Sports Betting Geek

How To Bet on NBA Basketball

2011-01-12T01:20:00.000-08:00

Hey guys hope you were having a successful betting experience all the time I was away from my sports betting blog :-) Sorry for not passing by for so long - I was involved in work and betting occasionally...
So, you already know that soccer and football have always been my favorite betting targets... This time we'll speak about betting on NBA Basketball...

Money Line betting in betting on NBA Basketball
It's quite easy: you bet on a team to win the game and, the team only needs to win the game. It doesn’t matter by how much they win by. Of course with money line betting you will have less of a payout for favorites, and the underdogs will be paying out more.

NBA Spread Betting
When betting against or on the spread you will be choosing a team, but it is a little more advanced than just picking the team to win the game. The bettors will set a number that the favored team is favored by. In order for a bet on the favored team to win they must win by more than the amount of points they are favored by. In order for a bet on the underdog to win they can lose by fewer points than they are underdogs by or win the game straight up.

Over Under NBA Basketball Betting
Betting on the over under in NBA basketball involves betting on the total amount of points scored by both teams combined. The bettors will set a number, which is called the game total, and bettors will be able to place a bet on the total numbers of points scored by both teams going over or under that set number. For example the number for an NBA game may be set at 191.5, and bettors will have to chose whether the two teams will combine for more or fewer points than 191.5 throughout the game.

Prop Betting for the NBA
You'll have the option to make prop bets on NBA basketball games, which involves betting on anything other than the final outcome of the game. An example of an NBA prop bet would be betting on the halftime score or betting on how many points an individual player will have. You can also make future prop bets for the NBA, which include betting on who will win the NBA championship in any given year or who will be named the NBA MVP at the end of the season. There are an endless amount of prop bets that sportsbooks will offer lines for NBA bettors.

So here's the question: what betting options do you use to bet on NBA Basketball?

Neteller Update: Further Investigation Required

2007-07-14T01:34:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, sorry for not posting earlier; have been buried in work. Well today I have some news update on the Neteller Situation. Here is Neteller's Press-release posted on July 13, Friday:

----------------------------------------------------

Friday, 13 July 2007 - NETELLER Plc (LSE: NLR), the independent global online payments business, today issued the following statement regarding its progress in resolving the investigation by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO) into the Company.

As stated in the Company’s announcement of 12 July 2007, NETELLER stated that it had advised the USAO that it will use its best efforts to resolve the investigation on or soon after 13 July 2007. The Company believes that it is making significant progress towards achieving a resolution and hopes to be able to announce this within a number of days.

As announced on 4 June 2007, the Company has agreed to a plan for the distribution of funds to its US customers and anticipates implementing the plan upon the resolution of the investigation. The agreed distribution plan details the process and mechanisms by which US customers will be able to initiate the return of their funds after the plan is implemented. Further information will be communicated to NETELLER’s US customers via email, through our website and through a press release once the date for implementation of the plan is finalised.

The Company continues to make progress regarding the ongoing suspension of the Company’s ordinary shares from trading. The restoration of trading in the Company’s ordinary shares will depend on resolution of the investigation within a short time frame and finalisation and publication of the Company’s audited annual accounts for 2006. Further information will be announced as and when it becomes available.

The Company also today confirms that earlier today, the Board accepted the resignation of Gord Herman as Executive Chairman and Director of the Company. Mr Herman has indicated that he wishes to concentrate on personal matters. Dale Johnson, non-executive director, will assume the role of non-executive Chairman. Both of these changes will take place with immediate effect.

-----------------------------------------------------

As always said in press-releases, "the changes will take place with IMMEDIATE effect". Well we see that the changes only apply to the staff movements. In reality, further investigation is required which means another delay.

Bet4Win Sportsbook Hiding Betting Lines from Guest Users

2007-04-11T03:03:00.000-07:00

A week ago I noticed that bet4win.com's betting lines were no longer accessible from the front page. When I logged in I found the lines clickable just like before. As the sportsbook staff explained to me later, they were taking measures to prevent dishonorable sportsbook owners from stealing their betting lines.

As most Bet4Win's customers know, this sportsbook features very good soccer betting lines, including live soccer odds available on a regular basis. This is one of the reasons to have a betting account with Bet4Win - this sportsbook is mostly focused on European sports, and they feature low juice betting odds on the most popular European sports, including soccer, tennis, basketball and hockey.

