NBA odds: how to bet on the world's best basketball league

After soccer, basketball is the most followed sport in the world, and at bookmakers it is the co-protagonist of most of the predictions made. The NBA, the world's most famous professional basketball league, is the most followed league in the world for having hosted legendary games throughout its history, and for having hosted some of the most prestigious teams in the world under its umbrella.

It is important that when placing your NBA bets, you know what kind of odds each bookmaker offers, as well as the dynamics of these forecasts, the way in which the odds of their games are calculated and how to interpret the odds, among other aspects.

NBA odds: what are they like?

Let's start at the beginning: an odd is the profit obtained for each of the euros wagered on a sports bet. Therefore, NBA odds are the potential profits you can get with the sports predictions you make on an NBA game.

NBA odds evolve as time goes by and the dynamics of the teams adapt to the circumstances of each moment of the season. There are several factors that change the way that alter the odds, so it is essential to continuously monitoring the sport in order to know how they may change and how they affect your future predictions.

Essentially, there are two types of bets you can make when placing your NBA bets: risky bets, with high odds but high risk, and less risky bets, with low odds but lower risk. The lower the odds, the lower the risk and the higher the probability of success.

However, within these two extremes there is a whole range of points in between. The wide variety of odds that can be found in the NBA allows betting by assuming a staggered amount of risk, adapted to the characteristics of each user, allowing each bettor to assume the amount of risk he or she wants and finding a balanced bet to his preferences.

How to calculate NBA odds, and how to interpret them

NBA match odds are calculated by the bookmakers themselves based on two aspects: profit margin and statistics. Bookmakers are always looking for ways to increase their profit margin per bet, so the odds are usually not too high because they would incur losses. But they cannot be too low either, otherwise the bettor would not be compensated for placing his bet.

As for the odds statistics, bookmakers always take into account the dynamics of each team, as well as its situation in the standings, its points record or whether or not a team plays at home, among other factors.

In the NBA, odds can be interpreted in several ways. A very high odds should tell us that the probability of success is quite low, i.e., it is a high-risk bet. On the other hand, if the odds are too low, we can deduce that the success rate is quite high, but the reward is lower precisely because of that.

Betting on the NBA at odds with "surprise"

When we talk about "surprises", we are talking about unforeseen factors that can take place in any sport and that can mean a radical change in the trend of the match, which has a direct effect on the outcome of the game and, therefore, on our forecasts.

Basketball, like any other sport, is exposed to these surprises, as there is always a margin in sport for an improbable event to take place. Obviously, the surprise factor cannot be suppressed, so you should always take this margin of error into account when creating your predictions.

Statistics say that logic usually prevails in NBA games, although there are records of games in which a team with the higher odds (i.e., with a lower winning percentage) ends up winning. Betting on the NBA is no different than any other sport, and the surprise factor ends up influencing outcomes and bets if they make an appearance.

Experience says that betting on a regular basis on an event with high odds is not very advisable, precisely because the surprise factor is greater and can end up breaking the logic of results that is normally sought with a forecast. However, this depends on each user and the risk he wants to take with his bets. Making use of a odds comparator is usually the most advisable thing to do.