Football may be the most popular sport among gamblers in Europe; that does not mean basketball is to be underestimated. Betting on the NBA, as well as the European competitions is rapidly gaining popularity. That explains a wide range of options for betting on basketball at Ladbrokes. Moreover: if you follow these basketball betting tips, you will notice soon enough there is a lot of fun and profit to be made.
Whatever your ambition may be; getting better is always the goal. The real professionals know exactly how to spot valuable opportunities. They rely on hundreds of hours of experience and often even a highly developed mathematical brain. They know exactly which matches to bet on and above all: how to do it successfully. You don't necessarily have to become a professional, but there are a lot of habits and behaviors applied by pros, which you can easily learn and apply yourself. You will notice this will immediately boost your winning chances. We gladly tell you all about it here.
Amateur bettors have a strong tendency to bet on their personal favorite teams. There are of course some evident principles, especially when your favorite is a real top team: The Lakers will probably dominate in the NBA for some time to come, just like Ostend is the most successful team in Belgium. It is, however, more important to understand that teams and parameters change daily. Betting on basketball therefore means you should not let personal favorites cloud your judgement. You have to turn off your emotions all together if you want to make successful basketball predictions. So forget about those posters in your boys' room or those epic Nike air Jordan commercials; betting on basketball is serious business. You better keep your head and throw your emotions overboard.
An important lesson: Before throwing your hard-earned cash on the table; do your research! You have to study how the previous head-to-head duels went. Very important conclusions can be drawn from this, often making the difference between you earning or losing money. There are various websites providing complete track records of mutual duels between all teams in each competition. When team constitutions remain virtually unchanged for several years, accurate basketball predictions shouldn’t be too hard to make.
A tip: on ESPN you’re guaranteed to find loads of relevant information, team comparisons, and detailed stats. Learning from history is an indispensable part of growing as a successful gambler.
However, it is up to you to estimate which historical information is relevant and which appears to be rather dated and thus useless. Everything changes, that includes basketball betting. Some teams change their entire squad almost each season. That kind of information is simply crucial for those who want to make profitable basketball pronostics.
There's no getting around it: basketball is a sport of ‘competitive roosters’. After all: Athletes are only people too. It often happens that players, when they compete against their ex-team, show exceptional performances on the pitch. The examples are numerous. When a player was found to be 'not good enough' for a team, he will surely want to rectify this when visiting again. Keep an eye on such details: when a talented player plays such a revenge match, he can be decisive for his team's win.
Most players prefer a home game to an away match. The support of their own audience, the short travel distance, the familiar environment… all these parameters are in their favor at home. About 60% of the basketball games are indeed won by the home team. Home advantage is therefore a factor to be reckoned with. You simply cannot ignore it as a gambler.
The proof is in the teams that perform relatively bad in general, but hold a very solid home reputation. Overall stats would put these teams at a disadvantage, while the home advantage could still push them to a win.
But beware: this does not mean you should blindly bet everything on the home team. There are also teams that typically perform better away. In any case, you should prepare well and collect as much information as possible. This way, you’ll be able to predict whether this match will belong to the usual 60%… or not!
An injury to a star player can also drastically change the outcome of a match. In particular in basketball, where the teams are relatively small, the impact can be downright dramatic. A single talented player is usually crucial to his team. When such a player drops out, all stats change.
A recent example? The Golden State Warriors taking a spectacular dive during the 2019-2020 season. They finished last after no less than five final places in a row. All this due to the injuries of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.
So before you bet on basketball, always check whether certain players will be missing from the team sheet.
Obviously, individual player form, home advantage, team chemistry… are all factors that determine the accuracy of your basketball predictions. However, it’s often easily forgotten that the coach has quite a big impact too. Both on a human and strategic level, a coach can make his team rise above itself. But of course: coaches can be quite headstrong, erratic and unpredictable. For example, some coaches do not position certain players because of subjectively judged 'wrong' behavior in training. Others prefer different players at each stage of a match. Some coaches want to start strong and set up their best team at the start, others opt for a reverse strategy and throw in everything for the last quarter of a match.
One thing is for sure: knowledge about the coaches also determines how successful your basketball predictions will turn out.
The team gaining most possession of the ball is not necessarily the team that scores the most. Every statistic has a story. Some teams are extremely efficient and only need the ball just as long as it takes to score quickly. Other teams are defensively strong, meaning the opponent often has the ball, but barely scores.
It is also best not to take statistics from previous matches as an all telling reference. When a team has scored more than 100 points, it does not necessarily mean that the team is absolutely superior or in its prime. Perhaps there was a downright dramatic quarter of the opponent.
It's up to you to always choose the right interpretation and thus find the most successful basketball bets!