The National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the most exciting and unpredictable sports leagues in the world. With so many talented players and teams, it can be difficult to predict who will come out on top in any given game. That's why it's vital to make sure you're getting the best odds every time you place a bet on an NBA game.
In this article, we'll take a look at the odds for some of the most highly-anticipated upcoming games and explain why it's so important to ensure you get the best odds for your NBA sports bets.
So, without further ado, let's dive in and take a closer look at the odds for the next round of NBA action.
NBA Odds Explained
First, let's run through exactly how to read NBA odds. You can check out our full breakdown of how to read american odds, or our guide for NBA online sports betting for an in depth explanation, but we're going to give a brief overview of how the odds work right here.
On most betting sites or online sportsbooks you can choose what format you view the odds for each bet, but the most common format will be American odds.
The basic principles of american odds are:
Positive Odds tend to indicate the underdog in a given matchup.
Negative Odds tend to indicate the favourite in a given matchup
Positive American odds indicate the amount of profit a bettor will make if they bet $100 on the event happening.
Negative American odds indicate the amount of money a bettor must wager in order to profit $100 on the event happening.
To convert the odds to a decimal format you can use 1+(positive odds)/100 or 100/(negative odds) +1
Best Moneyline Odds
Here's a screenshot of all the odds for the upcoming 4 NBA games taking place on Wednesday 25th January 2023.
As you can see there are plenty of different sites and a wide variety of odds to choose from.
Now, without our comparison software, it would be nearly impossible to go through every betting site in your country and compare the odds for each game. But, thanks to us, you can instantly see which site has the best available moneyline odds for every single one of the upcoming games!
It may not seem like a big difference between -200 and -210 odds, or +240 and +265 odds. BUT, these differences will slowly add up over time, and not choosing the best odds for one of your bets will only result in lost profits!
Let's take a look at some of the best odds for this week, and just how important it is to use the biggest odds each time you wager!
Best Moneyline Odds
The Orlando Magic are clear favourites in this matchup with their best odds being -205 at both BetRivers and Unibet, but the other sites are only offering odds of -225.
To put this in real money terms... If you wanted to win $100, you would need to bet:
This $10 saving may not seem like much, but as an almost 5% discount on your total stake, it quickly adds up.
If you were to place your moneyline bets with -225 odds, instead of -205 odds, for every single game today, you would have to wager $100 more than you need to, just to win the same payout!
Just imagine spreading those losses over the whole year...
Now, imagine spreading that over your entire lifetime!
And, it's not just NBA moneyline odds where there's such a big difference in the sportsbooks.
Best Point Spreads Odds
You can also view the NBA Point Spreads odds on BSO too! We list NBA spreads for the difference between the number of points scored for each team, for all of the sportsbooks we can find in your area.
Let's take a look at the Pacers vs Magic game again.
Now, you tend to see less of a difference between the odds for spread bets. That's because most sportsbooks tend to agree on the spread, but you can see here that it's not always the case.
Wynn Bet are offering odds of -105 for the Magic to win by 6 points or more. Meanwhile, DraftKings are only offering odds of -110.
This means, if you want to win $100 when the Magic beat the Pacers by more than 6 tonight, you have to wager $5 more at DraftKings compared to Wynn Bet.
Again, this is risking 5% more than you have to. Just imagine doing this every time you place a bet.
Best Totals Odds
At BSO we also offer a comparison for the totals lines for each game (and we're looking to add many more betting lines too).
Totals bets are wagers on the total amount of points in a game when it gets to the final score.
Here you can see there's a $3 difference between the amount you need to wager at Unibet and BetMGM for the Over bet on the Total points.
Again, this may not seem like much for one bet but add up $3 for every bet you make in your lifetime and that's money worth saving! Especially when it's as easy as checking the BSO comparison tool!
And it's even more important if you're a fan of parlays!
Best Parlay Odds
Let's say you wanted to make a bet on all of the above: Orlando Magic to win, Orlando Magic to win by more than 6 points and for there to be more than 232.5 points in the game...
If you placed a $100 parlay bet on all three lines with the worst odds, your total payout would be: $426
if you placed a $100 parlay bet on all three lines with the best odds, your total payout would be: $459
That's a difference of $23 in winnings wagering the same amount on the exact same parlay, with only 3 legs!