Links to all betting odds featured by Bet4Win sportsbook have always been available right from the homepage, the largest and longest odds column being devoted to soccer betting lines. Then came basketball betting lines listed, a tennis odds column, propositions/futures (frequently updated with the most popular events happening worldwide), baseball betting lines and hockey lines.

Now you go to www.bet4win.com and see the lines as usual, however a click on any line prompts you to log in. There is a workaround however. You can see some of the betting lines from the sports-specific sections of the sportsbook. Thus, a Soccer Betting section tells you about all links devoted to soccer betting at Bet4Win betting site; one of them will direct you to the live soccer betting lines updated on a regular basis. I guess the guys have left a couple of links of this kind for demo purposes only.

Anyway, betting odds sniffing has become quite popular, especially with the sportsbooks who had to leave the US market rapidly and turned their heads to the European markets. Hopefully they will start doing a decent job of making odds themselves - this is what I call "doing business".

NETeller to Return the Money to the US Customers

2007-03-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

Good news guys. As stated in NETeller's Press Release dated March 21, 2007, they have signed agreements with each of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and Navigant Consulting, Inc.

Navigant Consulting Inc. is an independent firm engaged by the NETeller staff to provide financial consulting and accounting services to the NETeller Plc. Group. The firm will supervise the process of returning the funds to the original account holders.

The agenda of the preliminary discussions was managing an orderly return of funds to US customers (the amount of funds seized was around $55 million). As the result of the signed agreements, the NETeller Plc. Group "anticipates that within the next 75 days it will announce a plan by which the funds will be distributed to US customers".

It's worth to be mentioned however that the seized NETeller accounts have been temporarily de-certified to revoke Peer-to-Peer capabilities. As a NETeller representative states, "these accounts should be automatically re-certified in the next few weeks".

Unfortunately it has not been discussed yet how funds will be distributed to US customers. It will take 75 days before they work out the best way to manage the things.

NETeller Account Holders Being Hostages of the Situation

2007-03-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

Today a friend of mine complained of having a sum of $5400 frozen at his NETeller account. Primarily the money was deposited for gambling needs.

Now he would like to withdraw the money or at least spend it on something - if not gambling then buying something online… However he got the following response from the NETeller staff:

-------------------------

Dear …….,

Unfortunately at this time Neteller is unable to accept any online merchants transactions based out of the USA.

I do apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to contact us at anytime.

Regards,

………………..

Account Manager

Merchant Business Development

NETELLER

-----------------------------------------

How do you like it guys? Sorry to repeat, but there are always offended ones when politics involved. The government claims to protect their citizens but in fact they chase for their interests first of all...

US Bettors Deprived of Their Fav Sportsbooks

2007-02-21T05:44:00.000-08:00

The federal law keeping the US citizens from the online gambling sites caused an outrageous feedback from both betting site owners and US-based bettors. They say when politics involved there are both happy and the offended ones...

Betting site owners mourning over the lost marketplace

The owners of the offshore betting sites are now mourning over the lost US marketshare. These are now facing the UK market. Which is quite different and not open after all. It is flooded with UK-based sportsbooks, plus the new governmental plan on building several mega casinos in Manchester and other cities makes it impossible to bite a large piece off the gambling pie.

What about the other countries? Australia is a good country to target - Australians love supporting their sports teams and they are ready to risk money on it. Most gambling activities online are prohibited there still there are exceptions form the rule. Online betting is allowed with one exception - you cannot offer live betting to the Australians.

The other countries with powerful economics might be of interest too, however they do not represent a large share in the gambling pie, so there is no wonder that the betting site owners are in despair.

US bettors having two reasons to take offence, too

First, US bettors can no longer shop for the best betting lines on the internet. In case you have some idea of the betting lines difference, you will understand what I mean here. Some online sportsbooks offer -105 betting lines and the bettors are happy to save money with this kind of proposition!

Second thing that makes US citizens crazy about is the fact that their NETeller accounts have been blocked permanently. No matter what the initial reason of creating the NETeller account was - either betting purposes or anything other - all accounts got blocked and most users had no way to return the money.

Giving Greater Exposure to Sports Betting Geek

2007-02-05T08:11:00.000-08:00

To give a greater exposure to my sports betting blog, I've submitted it to a number of blog directories and RSS feed aggregators. I hope our sports betting community will grow day by day and we'll have a lot of things to share and discuss!

