Basketball, with nearly thirty million casual players, is among the most popular sports in America. It performs very different social functions depending on whether it is practiced on the Chicago Bulls court, on the streets of a black ghetto, or in a small-town Indiana university.

America loves uplifting social stories. And basketball encourages them. A Nigerian, “undocumented” street vendor in Greece –Giannis Antetokounmpo–learned to play in 2007 and ten years later became one of the best players in the league. The smallest athlete on the circuit –Isaiah Thomas, 1.75 meters– becomes a candidate for the best player of the year 2017. The son of a teenage mother relocated to a foster family –LeBron James– who returns to the state where he was born and offers the city of Cleveland its first sports title in fifty years, including all sports.

Welcome to NBA

Welcome to the American professional basketball league, with its thirty teams or “franchises” whose accumulated value (36.3 billion euros) today exceeds the gross domestic product (GDP) of Mali, Senegal, and Burkina Faso combined. Thanks to the strategy outlined by David Stern, commissioner of the association between 1984 and 2014, aimed at enhancing the stardom of the players and the exhibition of their social trajectories, the money flowed in: the annual income of the NBA franchises went from € 150 million in the early 1980s to € 5.5 billion in 2016. New television broadcasting contracts, the main source of this flood of greenbacks, have reached a fabulous $ 24 billion in nine seasons.

 

What brings NBA Odds

It is very important to know the opposite NBA Odd corresponds to the one we bet, mainly to calculate the value, possible cashout, and odd movement. NBA Odds reflect odds, and odds reflect the exact probability of the opposite bet. Let us explain.

Imagine you made a bet on Over 2.5 goals at a 1.50 odd. This means that the odd represents 2 out of 3 chances of the event happening, or as a percentage, 66.6%. The count to get that number is simple; divide one by the odd (1/odd). So we have 1/1.50 = 66.6%.

 

If the chance of Over 2.5 is 66.6%, the chance of Under 2.5 is 33.3%, or 1 in 3. But what would be the fair odd for Under 2.5?

The count is simple: 1 divided by the percentage (1/33.3%) or 100 divided by the number (100/33.3). So we have 1/33.3% = 3.00.

So we know that a bet with NBA Odds of 1.50 represents a 66.6% chance of the event occurring, and your opposite bet, which represents the other 33.3% chance of occurring, must have an odd of 3.00.

It is a fact that the house uses the extract, the profit margin over the odds, decreasing their value. The value is not always decreased equally between the two selections (Over 2.5 and Under 2.5). It can only be one way or more to one side than the other.

That’s where we can see the value.

It is also important to know that this account helps us to calculate how much we should bet on the opposite odd to cover a bet. And, if the NBA odd moved enough for the cash out to be positive after we closed the bet.

If you are a Trader on betting exchange, it is possible to calculate what the gain when you place a bet. For example: when we place a lay bet on odd 1.50, we will win an odd 3.00, the opposite odd corresponding to 1.50, and vice versa.

The “average” odd is always 2.00. The NBA Odd represents a 50% chance of the event happening, and the only one with the corresponding opposite odd is the same. Below 2.00 are odds where the chance of the event occurring is greater as it approaches the lowest possible odd, 1.01. Above 2.00, the chance of the event occurring is less than 50%, that is, betting on the non-favorite. There are also 99 corresponding counter odds, up to the maximum value of 101, which is the counter odd of the lowest odd 1.01. It is possible to have odds greater than 101 and less than 1.01, but we are talking about fractional odds.

Another advantage of learning this system is calculating how many ticks (places between the odds) it must move for us to have a profit or how much this represents profit, especially for those who trade.

You can check the table with the NBA odds on their exact values. Remember that bookmakers use ticks with approximate values ​​in the odds.