Basketball Betting: Amateur level on up by Shirley Durling

Are you a fan of hoops? Every year, there are three big events that attract huge numbers of gamblers to sports book all over the world. The biggest, and this should come as no surprise, is the Super Bowl. The next most popular event in terms of bets wagered, though, is not on professional sports at all; it is on the March Madness tournament put on every year by the college basketball association.

March Madness, from beginning to end, is by far the most popular amateur sporting event to receive bets on the continent. In fact, many Las Vegas bookmakers hire extra staff and prepare months ahead of time just to handle all of the extra traffic that goes through their shops during the weeks of the tournament!

March Madness is of course just one example of the amount of bets placed on basketball games each year in America. From the amateur level on up, basketball is as popular to wager on as any other sport in the world, and more popular than some. We're going to discuss some basketball betting basics in this article, tips that will help you out no matter what level you are betting on.

The spread rules:

Basketball, like football, is a game where there can be a large discrepancy on the scoreboard, although really not many extra baskets have taken place. That's because most successful shots in basketball will result in at least two points, and many in three, so the score is tipped one way quickly.

Just as in football, this means that betting the spread is the most popular option for those who are betting on basketball. In sports betting, the spread is the number of points a team must win by in order for those who wagered on them to collect money one. In other words, it is no good to just pick the team which wins; that team has to win by a certain amount.

The spread in basketball is usually only a basket or two, so between 2 and 4 points. That actually makes things a little more difficult for the bettor, as it almost comes out to a straight out prediction of the game results, but with less money to win if you are accurate. Here is the basic format of basketball lines offered by the sports books:

Orlando Magic -1.5
Atlanta Hawks 192

In this example, the Magic are the favorites. They must win the game by at least two points in order for those betting the spread to win the money. Sports betting lines are based on amounts of $100; in this case, if the Magic lose or win by less than two points, those betting on the underdog Hawks will win $192 for every $100 bet.

Other types of sports bets in basketball:

There are several other types of bets that can be placed on a basketball game at any level. The money line is the next most popular. This is a bet where the wager is placed on a straight up winner of the game. It's expressed like this:

Toronto Raptors +220
New York Knicks -110

In order to win $100 on the favored Knicks, a person must bet $110. If the bettor thinks the underdog Raptors can win, on the other hand, then she or he stands to earn $220 for every $100 bet. Note: A line this size means that the Raptors are heavy underdogs, as books usually keep the line much tighter than this.