Legal NBA betting provides a level of intensity a step above most sports. Between the speed of the game and sudden changes in momentum, basketball pairs well with sports betting to keep bettors active and engaged.

Only the best NBA betting sites can keep up with basketball’s fast pace, especially when it comes to in-play markets. They also have the technology and experience required to offer the most betting markets and superior lines.

It’s crucial that fans use only the best basketball betting apps. BettingUSA editors have used the nation’s most popular sportsbooks extensively for basketball betting, and we present our findings below.

In addition, this guide outlines where it’s legal to bet on the NBA online and in-person, compares basketball betting bonuses, and more.

Best NBA Betting Sites

21+ to Play, T&Cs Apply. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER

Where Is NBA Betting Legal?

The map below provides an overview of where it is legal to bet on the NBA in the USA online and in person.

Map Key

• Blue: States where online sports betting is legal.
• Red: States with retail sportsbooks only.

For readers in states that do not yet have legal NBA betting, the next closest thing to regular sports betting is pick’em fantasy sports.

Best NBA Betting Apps

These are the best betting apps for NBA fans based on hours of personal, hands-on experience. We urge readers to note each sportsbook’s standout features to be sure they pick the one that best suits their individual needs.

FanDuel NBA Betting

• Standout features: Best overall odds, diverse markets, responsive software, national availability

FanDuel Sportsbook takes the top spot by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

Most importantly, FanDuel’s NBA betting odds are often the best across the board. The vigorish on NBA moneylines rarely exceeds 4%, and in-play lines are slightly better than industry averages.

FanDuel also offers the lowest house edge on NBA In-Season Tournament futures. Even the vigorish on its custom parlays is fair, often lower than if bettors had built the same parlay manually.

Variety is another strong point. FanDuel’s NBA betting markets cover a range of props, alternative lines, derivative odds, and futures. Collectively, FanDuel offers hundreds of bets for each NBA game.

FanDuel’s software is responsive and stable, in part due to the official NBA data it receives due to its .

Factor in FanDuel’s widespread availability, welcome bonus, and convenient deposit options, and it’s as close to a one-stop sportsbook as NBA bettors will find.

FanDuel is not without its flaws, though. In particular, recurring promotions can be sporadic, and FanDuel Sportsbook lacks a VIP loyalty program.

BetMGM NBA Betting

• Standout features: Beginner-friendly, easy deposits/withdrawals, creative markets, MGM Rewards integration

BetMGM Sportsbook is a great option for new NBA bettors with a welcome bonus that has friendlier terms than competing offers.

The BetMGM Sportsbook app makes it easy for users to switch between full- and part-time NBA lines without having to navigate multiple submenus. BetMGM also offers massive variety of daily NBA lines and creative prop bets, all categorized intuitively.

Similarly, the BetMGM parlay builder condenses the betting menu into a simple pop-up, where bettors can easily construct their wagers.

New bettors will also appreciate how easy it is to deposit and withdraw. BetMGM offers one of the most extensive cashier menus in the industry.

Unfortunately, the BetMGM app tends to have minor loading issues and isn’t particularly quick to accept wagers. This can pose problems during in-play betting.

Additionally, BetMGM’s NBA betting odds aren’t the greatest.

The house edge on pregame moneylines hovers around 4.5%, divisional futures at 10%, and NBA Finals futures at up to 20%. BetMGM’s NBA in-play odds are average, and the parlay builder doesn’t display each leg’s individual odds.

BetMGM is highly recommended for casual NBA bettors, but sharps can also find surprisingly low vigorish on select lines. BetMGM often takes positions on NBA wagers, making it a worthy line-shopping alternative.

Caesars Sportsbook NBA Betting

• Standout features: High-value promotions, low moneyline vigorish, quickly expanding markets, Caesars Rewards integration

Caesars Sportsbook aggressively markets its online sportsbook to NBA bettors looking for value with bonus bets and signup offers that are arguably the best in the industry.

Daily odds boosts and profit boosts usually run alongside season-long NBA promotions. The monetary cap on odds boosts is impressive, allowing Caesars Sportsbook bettors to wager up to $100 on these often +EV wagers.

