A moneyline bet is a wager on which team wins the game, with no adjustment for the final score. Each side carries its own price: the favourite's price pays less per dollar staked because the market rates it more likely to win, and the underdog's pays more because it's rated less likely. If a favourite were priced at -150 and the underdog at +130, for illustration only, that gap tells you how the market leans before anything else is factored in. Overtime points count toward the result the same as regulation.
A spread handicaps the two teams by a set number of points so a bet on either side has a comparable chance of winning. The favourite is shown as a minus number they have to beat by more than that many points, and the underdog is shown as the same number as a plus, meaning it can lose by less than that margin, or win outright, and still cover. A spread of -6.5, for illustration only, means the favourite needs to win by 7 points or more; the underdog covers at a 6-point loss or better. Half-point spreads exist specifically so a bet can't land on a push.
A totals bet is a wager on the combined final score of both teams, not on who wins. The book sets a number, and you bet whether the two teams' points added together finish over or under it, with any overtime points counting toward the total the same as points scored in regulation. Because it doesn't require picking a winner, a totals bet is decided purely by pace and scoring efficiency across the whole game.
Decimal odds show your total return per dollar staked, stake included, so a price of 2.20 returns $22 on a $10 bet. American odds show the identical price as a plus or minus number: a minus figure is what you'd need to stake to win $100, and a plus figure is what a $100 stake would win. The two formats describe the same price; converting between them doesn't change what a bet actually pays.
A price of -110 on both sides, for illustration only, implies each side has slightly better than a 50% chance of winning once converted to probability, and the two implied probabilities add up to more than 100%. That extra percentage is the margin built into the price, and it's how a two-way market can offer a price on both outcomes and still expect to come out ahead over enough bets, regardless of which side wins any single one. It isn't specific to basketball or to any one sportsbook — the same margin sits under a spread, a total or a moneyline whenever both sides are priced close to even.
A line moves mainly for two reasons: new information and the balance of money on each side. A change to the injury report — a star player listed questionable or ruled out close to game time — is one of the biggest single movers, since it changes what each team is expected to produce. Lines also shift when a lot of money lands on one side relative to the other, when a team is on the second night of a back-to-back and likely to rest a key player, or when a late lineup change alters the matchup. A line that hasn't moved by tip-off usually means the market hasn't seen anything it considers worth adjusting for.
A player prop is graded on the stat line the player actually records, so a player who's active but has a quiet night because of foul trouble or a blowout still produces a settled result either way. What happens if a player doesn't play at all is different: many sportsbooks void a prop and refund the stake when a player is ruled out before the game starts, but the exact rule — including any minimum-minutes clause for a player who exits early — is set out in that market's own bet rules rather than being identical everywhere. Check the specific market's settlement terms before betting a player carrying any injury doubt.
A parlay combines two or more separate bets into one wager, and the price compounds by multiplying each leg's decimal odds together rather than adding them, which is why the payout on a three- or four-leg parlay can look disproportionately large next to any single leg's own price. Two legs priced at roughly -110 each, for illustration only, combine to a price well above either leg on its own. The trade-off is that every leg has to win — losing any single leg loses the entire wager — so the same multiplication that inflates the potential payout also compounds the chance the parlay fails, which is why a parlay carries meaningfully more variance than betting the same legs individually.
Pragmatic
Pragmatic
Spribe
EGT Digital
EGT Digital
EGT Digital
EGT Digital
Fazi
Yggdrasil
BGaming
Penguin King
Booming
