The 2024-25 NBA season gets underway this week. The season will be a full 82 game schedule running from October 22nd to April 13th, with the NBA Finals scheduled for early June.
On this page I will look at the current NBA Championship odds, breakdown some of the popular bets you can make on an NBA game and also give you a simple 3 step guide to follow when you’re ready to place your first NBA bet.
2024 NBA Championship Betting Odds
Here is a screenshot from SportsInteraction.com of the current NBA Championship odds heading into the season (taken on October 23rd, 2024):
I included the 11 teams with 35-1 or shorter odds to win the NBA Championship in the above screenshot.
The Raptors are 1000-1 to win the NBA Title and 500-1 to win the Eastern Conference. The Raptors finished 12th in the East last year and have completely embraced a rebuild, which is why they are expected to finish near the bottom of the standings this season.
As you can see the Celtics, Thunder, and Knicks are the three favourites to win the NBA title this season. There is a lot of parity heading into this NBA season, which should make things very interesting.
Popular NBA Betting Options
The three most popular bets in a basketball game are the point spread, money line and over/under bets. Let’s look at a quick example of each using a screenshot from Sports Interaction for the Raptors season opening game vs the Cavaliers.
Point Spread
In this example there is a 6.5 point spread in this game in favour of Cleveland. This is indicated by the (-6.5) beside Cleveland and the (+6.5) beside Toronto. A spread bet on Cleveland wins if the Cavs win the game by 7 or more points, while a spread bet on the Raptors wins if Toronto either wins the game outright or loses by 6 or fewer.
Money Line
The money line bet is a straight up wager on which team will win the game. The odds vary depending on if the team is the favourite or the underdog. In this example, we already knew that Cleveland was 6.5 point favourites, so it’s no surprise that there money line odds are just 1.40. This means that any bet amount can be multiplied by 1.40 to find the payout of a Cavaliers win. For example, a $100 bet on the Cavs would payout $140 for winnings of $40 if they won the game. On the flip side a $100 bet on the Raptors would payout $300 for winnings of $200 if the Raptors pulled off the upset.
Over/Under
The over/under is a wager on the total number of points to be scored in the game by both teams combined. The over/under for this game is set at 225.5. If 226 or more points are scored then the over bets would payout, while if 225 or fewer points are scored in the game then the under bets would payout.
Check out our basketball betting page for a more detailed breakdown of each of these wagers.
3 Step Guide To Place an NBA Bet From Canada
Are you ready to make your first NBA wager online? If so, follow this simple 3 step guide to have your wager placed in minutes.
Step 1. Open an Online Betting Account
SportsInteraction.com is our top rated betting site for Canadians. The screenshots above were taken from their site.
Sports Interaction is completely focused on the Canadian marketplace and providing the best possible platform for Canadians to wager on sports online. They are licensed in the regulated Ontario market, while also accepting bettors from the rest of Canada in their regular sportsbook. Our links will direct you to the correct website based on your location.
Sports Interaction accepts Interac e-Transfer (recommended), Visa, MasterCard, American Express, ApplePay, Online Banking, paysafecard and more. They have made it very easy for Canadians to get money into and out of their site.
Step 3. Place Your NBA Bets
To find the NBA betting lines at SportsInteraction.com, click on ‘Sports’ in the top navigation bar and then select ‘Basketball’ -> ‘USA’ -> ‘NBA’ in the left sidebar.
On the NBA page you will see all of the games that you can wager on for that evening. When you select your bet it will show up in your ‘Bet Slip’ on the right side of the screen. After you enter your bet amount you will see the ‘Potential Payout’ show up, which shows how much will be returned to your account if your bet wins. If everything looks good, select ‘Place Bet’ and your wager is confirmed.
Check out our basketball betting section for more information about wager on basketball online. And if you have any questions regarding betting on NBA games do not hesitate to contact me.