Caesars Sportsbook frequently updates its app, adding new features and NBA markets, including niche bets like which team will have the best regular season record or participate in the play-in game.

Although Caesars Sportsbook doesn’t have as many NBA betting markets as DraftKings or FanDuel, the gap is closing, especially since Caesars has for NBA data tracking.

Caesars offers highly competitive pricing on popular NBA betting markets like moneylines, totals, and spreads. Further, it is willing to take big action on these lines.

However, the vigorish on NBA futures is far too high for serious bettors, running up to 31% on In-Season Tournament futures.

Bet365 NBA Betting

• Standout features: Early lines, regular promotions, vast NBA betting markets, fair odds

Bet365 Sportsbook’s NBA betting markets have expanded dramatically and now include props, futures, and in-play bets.

Bet365 is usually the first to market with its NBA alternative spreads and totals. The pricing on these lines is adequate, and there’s enough of them that sharp bettors should be able to find value.

Other lines are mostly priced by market standards, the exception being its pregame moneylines, which average just a 4% house edge and often deviate from the odds posted by other sportsbooks.

Bet365 offers a variety of NBA promotions. Early payouts, where NBA moneyline wagers are settled if your team is up by 20+ at any time, are available for most games.

Bettors also receive daily parlay boosts and NBA bet boosts on select wagers.

Unfortunately, most of these promotions don’t offer enough value to flip the house edge, but they’re reliable edge-trimming tools that bettors should take advantage of.

The Bet365 interface still feels a bit clunky and dated, but it is reliable. The lack of a dedicated loyalty program also hurts its overall rankings.

DraftKings NBA Betting

• Standout features: Extensive betting markets, early lines, frequent promotions, Dynasty Rewards

DraftKings Sportsbook NBA betting markets are comprehensive but suffer from a few small flaws.

DraftKings posts NBA betting markets daily, including hundreds of game and team props, and at least a dozen ways to bet on each team’s #1 and #2 players.

DraftKings NBA futures markets include win totals, playoff seeding, player awards, exact NBA finals outcomes, and divisional forecasts.

In-play markets are equally prevalent. DraftKings offers more microbetting markets than most online sportsbooks, aggressively lists main market odds for future games, and is usually the first to post proposition bets.

DraftKings has a refined NBA betting interface that never feels cluttered, which is impressive considering the volume of betting categories.

DraftKings also features a strong promotional schedule and one of the best player rewards programs in the industry.

The spread, totals, moneyline, and prop odds are fair but don’t stand out. DraftKings offers excellent odds on NBA Championship futures and Win Totals (O/U) but abhorrent lines on the In-Season Tournament.

Finally, its “Flash Props” are typically priced at -115, which feels too high for a market that is more gambling than skill betting.

What To Look For In Legal NBA Betting Sites

The only surefire way to ensure a fair NBA online betting experience is to do business exclusively with legal, licensed, and regulated sportsbooks. After that, it’s a matter of narrowing it down to find apps that fit your needs, whether that be frequent promotions, stellar odds, vast betting markets, or a wide variety of depositing options:

NBA Betting Bonuses

The NBA season generates frequent betting promotions because it trails only the NFL in annual wagering handle nationwide and attracts a ton of in-play betting.

In fact, NBA betting even outpaces NFL betting in total wagering volume in some states.

Unsurprisingly, online sportsbooks want basketball bettors and are willing to spend significant sums on NBA betting promotions to attract them. For casual bettors and hardcore handicappers alike, NBA betting bonuses, short-term promos, and loyalty programs represent the easiest ways to improve their bottom lines.

We can broadly delineate two types of NBA betting promotions: new customer welcome bonuses and one-off promos open to everyone.

New Customer NBA Betting Bonuses

New customer NBA bonuses outshine all other types of promos in terms of value and maximum return to customers. The best NBA betting sites welcome new users with first bet refunds, deposit match bonuses, and other promos that often provide $1,000 or more in value to customers.