I have kindly provided my welcome users with the handy buttons to simply add my blog feeds to your personalized pages or RSS readers.

If you like my blog - feel free to add the Sports Betting Geek site to your Technorati Favorites, or get access to my blog RSS feeds from your personalized Google page, My Yahoo! page, Newsgator account, Bloglines and more! :-)

Keep in touch and have a nice day!

How do you choose a sportsbook?

2007-02-02T05:51:00.000-08:00

It's a frequently asked question… The answer often comes from the websites who offer betting services and make money on it. They write about their own benefits first; then cut their names off the text and the 'choose a sportsbook' article is done :-)

Well I am not that interested in this or that sportsbook revenue, so I'd better share my opinion on what I consider most important when choosing a sportsbook. Feel free to correct me or add anything I've happened to omit.

1. Online/offline.

Online sportsbooks have lower profit margin if compared to the brick-and-mortar bookies. Your hometown bookie might offer a -140 betting line whereas the online sportsbook might offer the betting lines as low as -110 or even -105. it is you who is supposed to choose :-)

Second, online sportsbooks have another unbeatable advantage - you don't have to leave your place and go to the bookie's office in order to place a bet. You do everything right by the computer, while watching the game by TV if you wish.

2. Home country.

This is where you might narrow down your choice dramatically. Due to the recent US legislation, US citizens cannot gamble online. Some interpret the law as a restriction covering all offshore sportsbooks, some think the law covers ANY online sportsbooks including those registered in the US… Anyway, you should consider this if you are a US citizen, or forget about it in case you are from UK or any other country :-)

3. Wagering limits.

Some sportsbooks are created for recreational gamblers only, meaning they don't want to deal with you if you are lucky enough to win large amounts of money. Some sportsbooks set limits as per the maximum winning, so be sure to check this out when you read their TOS and thier betting rules.

4. Betting lines and profit margin.

Profit margin, or vigorish, is what a sportsbook charges you for every bet you place. Some sportsbooks offer very good lines on specific events, so you'd better watch the lines and shop for the best ones.

5. Payout history.

Make a small research on the sportsbook's payout history. Some sportsbooks were blamed for the slow payouts, and some were blamed for refusing to pay out large amounts of money to the bettors. You might wish to visit some sports gambling forums - they often unveil very interesting facts, I bet!

6. Banking options.

Banking options is what makes your life easier when you place a deposit or withdraw your winnings with a sportsbook. In case the only banking option of a sportsbook is bank wire - I bet 10 against 1 that most players will prefer another sportsbook.

7. Sportsbook bonuses.

Bonuses do play a great role - in case your sportsbook has met the 6 points listed above and you feel safe with it.

Some sportsbook offer no promotions gimmicks at all - their main benefit is good betting lines. Make sure to weight all factors however - if two sporsbooks feature equal benefits and one of them offers good deposit bonuses - why not?

Well these are the things I consider important in choosing a sportsbook. There are many other things such as sportsbook visibility, online buzz or a well-promoted brand.

Mind however that all this stuff can be purchased for money, and many one-day sportsbooks have already taken advantage of it: they popped up on the Internet thanks to good advertising, collected deposits from their clients and disappeared.

Welcome to the Sports Betting Geek website!

2007-01-31T06:10:00.000-08:00

Many of us have probably tried betting on sports for fun. Some go supporting the fav team by placing a bet on the game outcome - this in fact symbolizes our trust in team's power and strength... Some people do the opposite thing - they bet on the rivals of their favorite teams - to find some poor consolation in case the favorite team loses the game... We uncork a can of beer, get some potato chips and watch the game, all buddies sitting and staring...

Well I also know some people who make their living by betting on sports professionaly, and I must say they are doing pretty well! They often hide their real names when registering with the sportsbooks; they hire "beards" sometimes in order to have them place the bets on their behalf.

We call them "wiseguys". They are often referred to as "pro handicappers" - they sometimes offer "handicapper picks", not always free of charge... Why not? They love sports betting and treat it as their job. They make research daily, as they have to be in the course of events, always. They study the injury stats and track the history of any event... Whew, this takes time and some brains...

Anyway, no matter what your aim is, if you are a sports lover and want to share your knowledge or discuss smb's knowledge or experience in sports betting - BE WELCOME TO MY BLOG!