Basketball betting is among the most popular markets in the USA. With a wide range of college and professional matches up every night in the NCAA and the NBA, it’s easy to see why US bettors love it so much. The top bookies have thousands of markets attached to the NBA, a league with a global presence that’s fun to bet on.
We’re not just talking moneylines or handicaps –, those are just the basic types of NBA or NCAA betting. There are plenty more different bets to place on basketball, some of them being pretty obscure.
Prop bets allow you to bet on side events (team and player) that have no relation to the outcome of the match. For example, you can bet on impossible stuff, such as LeBron James passing Stephen Curry on the 3s list in the NBA Finals, which is never going to happen. Or you can bet on how many matches will the Conference Finals go on for. Often called skill bets, prop bets can be profitable if you know your basketball.
If you just want to follow their fun nature, you can place obscure bets such as the ones below. You may not be likely to win them, but with a bit of luck, you can score a nice return.
More Menacing Mascot
NBA teams have mascots that usually represent an animal. For example, the Raptors have a raptor (duh!), while the Suns have a gorilla for whatever the reason. These mascots are pretty fun, doing tricks just for show on the court and entertaining the public. While obscure, some bookies will allow you to pick which animal among the mascots would win in a real-life fight.
For example, you can put your money on the raptor tearing apart Bulls’ Bernie when they play. It’s not a very profitable bet and quite obscure, but if the Raptors beat the bulls and you place a bet on their mascot, you will win your bet. As long as you find a bookmaker that still offers this weird bet.
Alphabetical Order Betting
Betting on basketball or any other sport is usually done after a lot of research and taking many factors into consideration. One of the most obscure ways to bet is betting in alphabetical order that might sometimes be profitable.
If the stars align, all the teams that come first alphabetically on your slip might win. In that case, you can win a nice return on your bets, but don’t count on it all the time.
Betting on Shorter Point Guards
We’re not talking about betting on the shorter PG odds, but the shorter point guard size-wise. This is an obscure player prop bet that may not work, although some bettors have had success with it. Applied to the NBA Finals, it’s worth mentioning that no PG over 6’2 “has won the trophy in the past couple of years.
You need to keep those stats in mind if you’re willing to bet in this obscure market that might be profitable if you’re lucky.
