Betting on NBA games is growing in popularity across the USA. Authorities continue to grant licenses for sportsbooks to operate online in new states, and thousands of Americans are now looking for the best NBA betting sites to hit up and wager their bets.
Each of the best basketball betting sites listed here is totally safe, verified, and licensed to operate in specific states, and entirely trusted for NBA betting online.
Best Basketball Betting Sites Reviewed
Because all sportsbooks are unique and have their own strengths and weaknesses, we’ve taken the liberty of listing out the key pros and cons of each of the NBA sportsbooks below to help you make the right selection for your specific needs.
22bet.com.sn – Basketball Betting Site that Boasts Great Odds
In terms of an NBA betting site that fully delivers in terms of optionality, competitive odds, and a futures market with real depth, it’s hard not to mention MyBookie.
This site is the best basketball betting site is early to market with game lines for the upcoming 2021 NBA Finals (Bucks vs. Suns), ass it has been throughout the playoffs. Betting lines include moneyline, spread, and total points. Plus, the prop market for NBA live and game day betting is also crammed full of interesting wagers, particularly for the NBA Finals.
The site is dishing out a $500 deposit bonus and a $250 referral bonus to existing customers who bring them new traffic.
Pros:
- Tons of options for NBA game day and futures
- Parlay betting feature
- $500 deposit bonus for new users
- Rewards patrons regularly with bonuses + referral bonus
Cons:
- No live streaming of NBA
- No basketball odds for WNBA or NCAA
BetUS – King of Parlay NBA Sportsbooks
Having been around for 27 years and counting, Bet US is a tried and trusted NBA sportsbook. It’s easy to access and available in multiple states. Plus, both the site and its corresponding app tend to broadcast highly competitive basketball betting lines, too.
On top of all that, BetUS serves up player specials (futures) well in advance of the competition – as far as we are aware, none of the other NBA betting sites reviewed is currently broadcasting player futures for the 2022 season. But BetUS is, and we implore you to go take a look if that’s something that tickles your fancy.
One thing that really sets BetUS apart from many other players on the sportsbook market is how much attention to detail goes into ensuring that its patrons have instant access to up-to-date stats and metrics. It’s possible to dig through all the latest player stats, team notes, injuries, etc. with just the click of a button. Because BetUS offers a vast prop market for NBA live betting scenarios, this is truly a great feature – it saves a lot of time.
Pros:
- Tons of options for NBA futures, including many wagers not seen elsewhere
- Parlay betting feature
- $2,500 Risk-Free bet
- Stats and metrics are available at the click of a button from sportsbook betting pages
- Rewards patrons regularly with bonuses + referral bonus
Cons:
- No live streaming of NBA
- No basketball futures odds for WNBA (at time of writing)
Bovada – Betting Site with $750 Bonus
An NBA sportsbook with plenty of optionality for bettors, Bovada contains deep markets featuring game lines for futures, game day, and NBA live betting. The prop market is also chocked full with plentiful interesting wagers. At the time of writing, next up is the Conference Championship duel: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Atlanta Hawks (Game 3), and there are markets open for practically every prop bet you could shake a stick at, especially where Giannis Antetokounmpo is concerned!
The NBA betting site itself is user-friendly: there are many pages dedicated to betting on basketball, providing readers with tips, advice, previews, latest news, etc. And the sportsbook itself certainly looks the part – it’s a stylish application; the NBA betting lines are laid out clearly. This is most certainly an NBA sportsbook that is easy to navigate – and fun to use.
Pros:
- Deep markets for NBA futures
- $750 Welcome Bonus for new users during NBA playoffs (until July 22)
- Stats and metrics are available at the click of a button
- Rewards patrons regularly with bonuses + referral bonus
Cons:
- No live streaming of the NBA in the US.
Intertops – Easy to Use NBA Betting Site
After 21 years in the business, Intertops is another famed NBA betting site. The sportsbook provides competitive odds, lines, and spreads for just about every basketball game imaginable.
NBA live betting is a particular focus of Intertops. The NBA sportsbook section takes its in-play betting seriously and serves up an enviable platter of interesting prop bets to patrons, as well as red-hot in-play offers during the games, with extra hot in-play offers available during the NBA playoffs/finals.
New users to the prestigious NBA sportsbook are generally greeted with up to a $200 risk-free bet, which certainly doesn’t hurt either.
Pros:
- Futures up for NBA finals
- Easy site to navigate; fewer options but more streamlined
- $200 deposit bonus for new users and $100 risk-free bet for NBA finals
- NBA odds are very competitive
Cons:
- No live streaming of NBA
- No basketball odds for NCAAB
- Lack of optionality in prop market for game day bets
BetOnline – $1,000 Deposit Bonus Available on this NBA Betting Site
Since the complete makeover of its interface, the BetOnline sportsbook has looked and felt much more user-friendly. The well-thought-of NBA betting site continues to offer top odds and, perhaps most importantly for right NOW (July 2021, or NBA Finals time!) is dishing out $1,000 in risk-free bets to newcomers to the site as part of the festivities.
Once on the site, users can expect to find deep NBA futures markets for the upcoming NBA Finals and NBA Draft. BetOnline also has markets open for the NCAA and WNBA, too. Plus, the odds are very competitive all around.
So far as offshore betting sites go, this is an NBA betting app that’s among the elite on the market
Pros:
- The new, updated site offers a far superior user experience
- Futures available for NBA, Olympics, and WNBA + deep markets
- NBA Finals MVP & NBA Draft odds up early + competitive odds
- $1,000 deposit bonus for new users during the NBA Draft
Cons:
- No live-streaming of NBA games
- Prop markets not as deep as competition
NBA Betting Tips
Once you’ve selected your preferred NBA betting site and deposited your money and, perhaps, taken advantage of a nice bonus or risk-free bet to wager on the basketball action, it’s time to actually place that bet.
