This sport is very popular and having a large number of matches in different leagues enables the collection of a lot of data for statistical analysis. You can place bets before the game starts or in-play. The latter is also called Live betting. It may seem difficult to a beginner because the player needs to assess the situation and teams' chances quickly and also choose the most appropriate markets to gain the most profit. There is another condition: you must watch the game live online or on the TV and react to the events instantly.
Place individual bets on basketball or combine several markets. For example, you can bet on a particular NBA or Euroleague team to win and also on the points difference over the opponent. Please keep in mind that odds change with time. The highest odds are available before the start of the game when there is not much information to predict the result. The closer to the end of the match, the lower the odds are because it becomes more and more easy to predict the outcome.
This is the simplest option. In many games even a beginner can predict the result. However, the odds on such clear-cut games are not very high. The odds usually increase when it is difficult to predict the result without having profound knowledge of the stats.
In order to win using this system, you need to estimate the expected difference in the teams' points. A handicap can be positive or negative and it is often a decimal number. The principle is simple:
positive handicap on the team's result. Let's say it's +5. So, 5 is added to the final match score. If the team wins after the handicap is added, the bet also wins. To avoid a situation where adding a handicap creates a draw (which means a refund for the customer), bookmakers often use decimal numbers, for example 5.5.
negative handicap. This number is subtracted from the result of a team or an individual player. If the team is still a winner after the handicap is subtracted, the bet wins.
Handicap betting is more complicated than betting on the winner but it can be much more profitable.
There are different types of total: match and quarter totals, teams' totals, individual players' totals. All these are great options for betting. The bookmaker offers a particular prediction – for example, for 100 points to be scored in total. You can bet on Total Over (101 points or more) or on Total Under (99 or fewer). Often the total is a decimal number, so that a refund (in the case that exactly 100 points are scored) is impossible, the bet either wins or loses.