Most new customer NBA welcome bonuses take one of the following forms:

• Second-Chance NBA Bets: Second-chance bets, also known as first-bet refunds, are the most common type of welcome bonus fans will encounter at licensed NBA betting sites. New customers can claim second-chance bets by signing up, depositing funds, and placing their first wager. If it loses, they’ll receive a 100% refund paid as bonus bets. Second-chance bet promos tend to be the biggest types of welcome bonuses, but the downside is that they only pay when bettors place losing wagers, and the bonus bet only returns the initial stake.
• NBA Deposit Match Bonuses: Deposit bonuses are appealing because they are flexible, benefit all new customers, and are sometimes withdrawable. Unfortunately, they are rare and usually have a low match rate or monetary cap. Even small NBA deposit bonuses are usually worthwhile because bettors can split them up across multiple wagers and withdraw the bonus money after meeting the wagering requirements. In contrast, second-chance bet promotions usually pay refunds as non-withdrawable bonus bets that customers must use in one shot on a single market.
• NBA Bet & Get Bonuses: More NBA betting sites are now offering welcome bonuses that award players who make a small deposit and first wager with bonus bets. For example, a standard Bet & Get promo might invite new customers to bet $20 on any NBA game in return for $200 in bonus funds.

Other Types of NBA Betting Promotions

Although welcome bonuses for new customers provide the most initial value, promos for existing customers offer even more value over the long term for fans who choose their spots wisely.

• First Basket Scorer NBA Promos: Sportsbooks occasionally offer insurance on specific proposition markets, like which player will score the game’s first point. In these promos, fans place prop bets and get refunds if they lose, paid as bonus bets.
• NBA Odds Boosts: NBA odds boosts are the most common type of basketball promotion; some sportsbooks even offer new boosts every day. Typically, NBA odds boosts are available for specific games only and vary in quality.
• NBA Profit Boosts: Profit boosts are similar to odds boosts, except they increase the payout by a percentage rather than enhancing the odds. The impact is the same (bigger payouts on winning wagers), but sportsbooks usually issue profit boosts as tokens that bettors can use to bet on any NBA game.
• NBA Bet & Get Offers: Sportsbooks frequently offer short-term “Bet & Get” offers during the NBA season that invite customers to bet on any NBA game to receive a bonus bet, regardless of the outcome. For example, a typical NBA Bet & Get would invite bettors to place a $25+ wager on any NBA game and give them a $5 bonus bet whether the initial wager wins or loses.
• NBA Parlay Promotions: Typical NBA parlay promotions offer refunds (paid as bonus bets) to customers who place parlays that lose by a single leg.
• No-Brainer NBA Promotions: Occasionally, NBA betting sites offer no-brainer bonuses that provide extra value with minimal risk. For example, a sportsbook may launch a promo where customers who bet $10 on any NBA game win $10 in bonus bets if either team scores a three-pointer. The biggest downside of no-brainer bonuses is their rarity, but they are almost always worth claiming when available.
• Early Payouts: These promos pay out NBA moneyline bettors if their team is ahead by 10-20+ points at any point in the game. Given the high frequency of swings in the NBA, this promo is worth more than it initially seems.

NBA fans should also check their favorite betting sites daily during the Playoffs for unusually valuable promotions. NBA Playoffs betting promotions can take many forms, ranging from free-to-play prediction contests to bonus bets just for logging in, but they tend to offer better value than regular season promos.

How To Bet On The NBA Online

Getting started with NBA betting online is simple if you have a basic understanding of how odds work.

How NBA Odds Work

Favored teams and outcomes are presented with negative odds such as -110, -220, -350, and so on. The larger the number behind the negative sign, the more likely the outcome, and the more one will have to wager relative to the potential payout.

Negative moneyline odds indicate how much the bettor must risk to win $100. An NBA team priced at -110 requires the bettor to risk $110 to win $100 (or $1.10 to win $1.00), while odds of -350 indicate the bettor must risk $350 to win $100 (or $3.50 to win $1.00).

In contrast, sportsbooks price underdog teams and outcomes with positive odds.

Positive American odds express how much the bettor stands to win per $100 wagered. For example, odds of +250 indicate the bettor must risk $100 to win $250 while odds of +110 indicate the bettor must risk $100 to win $110.

