One of the most profitable ways for betting basketball, especially the NBA, is game totals, more commonly known as over/under betting. Most sharp basketball bettors consider these much easier to pick than the point spread. We will take a look at certain things you need to analyze when making game total bets. Yes, you are going to have to do a little work to find the right spots for betting totals.
First we will ease you into totals betting with a super simple strategy that won’t take any analysis. It is an old system really. This strategy isn’t designed to make you a lot of money but you should show a profit over the course of the entire season. You simply look at all the games for the day and you pick the game with the lowest total. You have to have at least four games scheduled for the day. No matter the total, you bet the under on this game. This is betting against the public. When you bet the under you usually are going against the squares. And the public, or squares, loses more times than not. This is not the most sophisticated system but people wouldn’t keep betting it if it didn’t make some money.
One thing you want to look at when betting basketball totals is the game totals from the last ten games that each team has played. You must check both teams. One team might be high scoring while the other team can’t sink a bucket. See what percentage of games have been over the total. If they have a fair amount, it is probably a good time to bet the over. And if they both are struggling to score, you would bet accordingly.
This is similar to the last point but you will also want to check the final scores of past games for each team and not just the totals. Go back at least 10 games. More is always good. Look to see if either or both teams are hot or if they are struggling when it comes to scoring. If both teams are having no problem scoring, over is almost always going to be the play. And the opposite is true if the teams are struggling and having problems scoring. This makes for a good spot for betting the under. Remember, the more information you have on past games the better. Each tool you add for your sports betting is only going to make you a stronger handicapper. And that translates to making more money.