The popularity of basketball betting has grown rapidly in recent years. The Raptors continue to put on a show in the NBA playoffs, and the acquisition of Kawhi Leonard has made them a super team and a legitimate pretender for the title. The Raptors have consistently made the playoffs during the course of the previous five years, as well as some deep playoff runs.

Canada basketball is also in great hands on the international level, with some formidable players such as Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets), Andrew Wiggins (Minnesota Timberwolves) and Nik Stauskas (Portland Trail Blazers).  All these stars have a couple of NBA seasons under their belts, while the Canadian upcoming star RJ Barrett, who lead Canada to the U19 World Cup Champions title as a 17 year old teenager, is expected to be the top pick in the 2019 draft.

In this article, we will provide you with all the necessary information to start placing basketball bets online. We’ll start off by outlining the best betting sites for Canadians and follow that up by mentioning some of the most popular basketball bets offered at these sites. Keep up if you want to make successful basketball betting predictions!

There are three most popular basketball betting markets that we would like to point out in this article, and we will also discuss each of them in detail.

Point Spread

In most parts of the world, this game is often referred to as handicap bet, and it’s probably the most widespread basketball betting market in the world. In a point spread game, the bookmaker basically gives one of the teams a head start in terms of points (for example +14.5), and the favourite team must win with a larger points difference than the one indicated in the spread (15 in this case), while the underdog team must lose by fewer points than indicated in the spread.

How can you know if your basketball point spread bet was a winner? It’s as easy as pie. Let’s say the final score of the game Toronto–Phoenix is 110:95. If you had been on the favourite (in this case Toronto -13.5), you should subtract 13.5 points from their final score. With the handicap being subtracted from the final score, Toronto still wins 97.5:95, which means that you get a nice payoff.

Money Line

With a money line bet, you’re simply betting on which of the two teams will win the match. Place a bet on the team that you think will win the match, and if they are the winner, you get paid out.

Money Line is the simplest betting market for all sports, and the main thing to pay attention to here are the rules regarding tied games. Most bookmakers consider a tied game to be a ‘push’, as you get your money refunded, regardless of the outcome of the game.

With this bet, it’s important to find the bookmaker that provides the highest basketball betting odds for the selected game. As the odds can vary significantly depending on a bookmaker, it’s essential to find the bookmaker that has the most competitive odds on the market if you’re planning to wager a substantial amount of money.

Points Total

This game is highly popular in basketball betting circles. As the name suggests, with this bet you’re trying to predict the number of points scored in a game. The bookmaker will set a total number of points for a certain game (the average total is between 180 and 210), and you can bet on whether there will be more or fewer points scored in that game.

So how can you bet successfully on betting on points total? First and foremost, don’t pay much attention to the team’s short term averages. For example, games featuring the Toronto Raptors may have had an average of 200 in their last 20 games. But in one of those games, the Raptors might have played overtime where over 240 points were scored. This result will significantly distort the average.

The important thing to consider is the previous meetings between the two teams. This will give you a good insight into what you might expect to see in the game in terms of scoring efficiency. Likewise, you should take a look at how the teams are performing on home court, as well as when they are away. You can usually see a huge contrast between the two.