For those reading who gave already gambled on basketball games countless times, and who understand the process and all the markets and lines exactly, quit procrastinating – get to it!
For the rest of our readership; those among you who don’t know much about betting on NBA games at all, or about gambling in general, please do read on – this section will be plenty of use to you as you bid to come up with your best NBA betting strategy.
Betting on the NBA Division, Conference & Finals Winners
There are 30 teams in the NBA and those teams are divided up into two conferences. The conferences are called the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. The Eastern conference is split into three divisions called Atlantic, Central, and Southeast. The Western conference is split into three divisions, too: The Northwest, Pacific, and Southwest.
So, with regards to betting on NBA futures, come August, you might see odds broadcast on Bovada.com for -let’s say- the Milwaukee Bucks to win…
- The NBA Championship/Finals +650
- The Eastern Conference +450
- The Central Division +250
Some NBA sportsbooks do allow you, bettors, to wager on other team futures, too: you might come across a wager for the Highest Scoring Team, or the Team with the Most Rebounds, etc. Have a shop around come August 2021 (or June most other years to see what else is out there).
NBA Player Futures Bets
Then, there are futures markets open for the players, too. The most common market of all is the NBA finals MVP. Practically every NBA betting site will have broadcast NBA betting odds on the MVP months before the season gets underway.
The NBA players’ futures market is deep and varied: besides an outright bet on the MVP, fans can wager on the player to come up with the most points, the most rebounds, assists, and plenty more where those come from.
To reference one of our three best NBA betting sites from up the page, BetUS is a particular heavyweight in the NBA players futures game and (and do bear in mind we type this in June during the conference championships) already have Over/Under futures odds up for the following (amongst others):
- How many triple-doubles will LeBron James score in 2021-22?
- How many triple-doubles will Russell Westbrook score in 2021-22
- How many games will it take Russell Westbrook to reach 200 triple-doubles?
Game Day Betting: Betting on an NBA Game
If futures bets are those bets you make way in advance of the event taking place, think of game day betting on one of the major NBA betting lines or prop markets as a kind of mini-future, or a short-sighted future bet.
As with all betting, you are still predicting a future event – it’s just that when betting on a game, you’ll see a return (or a loss – let’s be real), typically (if you’re sensible) in about 48-24 hours. This is as opposed to waiting six months on an outright-future bet for the Bulls to win their first championship in umpteen years that you made whilst merrily drunk and feeling super-positive over the new year.
NBA Betting Online Odds Release Dates & When to Bet?
The most common method of game day betting is to put some money down on one of the NBA game lines. We urge our readers almost never to rush to market on game lines. It’s usually better to wait until as close to the tip as possible. Will LeBron be fit? (For example) This is the kind of news you want to be cleared up before you bet on/against a Lakers win!
That said, there are times to rush in early, too: 1) sometimes those sportsbooks that broadcast NBA Vegas odds can jump the gun, or under/overvalue a certain team, or player. Pro bettors are on the lookout for this kind of over/under sight and charge in, putting down huge money on team X to win and player X to score 40 points. Smart NBA sportsbooks will later shorten the odds. And 2) if you have inside information on something that very few people know – off the top of my head, you learn that Giannis Antetokounmpo has been suffering from the flu all week but the Bucks have kept it out of the press (I made that up but you catch my drift, right?).
Other than that, don’t wager on the game lines for an NBA game until approximately 24 hours before the game begins – it’s just common sense.
Betting on NBA Game Lines
There are three game lines that every NBA betting site will feature odds for; these are the moneyline, point spread, and total points (Over/Under) markets.
There is some variation on each of these game lines depending on your chosen sportsbook and whether or not you are wagering during the regular season or the playoffs/finals. For example, you can bet on the moneyline for the Houston Rockets to win the game at +200, or you can wager on the Rockets’ opposition to win the game, but the Rockets to win the half (+150), etc. It’s all the same in practice, just variations thereof.
Game Day Prop Betting on the Best NBA Betting Sites
Prop market betting is also a key part of betting on a game. Usually, within 24 hours of the opening tip, NBA sportsbooks will introduce their respective prop options, i.e., the fun stuff: How many points will Russell Westbrook score tonight? Will LeBron go over/under 40 points? Will the Greek Freak hit a three-pointer? Etc.
Remember, betting on props, alongside betting on a game line is particularly fun when you parlay your bets: the odds are improved as the chances of two events happening cause said odds to drift, and this is something that pro bettors who have done their research seek to exploit come game day.
There are more detailed explanations of NBA betting lines, how they work, and how to bet on the NBA further on down the page, so do read on if you are unsure. Here though, we are just introducing the main types of markets.
How to Bet on Basketball?
NBA sport betting is a much simpler (not to mention more enjoyable) practice when you know what you’re doing. Most of us have learned through trial and error – in 2013, your writer was fortunate to break even when he personally spent a fortnight betting on favorites by accident because he didn’t understand the moneyline, for example.
If you’re going to make any money betting on NBA games, it’s imperative you understand the three major game lines we introduced earlier: MoneyLine, Points Spread, and Total Points.
Practically every other bet, bar simple yes/no bets, are variations of these three game lines. It might be that it’s a quarter not a game on the moneyline, or it might be that it’s player points and not team points on the over/under, or two players may be duking it out on the spread. But the same rules apply. So please do read on if you’re unclear and we’ll explain in full.
