The Winners
The Celtics are strong favourites to retain the NBA Championship after a thoroughly dominant campaign in 2023/24. Rarely looking in any trouble throughout the season, Boston beat the Mavericks 4-1 in the final series, their first win since 2008.
So the bookies would be looking to keep them safe again, you would think? Well that depends where you place your NBA bets.
Stateside, BETMGM are looking to lay the Celtics by offering a clear top price of 4.25. BETMGM have consistently sided against the Celtics during preseason, and their traders clearly want to take on the Champs.
Thunder, Knicks, and 76ers are the only other teams consistently offered at single figure odds. But there are still significant disparities amongst their odds. Whilst opposing the Celtics, MGM are keeping the Thunder and Knicks safe, both at 7.75. Yet other Vegas sportsbook are more than happy to keep pushing out the 76ers to as high as 11.00. Across the pond in the UK, you’ll be lucky to get more than 9.00 for Philly.
The Denver Nuggets are another team dividing open with the Sportsbooks, ranging between 10.00 and 13.00 to win the big prize.
Similarly, if you don’t want to shop around, you can place your bets on the Suns at 16.00 with MGM, or click on to DraftKings and pick up 31.00 and a free $1000 bet at the same time.
But it’s when we look further afield, down the ranks, that we get to see some real prices differences.
Despite relentless pressure from the media as an ageing team in regression, the LA Lakers fans are sticking by their team. As big as 51.00 just days ago, the Lakers are now as low as 26.00. Although can get some small money on at 41.00 if you shop around.
If the smaller odds don’t interest you, you can throw a few dollars on a Hail Mary bet. All these teams are available at odds of at least 1001.00 - Bulls, Hornets, Trail Blazers, Wizards, Nets, Raptors, and Jazz.
Good luck with that by the way.
The Superstars
Think your favourite player will have a stellar season but don’t rate his team’s chances? Take a deeper look at the individual player market odds. Let’s start with Regular Season MVP futures betting.
Usual suspects here again you’ll see. These are the best odds available currently:
Luka Dončić: 5.00
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 5.50
Nikola Jokić: 5.50
Giannis Antetokounmpo: 10.00
Joel Embiid: 10.00
Jalen Brunson: 13.00
Anthony Edwards: 14.00
Victor Wembanyama: 19.00
Luka and Nicola have been relatively stable in the pre-season odds for MVP, but don’t let that put you off. Bettors are looking for some value with high figure outsider bets, notably, Ja Morant at 26.00 and Steph Curry at 41.00.
You can bet Lebron at 200.00 (backed in from 250.00).
Wembanyama was a big mover in the odds before the season began last time out, and his backers don’t seem to have lost faith. He is solid at between 21.00 and 19.00, and is attracting a lot of bets.
Moving onto the new kids now, and the 2024/25 NBA Rookie of the year betting is as open and as difficult as ever. If we've got to set our stall out somewhere to begin, it's that 50% of recent award winners have been the leading Rookie points scorer. This is what the judges are looking for.
Align that with another 50% stat - since 2008, half the award winners have been the number one overall draft pick. So now we are getting somewhere.
The consensus amongst the NBA media is that the current bunch of rookies aren't that hot compared to most years, which might open the chances of a few outsiders being worth a small financial interest.
The Atlanta Hawks picked up the #1 player in the draft, Zaccharie Risacher, who is currently at best odds of 15.00. Those odds reflect concerns regarding the amount of time Risacher will have with the ball, in his first year in a young team all competing for a locked in starting position.
Zach Edey heads the betting at 6.00 favourite, and with good reason. Edey has been very well backed in this market throughout the summer since the Memphis Grizzlies coach made it pretty clear that Edey would start from game one.
Others to look to consider (maybe) at juicy odds.
Yves Miss 21.00
Bub Carrington 17.00
Donovan Clingan 21.00
