Joe began writing for Basketball Insiders at the start of 2023. A keen sports fanatic ever since his first days playing football in junior school, he has developed a flair for writing over the coming years, and graduated with a BA in English Literature. His professional background in the gambling and sports industries now extends to five years, mostly covering horse racing and US sports. He has previously written for sites such as gg.co.uk and cheltenhamfestival.net on the horse racing side, having grown passionate about the sport by visiting his local tracks on a regular basis. As well as this, he has the honor of being published in the Royal Ascot magazine in 2019.
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Following his graduation with an Honors in Business Administration, Nick redirected his focus from conventional stocks and bonds to the world of sports team performance investments. He employs a unique blend of advanced statistics and historical data to construct intricate sports investment models, pinpointing value opportunities and consistently yielding profits. Nick's contributions extend beyond a single platform, as his work can be discovered on outlets such as Pistons Powered, Winners And Whiners, and numerous other publications.
All posts by Nick RaffoulTo make money from betting on the NBA you need to invest time. Being able to spot value is a skill that you develop over many years of studying the game. But there is a way that you can speed this process up, and that’s by using NBA picks.
Throughout this article, we’re going to look at a range of topics regarding NBA picks and more specifically, how to find good picks. At Basketball Insiders we pride ourselves on our picks and we wanted to highlight the approach that our team takes to consistently make profits from NBA betting season after season.
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What are NBA Picks?
NBA picks are bets that you can place on NBA games throughout the season. These picks come from a range of sources, and each bettor has their own opinions on what they think will be a winning bet.
For example, if we said to you that we think the LA Lakers will win the next NBA Championships at +800, then this would be an NBA pick.
Who you get your picks from will range. Social media has increased the number of “experts” exponentially and there are now hundreds to choose from. On top of this, you have betting blogs, podcasts, radio shows, TV shows and even betting apps that give you their latest picks.
In all honesty, it can be a bit of a minefield, so in this guide, we wanted to break each section down, so you know what to look for and where to find reliable tips.
Spoiler alert, ours (Basketball Insiders) are the best!
Before we move on, we wanted to clarify a question that we get asked a lot and that is how do they differ from NBA draft picks?
Draft picks are made by each NBA franchise at the end of each season. They draft a player onto their roster to play for them for the following amount of time based on the contract signed.
Draft picks and NBA picks are not the same, so don’t get these confused.
How to Find the Best NBA Picks Today
To know when you’re on to some of the best NBA picks is a skill. Being able to separate the good picks from the bad picks is something that you need to learn and only when you do this will you start making money.
You need to start by researching who you’re betting with. One of the things we look at is how reputable is the source.
For example, if you find a Twitter account with 130 followers and they are sending out weekly betting tips on the NBA, chances are this is not a good place to start. Granted, this could be a growing following, but there are thousands of accounts in the same spot and the best always rise to the top.
Generally, you want to start with reputable brands. At Basketball Insiders we’ve created a team that produces only basketball picks. It’s their job. They sit and analyze every game to find bets that are going to offer the most value.
Success is incredibly easy to track. All you’re looking for is if they’ve made a profit over the last few games, weeks, months, and seasons. It’s not uncommon for good pickers to have lean weeks and even months, but the best rarely have losing seasons.
Transparency is key. The best NBA picks’ experts will be happy to show you all their bets and then their profit and loss account as well. In fact, this should be their biggest marketing tool, and the best in the business shout this from the rooftops.
Don’t always look at the amount of money they have made. This can be offset by a couple of wins and depending on what they stake, can look better than it is.
If you’ve got someone who is betting $10,000 per point (often referred to as a set amount to bet on each pick, usually highlighted by how many points per pick to wager) and they’ve made $20,000 that year, then yes, this is a lot of money to most, but in reality, they’re only just better than break even.
So, how can Basketball Insiders help?
Well, for one we take an incredible amount of time to compile each NBA pick. Take a relatively recent game between the Detroit Pistons and the Houston Rockets.
Considered here are stats such as head-to-heads, high points scores, assists, rebounds, player matchups, points per quarter, previous performances, spread bet options, shooting percentages, starting lineups, betting trends, home, and away form, and so much more.
This is not your average betting pick article, it covers all bases, but just like any good math student, before getting to the answer, we show our workings.
It just so happened that for this bet we tipped Pistons at +3.5 and to go over 210 points on the spread. Pistons won the game 112 – 104, winning the bet and covering the spread.
