Hitting upon blackjack, betting, and the NBA playoffs last week reminded me of an important lesson: never underestimate the power of data to inform your decision-making process. With the right data in hand, we can often make much more informed choices about our daily lives than we could ever accomplish on our own.
Bettors Corner
Let’s start with the most basic statistical fact about NBA playoff betting: only about 1% of NBA players ever take their games seriously enough to consider betting on them. With that kind of low player interest, there aren’t exactly going to be any great insights waiting for you at Bookmaker or Bovada, are there?
That’s why we need to dig deeper than just searching for odds on the latest NBA playoff matchups. We have to go where the serious bettors are: to the corners where they congregate. Specifically: to the Twitterverse. Because there, amid the cacophony of emoji and hashtags, you’ll find the cream of the crop when it comes to making money off the gambling public. Especially during playoff season.
The Data Geeks
The Twitterverse is a veritable goldmine when it comes to digging into the demographics and psychographics of NBA playoff bettors. With a little bit of detective work, we can tell a lot about where these people come from, what they care about, and how to speak to them. Let’s take a quick look at some of the most interesting findings.
First off, we can see that the majority of NBA playoff bettors are men between the ages of 25 and 44. That fits with the usual demographic for sports betting, which is basically everyone else. In fact, among all online sportsbooks, you’ll find that men between the ages of 25 and 44 are the most likely to bet on sports (57%).
They Follow The Hawks, Bulls, And Warriors
Here’s a fun fact about the demographics of NBA playoff betters: they follow the Chicago Bulls, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Golden State Warriors as their top three favorite teams. It seems that these teams’ success resonates well with the demographic.
This is really interesting, because the same data reveals that only 13% of NBA playoff bettors follow the Cleveland Cavaliers. This makes sense if you consider the demographic’s favorite teams and how competitive the Eastern Conference is this year. The betting public seems to have a soft spot for the hometown hero. We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out in the coming weeks.
NBA Playoff Betting Is All About The Money
If you’re looking to get involved in NBA playoff betting, the first thing you need to do is take out a small loan from somewhere. This is because the going rate for a single digit win by the Cavaliers these days is about $100. That’s a lot of money to put down on a single game, even for someone who considers themselves to be a very serious bettor.
What’s more, you’ll quickly learn that NBA playoff betting is all about the money. The data revealed that 89% of the bettors said that getting a side of $10,000 to $20,000 in profit is the main reason why they venture into the unknown world of NBA playoff betting. This kind of money is easily attained by getting one of the above-mentioned three teams correctly favored in a given game.
Once you’ve got your side of the cash, you can look into the kinds of bets that are available. From line movement to totals, there’s a whole world of betting opportunities waiting for you.
What Are The Most Popular Bets In NBA Playoff Betting?
To gain a better understanding of the kinds of bets that NBA playoff bettors are interested in, we can examine the data and see what options are most preferred. To start, we’ll examine the most popular line movement bets.
As we mentioned above, getting a side bet of $10,000 to $20,000 on one of the above-mentioned three teams is very lucrative. For instance, if you bet $10,000 on the Bulls and they win the game, you’ll earn $20,000. Plus, you’ll collect on the vigorish (vigorish = 10% of a winning bet). That’s a nice little earner for a single game. It doesn’t get any better than that.
The most popular line movement bet is the Bears +3 at -130. In other words, if the Bears win the game by more than three points, you’ll win your bet. But if they lose, you’ll lose your bet. Three points is a pretty fair margin, doesn’t hurt to back the favorite, and it doesn’t hurt to bet on the underdog in certain situations. Especially when those situations correspond to one of your favorite teams.
What Are The Most Popular Bets Aside From Line Movement?
Aside from line movement, the most popular bets in NBA playoff betting are either a straight up win/loss or totals. It seems that many people consider either getting a full or half-point spread to be the ultimate winner. There’s also an interesting trend emerging in regards to favorite/underdog picks. Many people are now choosing to back the underdog in the interest of getting a better shot at winning. This makes sense if you consider the volatile nature of sports betting and how much easier it is to back the underdog in almost every single game. Plus, if the favorite fails to cover the spread, you’re still in a winning position. Not to mention that there’s more money to be made from a plus-formal.
Here To Help
Hopefully, this was helpful. Now that you have an idea of the kinds of bets that are available, it’s time to move on to the next step: finding the best place to bet. Or, as the case may be, the best place not to bet. Because no one likes to lose money. Especially when it’s hard-earned money that you’re just betting on a whim.
Hopefully, this article gave you some good ideas about how to approach your next NBA gambling endeavor. Just remember: win, lose, or draw, but always bet on the moneymaker. It’s the only way to guarantee a profit.