re new, follow our “Getting Started” guide above to start betting on basketball right now.

Well, it’s time to make some money. Save this page, head over to a sportsbook, and start betting on basketball.

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Allan Howe
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