Basketball Betting
When the long New England winters threatened to attrit his students’ physical fitness, the Canadian physical education professor James Naismith decided to nail a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track and write some basic rules for an indoor, non-contact competitive sport. Before long, it caught on. Today, basketball is one of the most popular sports on the planet with over 22.5 million fans passing through the turnstiles in the NBA alone.
That number jumps manifold when we consider the number of fans who watch the games from home and enjoy betting on it online. When two teams are at loggerheads on the court, their fans are at Winissimo’s mobile casino. Winissimo is an online betting platform created with love, thoughtfulness, and creativity just for punters like you. You can find numerous betting options on numerous sports. You’ll get access to regular casino bonuses and promotions to improve your gaming experience as well. You’ll be able to play without worry, thanks to our reliable licences and helpful customer support.
Here’s a quick peek at what the Winissimo casino looks like. But remember, there’s always more to explore!
Biggest Basketball Tournaments
International basketball has never been as good as it is today, but it’s nowhere near its peak. A few decades ago, the United States was the powerhouse in basketball. These days, we’re seeing participation from a wide range of countries and basketball tournaments thriving regardless of location. If you’re just getting into it, here are the biggest basketball tournaments in the world covered by Winissimo and made available at our mobile casino.
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National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association or the NBA is the premier basketball tournament in the US and is counted among the most popular in the world. Having started in 1946 with just 11 teams, the league has grown to 30 teams hailing from all over the North American continent.
Each team in the NBA plays an 82-game regular season which consists of 41 home games and 41 away games. This tournament offers truly the best basketball experience, thanks to the top talent hired not only from North America, but also from Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America.
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FIBA World Cup
FIBA is basically FIFA for basketball and is the international governing body for basketball. This world cup is organised every four years where 32 teams go head to head for the title of the world basketball champions. Only member nations can participate in the FIBA World Cup and every team except the host goes through several gruelling qualification matches to be able to participate in the play-offs.
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Olympic Basketball Tournament
Basketball has been a fixed part of the Summer Olympics since 1936. The qualifications for the Olympic Basketball Tournament are as follows: After the FIBA World Cup, seven teams — the two top American and European teams, and the top team from Asia, Africa, and Oceania — qualify directly. The next 16 top finishers in the FIBA World Cup join the two teams from each continent at the Olympic qualifiers.
Essentially, there will be four groups of six teams and the best team of each group will get the remaining sports at the Olympics. In June 2017, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee made an announcement that 3×3 basketball would become an official Olympic sport as of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan.
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EuroLeague
The EuroLeague is the top-tier European professional basketball club competition organized by EuroLeague Basketball. In this league, 16 teams participate in a double round-robin league regular reason, each team playing 30 games. Out of those, only the top 8 teams advance to the playoffs to be filtered down to the Final Four, where two semifinals, a third-place game, and the championship game are all played on the same weekend.
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Other Tournaments
Apart from the four tournaments mentioned above, there’s the Argentine League LNB, the Italian League, the Spanish ACB League, and many other Asian, African and South American championships that will keep you hooked.
Basketball Betting
Over time, basketball’s fast-paced and unpredictable nature combined with its popularity and competitiveness evoked keen interest among people in basketball betting in many countries. Betting on basketball added another layer of entertainment and fans loved showing their support for their teams.
To meet those demands, online sportsbooks started cropping up and accepting a wide variety of sports bets like cricket betting, soccer betting, and golf betting along with basketball betting. With these online sportsbooks around, basketball enthusiasts could simply hop on the website to place bets on virtually every basketball match in any of the aforementioned basketball tournaments.
The process of betting got simpler and more convenient, allowing everyone to get a taste. Right now, you can also make an account at a reputed casino and start placing bets on your favourite team. You can even place different types of bets depending on the situation and match. Here are just some of the most popular bet types we accept in basketball betting games:
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Point Spread
In a point spread, a handicap is imposed on the stronger teams. The sportsbook does this to make both teams equal in terms of betting. In this scenario, the team that’s more likely to win is called the favourite while the other is called the underdog. So, for betting purposes, the favourite team gives or lays, points to the underdog.
For example, let’s assume you’re betting on a Celtics vs Knicks match where you get the odds: Celtics -6 (-110), Knicks +6 (-110). The plus (+) sign in the odds indicates to the underdog while the one with the minus (-) sign is the favourite. Celtics are 6-point favourites which means they need to win by more than 6 points for a successful bet. If they win exactly by 6 points, a “push” or a “tie” ensues and no money changes hands. On the other hand, the Knicks are 6-point underdogs and will give you a successful bet if they win outright or lose by less than 6 points. Finally, the number in the brackets is called the “vigorish” or the “juice” and is the amount you must bet to win 100 units in the selected currency.
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Money Line
The Money Line odds or the ML odds are straightforward. In this, you simply select who you think will win out-right. However, the team more likely to win, or the favourite, has a smaller payout rate than the underdog. For example, if you’re participating in a match that offers Chicago Bulls +220, LA Lakers -260; it means you’ll have to bet 260 units to win 100 units if you bet on the Lakers but only 220 units will do the trick in case of the Bulls.
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Over/ Under
With this bet, you’re trying to predict if the sum of the scores of the two teams will be over or under a number set by the bookie. The bookie will usually set a number that represents the number of points the two teams are likely to score.
For example, while betting on a match that looks like Miami Heat vs. Charlotte Bobcats — Over/Under 180.5, you’re trying to guess if the total points will be more or less than 180.5. Ostensibly, it may appear to be a simple bet, but placing an Over/Under bet requires taking a lot of factors into consideration: schedules, injury reports, coach strategies, etc.
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Futures and Outrights
Betting on futures and outrights is a lot like betting on the money line, except in this case, you bet on the winner of an entire tournament or some other form of the outcome at the end of a tournament. For example, while betting on the NBA, you can choose from the following futures and outrights:
- NBA Championship Winner
- NBA Most Valuable Player
- Division Winners
- Eastern Conference Winner
- Western Conference Winner
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Other NBA Odds
While everything you’ve read so far is the most common bet types in basketball betting, you can also find many other speciality odds in top online sportsbooks. Worth trying among them are the Winning Margins, First Quarter Winner, Quarter Winner, First Half Winner, and the Halftime/Fulltime. Finally, a few statistical odds like Individual Player Assists, Individual Player Rebound, and Total Fouls may also catch your eye.
How to Start Basketball Betting?
If the concept of betting on basketball matches and juggling the various types of bets has fancied you, you might be curious as to how you can start betting as well. Here’s a simple, step-by-step process to begin your betting journey at Winissimo in minutes.
- Pick a good sportsbook
An online sportsbook is like a comfy chair you’re sitting in; you want it to be good. It should be reliable, have a good customer support team, and offer attractive bonuses to punters. Moreover, it should have all the common sports betting options like tennis, badminton, and surfing and even host a wide range of online casino games like slots, scratch cards, and live dealer games like Blackjack and Poker. If you want to avoid the hassle, you can refer to our list of the top bookmakers and pick one you like.
- Follow basketball schedules
If you’re a fan, you would have probably kept a track of all the biggest basketball tournaments and the fixtures involving your favourite teams. If you don’t, you can simply check out the schedules on the online sportsbooks websites. Either way, when those matches come, make sure to place the right bets on time.
- Manage your money
Managing your money in basketball betting requires you to be able to identify the prospects that provide value and only bet on them. You may not have this skill in the early stages, but with experience, you’ll be able to recognise the most valuable betting options instantly.
The second part of the money management strategy is to take control of your bankroll and determine your ideal bet stake. All you have to do from there is stick to your own rules and have fun.