The NBA basketball betting season is immensely popular for a variety of reasons. There are a ton of matchups to wager on and a myriad of opportunities to come out on top. But most importantly, it makes watching NBA basketball games that much more fun. So how does one bet on NBA games online?

How to bet on NBA Games Online

The first step is to create an account by signing up. Once you’ve gone and taken care of that, you’re all set to sink your teeth into NBA betting action. But before you make some bets it’s important to gain some familiarity with common NBA betting lines. Below we’ll be covering the lines that are most commonly bet on.

Most Common NBA Betting Odds/Lines

Without a doubt, the most common NBA betting lines consist of the moneyline, the spread line and the over/under. We’ll be taking a look at these one-by-one down below. But before we do, we’re going to take a look at a normal NBA betting line. The line begins on the left with the name of the team followed by the spread line, the over/under and lastly, the money line. The spread and over/under have the number at which the line is set at followed by the odds. The moneyline only has the odds.

Betting NBA Money Line

The moneyline is the last column and is by far the easiest to understand. Here you are simply betting on one team to beat the other.

The moneyline starts at -110 and will continue to rise if a team is a heavy favorite. We can see in the example above that the Warriors are slight favorites over Toronto. This means that the sportsbook is expecting Golden State to win but it’s not exactly certain. On a normal -110 line, you would bet $110 in order to be eligible for a $100 winning bet. On the Warriors line above, you would need to bet $143 in order to be eligible for $100 in winnings. A winning bet on the Warriors would net a total of $243 (the original $143 + the $100 in winnings).

Since the Raptors are the underdog, taking them is more rewarding. In fact, a $100 bet on Toronto would give you back $123 in winnings. To recap, a $100 winning bet on the Raptors would net you $223.

Betting NBA Spread

The NBA spread line is a popular option because it can give bettors a little more wiggle room. Instead of betting on a team to win the matchup, you’re betting on one side to cover the spread. So how does a team cover the spread?

Covering the spread means either winning or losing by a certain amount. In the example above, we can see that the Warriors are favorites on the spread and must cover a 2 ½ point spread. In order to cover the spread, Golden State needs to beat Toronto by 3 points. On the other hand, if the Raptors upset Toronto or if they manage to lose by less than 2 ½ points, they will cover the spread.

Warriors win 102-100 || Here Toronto only lost by 2-points, so they covered the 2 ½ point spread while the Warriors did not.

Warriors win 103-100 || Here Golden State won by 3-points so they covered the 2 ½ point spread while Toronto did not.

Betting NBA TOTALs

Betting on the TOTALs line, or the over/under, is also fairly straightforward. Here you are betting on the total points that will be scored in a given matchup. In the example above we can see that the TOTALs line is set at 211 ½ points. The over would be the line on the Raptors (the top) and the under would be the line for Golden State. Here the odds are the same but sometimes they can change. So if you think the Warriors and Raptors will combine for more than 211 ½ points you would take the OVER. If not, stick to the UNDER.