Now, not all NBA picks are going to be successful, but good tipping sites will explain their bets. You can then take this information and either agree or disagree. But either way, you know how they’ve come to the conclusion that they have.
NBA Sports Betting Picks
It’s only when you start to scratch the surface of NBA sports betting picks do you realize just how many markets you can bet on. Most sites will look to concentrate on one or two bet types and then really go to town on those.
However, this does limit you if you’re looking to find the best possible bet for every game. Because it’s almost never going to just be a moneyline bet or a spread or a parlay. You need to be flexible about what you’re willing to bet on and the person/site whose NBA picks you’re using has to as well.
Below we’ve included several types of picks that betting experts tend to focus on for betting on the NBA.
NBA Parlay Picks
Given that there are so many games to bet on in the NBA (1,230 every season!), parlay bets make a lot of sense. A parlay is where you include two or more selections in a single bet. Across Europe, this is known as an accumulator bet.
The reason why these NBA picks are so popular is that you can create massive bets from them. The more you add in, the higher the odds.
There are a couple of ways that you can best utilize this form of betting. We recommend that you take picks from multiple games and create a single parlay.
Don’t fall into the trap of simply adding additional selections just for the sake of increasing the odds. Make sure that each selection has been recommended as a betting pick.
Let’s look at an example of how this might work.
We can include the game that we spoke about earlier that had the Pistons beating the Rockets on the handicap.
Let’s also go with two other picks we made to create three picks in total:
- Pistons to beat the Rockets -4
- Golden State Warriors to beat Toronto Raptors by 9
- Oklahoma City to beat Atlanta Hawks by 11.5
Just for ease, we will assume that each spread bet here was priced at -115, which is about average for these types of bets.
For a parlay, we need to combine these odds to get our final price. For this, we would get a payout of $553.46 for every $100 wagered.
By combining these bets into a parlay we’ve taken uninviting odds of -115 for each and combined them into something much more exciting.
The trick for NBA parlay picks is knowing which bets to take from which tipsters. As a rule of thumb, go with your gut and don’t add picks just for the sake of increasing the bottom line. Only add them for value if you think they offer good value.
You can mix this up a little more with NBA same game parlay bets as well. This is where you have multiple bets that are all tied to the same game.
An example might be something like a team to win, the game covers a point spread and a player to score over a set number of points all from the same game.
This is a good bet type to use if you work with multiple NBA picks sites and they each have a different market picked for the same game. Playoff and Championship games are the best for these types of parlays.
NBA Spread Picks
NBA spread picks are another very common bet type for betting on the NBA. The spread is all about the handicap that is applied to each team.
The concept is that the sportsbook is trying to give one team an advantage over the other in terms of points that will eventually make for an even contest. One team will have points added to their final score and one will have them removed.
It’s the sportsbook’s job to try and get these as close to the same odds for both bets. However, this is not always the case, and you often see markets that are priced at -110 and -120, as an example.
In terms of spread NBA picks, this is something that most sites will cover. At Basketball Insiders, we tend to take the role of looking at the spread bet for each game. It’s an easy market to include if you’ve conducted enough research as you should be able to see if the spread favors one team over the other.
If we jump back into our Thunder vs Hawks example above, we took the Hawks on the spread at -11.5. This means that they had to win by 12 or more. It turned out that they won by exactly 12, which gave us another winner.
For those of you who want to make your own spread picks, you need to look at points per game stats, as well as the breakdown between points scored at home and on the road, as they can differ quite dramatically.
Don’t be afraid to make NBA picks against the spread as this can sometimes offer better value.
NBA Futures Picks
NBA futures picks are some of the most lucrative bets that you can get. This is where the person who is making the picks is looking into the future and predicting the winner of events that might be weeks or months in advance.
One of the most common bets for this is NBA picks for the playoffs. The NBA playoffs are widely regarded as the business end of the season and it’s here that all teams are striving to get into.
Making picks on this at the start of the season is tough. You need to be looking at what trades have been made and the rosters that each team is putting out for the year. You can consider previous seasons’ form, but if lots of changes have been made from that team, then it becomes a lot less relevant.
The best NBA pickers won’t go too heavy on future bets. There are too many variables to consistently make money from these bets, but they can be used as a bit of a novelty bet for a small portion of the bankroll.
