Basketball Returns
by Bodog Sportsbook | Jul 17 2007
The leaves are changing color, the nights are getting shorter and you can see Brett Favre's breath when he takes the field in Green Bay. That can only mean that winter is almost here and the NBA has returned for another season. Pardon the midseason interruption, but I would like to quickly discuss the advantages of betting on basketball.
First, lets look at what these two sports have in common. From the House's point-of-view, football and basketball are the bread-and-butter sports. These two sports alone account for approximately two-thirds of annual betting handle with baseball, hockey, golf, boxing, NASCAR, etc. making up the other 33%. There are two main reasons for this: college programs, and easy-to-understand lines.
Both football and basketball have college programs that provide almost all the players for the professional leagues, while college baseball and college hockey programs only get the players that aren't drafted directly out of high school or are seeking the guarantee of a college education before taking the gamble of trying to play professional sports. These college programs for football and basketball are highly competitive, widely televised and popular for wagering. For these reasons they allow us to watch future professional superstars develop. Players like Michael Jordan and Peyton Manning had outstanding college careers before their success in the pros. Betting on college games accounts for roughly half of the total wagering on basketball and a little less than that for football. Make no mistake, on a per-game basis the wagering on the pros is much, much heavier, but the sheer volume of college games (with as many as 80 boarded college football games/week vs. 15 in the NFL and 250+ boarded college basketball games/week vs. 50 or so in the NBA) makes up the difference.
Bet on College Football at Bodog Sportsbook
Other than having the best players, college football and college basketball are also popular in wagering terms for the same reasons the professional versions are popular - easy-to-understand lines. Football and basketball are both bet primarily using
point spreads and totals with a built in vig of 10% - easy for bettors and easy for
bookmakers. Baseball, hockey and other sports rely on
moneylines, runlines, pucklines, etc. which confuse many bettors (especially novices) and this confusion reduces the total handle on these sports.
Bet on NBA Basketball at Bodog Sportsbook!