All potential wins discussed above relate to net profit only. The actual amount returned will be larger as bettors also receive their original stake back as a part of the payout.

For example, a winning $100 NBA bet at odds of +250 would return a total of $350 ($250 in net profit plus the return of the original $100 stake).

For more details and examples, see the BettingUSA live odds guide.

Types Of NBA Wagers

The number of wagers available for NBA games can vary by a wide margin depending on how far out the game is scheduled. Most NBA sportsbooks post game lines early in the week and then add markets as tipoff approaches, starting with standard game outcome wagers and then adding alternative lines, player props, team props, and more.

Some of the most common types of NBA wagers include:

• Moneyline: Straight bet on which team will win; moneyline odds pay more for the underdog and less for the favorite
• Point Spread: Bet on which team will win; the favored team has to win by X points to “cover the spread.” The underdog has to win or lose by less than X to cover
• Point Total: Bet on the combined total points scored by both teams; sportsbook sets the total, and bettors take the over or the under at roughly even money odds
• Game Props: Wagers on things other than the outcome or point total; game props can cover anything from whether the final score will be even/odd to the ranges of winning margins
• Team Props: Like game props, but specific to one team; examples include team totals and team total field goals
• Player Props: Prop bets on individual players, such as total rebounds, points, assists, blocks, or field goal percentage
• NBA Futures: Longer-term bets such as regular-season win totals, which team will win the championship, and player to be named MVP
• Parlays: Combine several bets into one for a larger payout; every leg must win, or the entire wager is lost
• Teasers: A fixed-odd parlay consisting of NBA spreads/totals where each leg “gets” a certain number of points, whether it be 4, 4.5, 5, 8, or 10. This results in far less variance, but smaller payouts, than traditional parlays
• Round Robins: A group of smaller parlays that are derived from a larger parlay. This format reduces the house edge and variance and enables players to eke out a profit despite all legs winning. The downside is that the returns are smaller than if players hit the larger parlay straight up
• Alternate Spreads: Same type of wager as standard point spreads, but with the spread adjusted, which impacts the odds; for example, bettors can back the favorite but increase the point spread for a larger potential payout. Note: these have higher vigorish than main spreads
• Alternative Totals: Same as regular totals, except players can move the line in half-point increments, and the odds adjust accordingly. As an example, bettors can move the line on the New York Knicks from -4.5 to -8.5 for a bigger payout
• In-play Betting: Wagers that are taken after the game has started and throughout the game. In-play bets can cover typical markets such as who will win (with odds updated in real-time) or shorter-term markets such as the next team to score

Betting On The NBA Finals

Licensed sportsbooks offer NBA Finals betting year-round.

NBA Finals Champion futures are offered during the regular season and offseason, with some online sportsbooks offering even more futures on the finals, such as:

• Which conference will win the NBA Finals?
• Which two teams will reach the Finals?
• What will be the exact outcome of the Finals? (Team A beats Team B)
• Who will be the Finals MVP?
• The state of the NBA Champion

Betting fully opens when the Finals get underway, providing bettors a full complement of wagers on every game, prop bets on players, updated futures on which team will win it all, and much more.

The NBA Finals is also an excellent time to take advantage of NBA betting promotions.

The outright odds on NBA Finals futures fluctuate over the season as more information about lineups and coaching changes comes out.

Betting On The NBA In Season Tournament

The 2023-24 season introduced a second major tournament to the NBA, occurring at the very beginning of the season.

The core of it is this:

• Before the season, all 30 teams are pseudo-randomly split into six groups based on last season’s regular season record.
• On Tuesdays and Fridays, teams will play regular season games against another in their group. This continues for four weeks, with teams playing other teams in their group just once.
• The six group winners and two wildcards move on to the Knockout Round, which is a single-elimination tournament that concludes with the winner being awarded the In-Season Tournament trophy. In a unique twist, all Tournament games also count as regular season games.

The In-Season Tournament has little bearing on the NBA Playoffs, with the exception that the winner will have racked up some early regular-season wins. However, it does present some interesting betting opportunities.

