Many users use basketball as their main betting discipline. This ball game really does look attractive and the bookmakers offer an extensive line-up with a large number of events. Basketball has a whole list of advantages over other sports, which is the reason why it gets so much attention.
Recently many bookmakers have been active in this field, so new championships are being added, and the line of options for betting is being expanded. What makes basketball look so attractive to all fans of interactive betting? Let’s look into it.
The transience of bouts
When it comes to other sports – especially the big ones – they are quite lengthy. Football with all the extra minutes and breaks lasts about two hours, hockey about two and a half, so you have to wait a long time for the game to end. If we talk about basketball, it consists of four periods of play lasting about 10-15 minutes, as well as breaks of a total length of 20-25 minutes. Even if you add up all the overtime periods and everything else, you still only get about an hour and a half.
In addition, we can also note the fleeting nature of each individual segment of the game. As a rule, the longest quarter is the fourth, and it lasts 20-25 minutes. This makes it possible to make more bets for people who like to play live. Usually, the game ends quickly, and the user gets a settlement, and has the chance to bet on the next quarter.
In this way, a large number of bets can be placed in a single day, which, if handled correctly, will bring quite a serious profit to the user.
Having two possible outcomes
In many sports users are faced with the following problem: everything goes according to plan, but instead of a solid win a draw occurs, which ruins any hopes of success. This is often very frustrating in handball, where the odds of a draw are pretty low. If you look at the statistics, in basketball too, a draw at the end of regulation time does not happen very often.
For this reason, the bookmaker has decided to make advances to the users and offers them to bet on only two possible outcomes – a “win for the first team” and a “win for the second team”. This protects against the risk that the regular time will end in a draw and the selected team will win in overtime.
The good thing about this is that the total chance of winning the bet increases. This is especially the case when a favourite faces an underdog. Quite often, a strong team is in no hurry to defeat the opponent in this situation, and the slackness often leads to a draw at the end of regular time. In the final five minutes, however, the leaders will go all out to seize the win.
Low impact of associated factors
Basketball is a sport played indoors, inside halls, and it does not matter what the weather is like outdoors, with blustery winds and pouring rain. In arenas, conditions are created such that nothing affects the ball’s flight, everything depends on the skill and professionalism of the players. Furthermore, some sports like beach volleyball or tennis often suffer during bad weather. Because matches can’t be staged in the rain, matches have to be postponed, postponed and rescheduled, which can affect the players’ mood in a bad way. It is hard to imagine a situation where a basketball game has to be postponed.
Likewise, the players themselves are in almost optimal conditions, they don’t suffer from heat or cold, they feel comfortable indoors, and they don’t have to shield their eyes from the scorching sun. It’s in these conditions that all strong points of a player show their best qualities and that’s why it’s rare for an underdog to prevail in a game. Usually the favourites win on the strength of their own players.
A big range of contests
Basketball has the most varied betting line-up of all the sports. This is primarily due to its popularity with both men and women. This results in a situation where virtually every championship that currently exists has its own women’s division, on which interactive betting is also offered. For many users, it doesn’t matter who goes on the court, what matters is the end result. And from this point of view, women’s volleyball is even more convenient, as the favourites are much less likely to make a mistake than in men’s volleyball.
Also a very large number of competitions imply a division of competitors according to age. Therefore, a huge number of matches can be watched on one day for participants under the age of sixteen, eighteen or twenty. Such a spread provides the user with an opportunity to choose which of the large number of events he wants to bet on and which is more preferable for him. However, it must be kept in mind that youth basketball is less predictable and more risky.
A wide range of betting on players
In many sports, users can bet on the performance of each individual player. For example, that a particular player will score a goal, give a goal-kick or achieve a similar result. However, in other sports this line is rather narrow, as there is not a huge number of possible outcomes. In football and hockey it is a goal and an assist, in the rest of sports it is usually a point scored. But in basketball the possibilities are much bigger, as there are several separate options – you can bet on shots, points, blocked shots, assists and steals, you can choose the option of your choice.
This spread, on top of everything else, allows almost all players to be involved. For example, it is logical that in football the strikers are the most frequent scorers, so there is little betting on defenders. On the other hand there are in basketball, where they are responsible for blocked shots, but some defenders are also effective and score a lot of points. Nimble point guards and forwards tend to focus on steals as well as making efficient passes. You can’t place more than one bet per game as an express, but you can choose all the options you are interested in in single bets.
A busy calendar year
There are users who choose one team to bet on, on which they are looking forward to playing. But in football the teams usually only play 1 or 2 games a week, and the total number of games is therefore not very high. But in basketball it is quite different. National Basketball League matches have a very busy schedule with some teams playing 3 or 4 games per week. In Europe, however, there are international tournaments that also dilute the national championships.
But there are two sides to every coin, and you have to be able to use them. Often a gruelling calendar has a negative impact on the team, they become tired and no longer perform with the same freshness, and the chance of defeat increases. On the other hand, if your opponents are fit and rested after their last match, you should certainly try and bet on them, even if they look like the underdogs in the upcoming event. The players’ fitness has a big influence on their success on the pitch, assists and shots.
Team motivation
It is a tradition that all basketball competitions are structured in such a way that every team has to fight until the very end. They fight for the play-offs first and almost everybody has a chance to be one of the fortunate ones to make it to the knock-out phase until the very end. Even if a team is at the top of the table, it cannot afford to be complacent. The fact is that their playoff seeding depends on their regular-season or group-stage position. In order to get the weakest possible opponent, it’s desirable to be in first place.
As a result there are virtually no walkover games, in which the favourites or underdogs simply give up and do nothing useful. Every slip-up can be very expensive, which is why teams rarely field a weak squad, trying to play with the main core. The only exceptions are the very strong teams, who have a bunch of players on the bench who could become the backbone themselves. For example, CSKA has its star players in the Euroleague, but in the VTB United League those individuals who get less playing time get a chance.
Conclusions
As the analysis above shows, basketball has plenty of features which make it a good option for online betting. The main advantages are the duration of the matches, which allows for a large number of bets per day, as well as the incredibly rich lineup, which on top of that offers a choice among the gender of the participants, as well as the age category. Also, considering the location, the season lasts almost the whole year and you can find interesting events in every month of the sport.