Much like other major sports, there remains a bounty of ways for punters to place their desired bets towards any basketball outing both across the United States and in various overseas competitions which gives almost any fan of the sport a chance to earn some huge winnings from various betting outlets.
The overall variety of betting sites and sportsbooks now available for all future basketball game bets allows this sport to thrive as one of the premier markets within the gambling industry, as more viable punters will often look to place their bets into play for a number of different hoop games.
With the 2021/22 NBA regular season now reaching its conclusion, meaning that the eagerly anticipated Playoffs are soon to commence, as well as the annual return of March Madness which will feature the best collegiate prospects in the country right now, it is a prime time for punters to place their bets for all the upcoming contests.
Any basketball fans that are interested in the latest betting odds for the major basketball outings and rewards can view a full listing for the various events on 888 Sport, which also include details into what names are favourites to win the games’ most prestigious individual accolades such as regular season MVP award.
Basketball’s worldwide popularity is continuing to grow, and the sport as a whole remains as one of the most unpredictable in terms of results and league finishes, as well as providing fans with a great amount of engaging and awe-inspiring action that leaves the sport as one of the best for wagering stakes on the line.
The different types of basketball bets:
US and Canadian betting fans will be quite familiar with the traditional layouts of gambling odds across numerous outlets and sportsbooks, but basketball can offer fans of the betting scene a whole new layout of various odds for any upcoming game.
Of course, money line odds are usually the most vastly used and familiar odds across all major US sportsbooks, and they apply to all forms of US and international based basketball leagues/awards.
They are displayed as being numerical figures with a negative symbol signifying the perennial favourite and a plus symbol suggesting who the underdogs are ahead of a game, with these simple yet increasingly familiar odds providing a basic understanding on which names are sighted as major draws heading into a game.
Alongside money line, the sport has also inherited other odds that are mainly used within one specific outing such as gambling odds including handicap basketball betting which looks further into the disadvantages that can be often raised with a specific team heading into a contest such as form, injuries and suspensions.
Other notable basketball betting odds include totals basketball (over/under) which allows a punter to take control of their bet by deciding whether the final score line will be over the outcome predicted by the sportsbook or will be under, with this technique often being applied to other sports and remaining just as popular as money line across various betting sites.
Live basketball betting also remains as a viable option due to it involving punters taking advantage on whether or not the star names from each team will be available to play on the hardwood come the final buzzer.
There are other basketball tailored odds including Half and Quarter, Multiples, Basketball Teaser, Futures betting and Proposition betting which are all listed odds across numerous available sportsbooks for almost major any basketball outing at various mainstream levels of play.
Famous basketball bet winnings:
Given how popular of a sport that basketball has grown to be in recent years, it comes as no surprise that there has been a great number of successful betting outcomes following on from an initial high stakes wager, with some of the world’s most famous names even earning some major winnings.
Perhaps the most prestigious name to have won big while betting on a mainstream basketball game is the undefeated boxer and former world champion Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather who placed an initial $5.9 million on the Miami Heat to defeat the Indiana Pacers back in the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals, with the Heat winning 99-76 allowing Mayweather to receive a reported $6.5 million profit as wagers were spread across nine different sportsbooks.
Mayweather has also placed bets recently for the 2015 Western Conference Finals as he earned a $200,000 profit from wagering that the Golden State Warriors would defeat the Houston Rockets, which of course they did in convincing fashion as they blew out the Rockets in a dominating 115-80 victory in Houston.
Perhaps the most fabled and inspirational betting story in basketball comes from a Greek Canadian individual called Haralabos ‘Bob’ Voulgaris who placed $70,000 on the Lakers to win the NBA Championship in the year 2000 before the season had even started, with this being all of his major income ahead of the season.
Voulgaris would have to wait a full six months but would claim his winnings as Kobe and Shaq brought him a tremendous amount of success in winnings that has since culminated in Voulgaris owning his own sportsbook and earning a reported 70%-win rate in basketball bets leaving him as the most successful NBA better of all time.