First, it has inspired sports betting sites to offer early spreads, totals, and moneylines on group play matchups. Secondly, sportsbooks offer futures bets on the group play and the tourney winner.

Tournament futures are subject to high vigorish because the market is highly uncertain, coming from the fact that the Tournament is new, takes place early in the season, and is a highly volatile single-elimination format. Any team can win, which worries sportsbooks.

However, despite the high house edge, bettors may be able to find edges, especially if they can quickly decipher how much more seriously coaches and teams are taking In-Season Tournament games.

If anything, the In-Season Tournament is another opportunity for bettors to cash in on generous promotional offers that are not available during the early NBA season.

NBA Stance On Sports Betting

The NBA’s position on sports betting has long been more pragmatic than dogmatic.

Notably, its position shifted before the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).

The league supported the passage of PASPA in 1992. But in 2014, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver penned a New York Times op-ed urging Congress to legalize and regulate sports betting.

Adam Silver described efforts to legalize sports betting as “unlawful and bad public policy,” but only in light of a lack of federal regulation.

In 2017, the league announced it would begin lobbying Congress to regulate sports betting at the federal level.

After the Supreme Court struck down PASPA, the NBA reiterated its position with that read in part:

Today’s decision by the Supreme Court opens the door for states to pass laws legalizing sports betting. We remain in favor of a federal framework that would provide a uniform approach to sports gambling in states that choose to permit it, but we will remain active in ongoing discussions with state legislatures. Regardless of the particulars of any future sports betting law, the integrity of our game remains our highest priority.

Despite the league’s best efforts, some players are bound to test the NBA’s commitment to that final point in the above quote. No professional league can monitor all athletes all the time, but intelligent policies and procedures can go a long way in deterring, detecting, and responding to bad actors who threaten the integrity of the game.

Case in point is former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter, who was banned from the NBA when an integrity monitoring service detected suspicious betting patterns on prop bets involving his statistical performances during two games he played in early 2024.

An investigation into Porter determined that he had colluded with third parties to bet the Under on his projected stat totals. At the time, Porter was making around $56,000 per year on a two-way contract with the Raptors.

The NBA couldn’t prevent Porter from cheating, but the league’s integrity monitoring processes did exactly what they were designed to do: flag suspicious betting patterns for further investigation.

No Under Bets on Low-Paid Players

The NBA’s experience with Jontay Porter prompted to league to contact the nations’ most prominent sportsbook operators and not to offer Under bets on the stats of players who are on two-way and 10-day contracts.

The league’s rationale is that athletes on two-way and 10-day contracts are more susceptible to corruption because they make comparatively little money. In other words, it’s a lot harder to convince a player making $5 million a year to throw a game for a relatively small payout than it is to convince a player making $56,000 a year to do the same.

Although most states with legal online sports betting allow leagues to submit formal requests to prohibit certain types of wagers, the NBA made the request informally, and all major US sportsbook operators immediately acquiesced.

Operators that have removed under bets involving players on two-way and 10-day contracts include:

• FanDuel
• BetMGM
• Caesars Sportsbook
• ESPN Bet
• DraftKings

NBA Sports Betting Lobbying Efforts

After the Supreme Court struck down PASPA, the NBA began lobbying state legislatures for concessions that would benefit the league:

• Integrity Fees: The NBA has lobbied state and federal lawmakers for a 1% fee to be taken off the top of all betting handle and paid to the league. The NBA justified the integrity fee as necessary to offset the costs of protecting the league from corruption.
• Data Rights: The NBA wants to mandate that sports betting operators purchase data directly from the leagues. Operators use data to settle wagers and to provide bettors with in-play betting markets.
• Right to Prevent Certain Types of Bets: The NBA wants to be able to have control over which types of wagers sportsbooks offer on its games. Specifically, the league wants to be able to tell sportsbook operators not to accept bets it believes are more susceptible to corruption.

The NBA had limited success with data rights and no success with integrity fees but is benefiting from increased fan engagement, sponsorship deals and partnerships with sports betting operators, and advertising and product fees resulting from widespread legalization.

NBA Betting FAQ