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2009 Basketball Betting Tips

Written by Steve Janus

basketball-betting-010709 With the football season drawing ever-closer to its end, you’re probably wondering what you are going to do with all of the time you spent watching, cheering, and wagering on football. The answer is pretty simple, actually: basketball. Basketball isn’t football, I think everyone can agree with that, but there are plenty of advantages to following college and pro hoops. I’ll take a quick look at some of those advantages, plus provide you with some excellent tips for betting on basketball that can help you get started or improve your winning percentages this year.

The first aspect of basketball betting that catches my attention is the tremendous volume of games to choose from. In the NBA there are 30 teams with each team playing an 82-game schedule. It gets almost ridiculous in the college ranks with 344 division I teams, each playing somewhere between 20-30 regular season games. Keep in mind that those numbers don’t even include the NBA Playoffs or March Madness! That’s a lot of basketball. It’s also a great opportunity to capitalize. The more games on the schedule, the harder it is for oddsmakers to keep up night after night. If you know your stuff, you can find advantages all over the board almost every night of the season. Don’t have the time to do all of that research on your own? Try an NBA expert picks package from one of our top-rated handicappers to get you started.

With a little research, you’ll find that the best value, as far as betting is concerned, isn’t going to come in the games on ESPN. Most teams that consistently beat the spread end up coming from mid-major or lower-major conferences. You probably haven’t even heard of some of these programs, but check out the records they have against the spread this year. The Purple Eagles of Niagara, from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference are 10-2 against the spread to start the season. Arkansas State, out of the Sun Belt Conference has already gone 8-2 against number this year. The best thing about these small programs is that, with just a little bit of research, you can find the huge edges they have over their opponents, particularly in conference play.

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In the NBA it’s easy to get caught up in all of the statistics that are available on the web. There is a huge difference between those numbers that have any meaning and those that do not. For instance, points allowed per game. This statistic doesn’t tell you all that you need to know about a team because, for example, if that team plays at a very fast pace, they are obviously going to give up more points than a team that plays at a slower tempo. What you need to look for is real value versus perceived value in statistics. A great tool you can utilize are NBA efficiency statistics. These would include the following:

Pace: Possessions per game
Offensive efficiency: Points scored per 100 possessions
Defensive efficiency: Points allowed per 100 possessions
Strength of schedule: Based on the records of teams already played

As you can see, these numbers start to break teams down to a more “equal” playing field. These stats are for more effective in determining the outcomes of games than simply how many points a team scores versus how many points they give up. A simple search can help you find more of these efficiency ratings, but ultimately it’s up to you to determine which ones can help you beat the NBA point spreads this season.

Hopefully, I’ve given you a few ideas to get started this basketball season. With some hard work and discipline, this basketball season could be a profitable one for you!

Our handicappers know literally hundreds of angles similar to the ones discussed in this article. Get their NBA picks today and start your winning season.

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