Basketball, the sport considered by many as a game for the tall since majority of players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) are an average height of 6 ft.
A few punters regularly place wagers on basketball betting with majority preferring other types of sports events, like football and despite this trend bookmakers operating in Nigeria offer bet markets on basketball with good odds markets and its easy to find value in such markets.
The game may look simple but it’s actually not, with different set of rules for both scoring and fools. If you didn’t play basketball in your youth you may not be accustomed to their rules but no worries will tell you all about basketball in the following paragraph and also give you tips on how to bet and more importantly win on basketball betting.
Basketball Betting rules and terminologies
The sport is played by two teams each playing with 5 players each, moving around the basketball court to the opponents side in order to score points by shooting through a 10 feet high basketball hoop. The game is played in a rectangular floor made of wood that is soft enough to prevent injuries and hard enough to move easy on.
The court is divided into two equal sections by a line at the middle and players are allowed to move the ball down the court towards an opponent basket by passing or dribbling. The defense tries to steal the ball, contest shots, deflect passes, and garner rebounds.
They do this by blocking passes or shots provided they don’t touch the shooter or make body contact.
Getting points-When a player makes a basket, they score two points and the ball goes to their opponents. If a basket (field goal) , is made outside of the three-point arc, then that basket is worth three points. A free throw is worth one point.
Free throws are awarded to a team according to the type of foul committed. Fouling a shooter always results in two or three free throws being awarded the shooter, depending upon where he was when he shot. If he was beyond the three-point line, then he gets three shots.
The game time- each game is divided into two halves and in the pros the halves are divided into 12 minutes long quarters. Usually the gap between halves is longer than during quarters. If a match is level at the end of normal time then players will play on the overtime period until a winner is decided.
Fouls and violations. Personal fouls or illegal contact include hitting, pushing, holding and illegal obstruction. The penalties include: Three free throws are awarded if the player is fouled while shooting for a three-point goal and they miss their shot.
Other fouls include charging is whereby an offensive player pushes throw opponents defense. Blocking illegal personal contact by a defender on a offensive player driving to the basket. Intentional foul, when a player makes unnecessary contact on a player with no intention on the ball. Violations. Travelling is taking a more than one step without dribbling the ball.
Basketball positions. There are 3 positions that a player can have in basketball ball court: Centre usually tall players are positioned here, the second position is the forward also tall players can be found here and lastly the guard comprise of shorter players in the team that are good at dribbling and passing the ball also responsible for stealing ball since their more agile.
Types of basketball betting bets
Majority of punters in Nigeria generally pick the winner since they lack knowledge of other bet types on basketball, the common types of bets include:
- Moneyline
The moneyline bet is the most popular and easiest to understand bet in basketball. In this bet, all you have to do is pick a winner in this case the winning team. It is not really complicated, if you are backing favorites your winning possibility will be lower than if you pick the underdog in most cases the favorite wins most of the time and it’s on rare occasions that an underdog wins in NBA championship.
- Spread bets
This type the bookmaker comes up with a specific number of points that they think a event will win or lose by and requires punters to pick a winner based on which team will outperform the given prediction. It’s offers some of the best odds and if you manage to get it right you are better positioned get a good payout.
- Total bets
Among the most popular bet types currently, requires punters to pick a match ending points either for both teams or a single team. It’s similar to over/under bets and therefore does not require you pick a winner to win.
- Parlays
Common term used in most popular sports but a few understand it. A parlay bet type in basketball means to combine two or more individual bets into one and place a wager. The parlay strategy allows you to double your money on a multiple bet wagers. Therefore you can win big on a small stake, the downside to this type of combination is that you should will all bets to get a payout, failure on a single bet results in loss of the whole parlay. Similar to the accumulator.
Basketball betting tips
- Be informed about basketball, understand the basics.
- Don’t always back the favorites to win since they don’t win all the time.
- Compare bookmakers to find value in odds for similar bet types. It’s time consuming but worth it at the end.
- On parlays the fewer the selections the higher your chances of winning.
- Avoid temptation of jumping into high odds without proper research.
- Look for less obvious possibilities like an underdog winning.
- Ensure you have mastered the markets you are betting on.
- Avoid being emotional when betting especially if you are a fan of a basketball team.
- Be patient and pick a moment to strike.
- Know the basketball game time schedule to avoid last minute betting.