NBA Prop Picks
NBA prop picks aren’t as common as the ones listed above, but you will find sites that offer them, albeit on a more condensed scale. Prop betting in NBA is just as popular as in other sports, but there is a reluctance for sites to pick these as they can be incredibly volatile.
Some of the more common props picks include NBA Coach of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, Rookie of the Year, scoring leader, Sixth Man of the Year, and a range of specials.
The specials are targeted more toward single games. These are usually bets about if certain players will get ejected from the game or which out of two players will make more fouls.
We would advise you to tread a little more cautiously with prop picks and use your intuition as to how much value they offer.
How to Use NBA Picks to Bet
We’re going to look at how to find NBA picks and then place a bet using these exact picks.
At Basketball Insiders, we upload daily betting picks for the NBA. We try and look at all games, but due to the volume and the fact that some offer better betting opportunities than others, we limit our picks to the ones that we feel offer the best value.
As soon as you land on our homepage you can see the latest articles that usually include betting picks. Alternatively, you can click on the “NBA News” button at the top to see the latest articles.
You can now choose between games that you want to bet on. If you’re new and you don’t know what games you want to bet on, then just choose one or two to get started with.
A typical NBA picks article For this example, we’re going to look at our Lakers vs Pacers betting pick and preview article.
In the article, you will see an incredible amount of information about the game. The stats will be as deep as you’ll get anywhere from any NBA picks site, and this is something that we pride ourselves on for every game that we cover.
The game’s overview The top of each NBA picks article will look at an overview of the game. This includes start times, location, where you can watch on TV, where you can listen on the radio, any live streaming services covering the game, and ESPN’s Power Index rating for the game.
Important news for the game The middle section of the page is all about news on each team. This will look at recent performances and include stats on anything that jumps out and can translate to betting opportunities.
The game’s betting odds Below this, you then get a look at the betting lines for the game. We use one of the best sportsbooks for this game and highlight the over/under odds, points spread, and best moneyline prices.
The two sections at the bottom of the NBA picks page are the preview and the predictions section. If you just want to dive straight into where and what we are betting on, you can go directly to the predictions section or AI betting predictions for more information.
The pick for the game The final part is an overview of the pick for the game. In this example, we’ve gone with the Lakers to win on the road and to cover the +4 spread. We usually give out a second bet if you want it as well and in this example, it’s the under 218.5 points line set by BetUS.
To place the bet all you need to do is click the “Pick: Lakers +2” button at the bottom of this section. The button will be set up to take you to the betting site that has the best price for that bet. In this case, it’s BetUS.
If you already have an account, then you can sign in. If you don’t then you can register an account before placing your bet. To find out more about the best NBA Picks betting site, check out the section later in this article.
Placing your bet To find the pick on BetUS, you need to go to the Sportsbook and then click on NBA in the Menu. Once you’ve done this, BetUS will have a long list of games that are taking place. For our bet, the game is at the top of the page, but you may need to scroll a little to find where you want to be.
All you do now is click on the odds and the bet will be added to your bet slip. Once you are logged in you can choose your stake and then click on the “Bet Now” button.
This is how you use NBA picks to place a bet.
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Basketball Free Bet Tips
So, in order to navigate the world of free bets, here are our 5 tips to help you get the most from your risk-free wagers:
- Bet big – A free bet is there to be used, and there are no downsides if you lose. If you have a sneaky bet on an underdog, then put that free bet to good use.
- Use a free bet calculator – If you are wondering about the potential returns you could yield, the most reliable bookmakers will have one to hand that will figure this out for you. Pinnacle has a great bet calculator you can try out.
- Always compare odds and lines – Bookmakers are eager to release pre-game odds early, but make sure you do your homework to get value with your free bets.
- Don’t bet it all at once – You can spread out your free bets if you are concerned about wagering requirements. You can spend less than the total amount of the free bet.
- Be aware of time limits – Bookmakers will have expiry periods in place, so make sure you know when to use your free bet, otherwise, you will lose it.
NBA Picks – Conclusion
Using NBA picks is one of the strongest tools you can apply to your betting strategy. There are thousands of pickers out there, so you need to take the time to choose ones that you trust and that are going to make you some money.
At Basketball Insiders we’ve been making profitable NBA picks for several years now. We’ve created a team that is dedicated to picks and only picks. It’s for this reason that we have one of the biggest and most successful NBA followings in the world. And the best thing about it all? Our NBA picks are 100% free of charge.
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NBA Picks FAQ
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