Top Basketball Sportsbooks 2023

There’s plenty to love about basketball today. The style of play changes in recent years has led to offensive shootouts regularly, an influx of new talent has elevated the level of NCAA basketball, and player movement has made the offseason drama even more exciting than what happens on the court.

But, if you’re like me, the most exciting development in the world of basketball in recent years has been the growth of legal online sports betting.

Before 2018, if you wanted to place a bet on the NBA or college basketball online, you had to use a shady offshore sportsbook. Now, many states have legalized online sports betting and there are tons of great online sportsbooks to choose from. Maybe even too many to choose from! That's why we've created this page. - to help you choose the right online basketball sportsbook.

Here are the best NBA & NCAA Basketball Sportsbooks on the market today:

The NBA has been ahead of the curve when it comes to sports betting for a long time. Commissioner Adam Silver has long been a vocal advocate of adding legal online sports betting as a revenue stream for the league, and teams have followed suit.

Now that sports betting is so ever-present, Silver's bet (wink) clearly won. The NBA was able to mobilize and monetize sports betting much quicker than other leagues, including the NFL which was hesitant to embrace online betting.

Now the majority of NBA teams have an official sports betting partner with many NBA arenas even housing sportsbooks. The league has also officially partnered with a number of sportsbooks, including DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, and BetMGM.

But not all basketball betting sites are created equal - there are certain key features that can separate the Steph Curry's from the Seth Curry's (apologies to one of my favorite Sixers). The best NBA sportsbooks often have several key features that can make them stand out from the pack.

Let's dig into what can make an NBA sportsbook truly elite.

Live betting is one of the most exciting ways to bet on sports. Due to the sport's very nature, NBA live betting is one of the most exhilarating, pulse-pounding sports betting experiences a user can have. The way momentum can quickly swing drastically changes live odds and spreads, allowing ample room for profit and excitement alike.

See a heat check coming from your team's gunner? Bet live as Devin Booker goes 6-8 from three in a quarter to bring back the Suns from a huge deficit and profit. On some sportsbooks, you can even bet on a possession-by-possession basis (although you'd have to possess a pretty quick internet connection).

Many sportsbooks pride themselves on their live betting experience and try to promote it to users with special incentives. For example, Unibet offers users profit boosts for live bets and FanDuel Sportsbook offers bettors a free-to-play NBA live betting feature.

Make sure to take advantage of these incentives if you start live betting on NBA games!

If you're a regular sports bettor, you come to learn that the game can get repetitive over time. Especially if your game of choice is basketball, with over 1,000 games to bet on each season. One way to keep things interesting is parlay betting.

NBA parlays allow you to combine multiple outcomes into one bet. You can get really creative and mix and match wagers from different games if you've got a strong feeling about a few outcomes. On the plus side, you get the benefit of enhanced odds. This means you stand to win more than you would if you had placed separate straight bets. On the downside, all of these bets have to hit in order for your parlay bet to be considered a win. So, those enhanced odds come at a price.

Parlays are a bit riskier than straight bets, but you stand to win more if you're on a Klay Thompson-esque hot streak.

Many sportsbooks have their own twists on how they allow you to build your parlays. BetMGM features a parlay generator that randomly creates parlays for you based on the parameters you set. These kinds of innovations have made NBA parlay betting even more popular in recent years.

The NBA same game parlay is a sports betting phenomenon that has become increasingly popular over the last couple of seasons. Also known as a single game parlay, one game parlay, or bet builder, same game parlays allow you to combine multiple outcomes from a single game into a single parlay wager.

So, if you think Jayson Tatum is going to go for 40 as the Celtics beat up on the Timberwolves, you can combine the over on Tatum's point total for that game and the Celtic's moneyline into a single wager.

Betters used to be limited to only same game multi-leg wagers that the sportsbook had cooked up for them- not anymore! FanDuel Sportsbook deserves the credit for introducing this kind of bet to the US audience, but it has since been adopted by many of its competitors.

Top 5 Basketball Sportsbooks with NBA Same Game Parlay

1. DraftKings Sportsbook - Improved for the 2023 season
   
2. FanDuel Sportsbook - Innovator of the Single Game Parlay
3. BetMGM - Many same game parlay promotions
4. Caesars Sportsbook - Profit boosts available
5. Bet365 - Deep markets

If you're more a big-picture prognosticator than a week-to-week winner, NBA futures may be more your cup of tea. Basketball futures allow you to make long-term bets on season-long results like championships and awards.

Maybe you think that Lebron is due for another MVP, or that Duke's latest one-and-done recruit will lead them to an NCAA Tournament win. You can jump on these bets before the season begins, or let the odds adjust over the course of the year.

With how common player movement has become in recent years, some sportsbooks have even resorted to offering odds on off-court results, such as NBA free agency, trades, and the NBA Draft.

Top 5 Sportsbooks with College Basketball & NBA Futures

• Bet365
• Unibet
• Caesars Sportsbook
• FanDuel Sportsbook
• DraftKings Sportsbook

To some people, college basketball is an even more entertaining product than the NBA. While the college game has changed a lot over the past 20 years, with the rise of one-and-dones and less of a distinct continuity and rivalries between programs, many people would still rather build their betting calendars around SEC, Big 10, or Pac-12 match-ups.

And of course, there's the King of casual sports betting - March Madness.

March Madness is the most fun sports betting experience in the US

In 2021, anywhere from 31-47 million Americans placed traditional bets on March Madness. And that's just traditional bets with legal sportsbooks.

So everyone using an offshore sportsbook is not included in that figure, with countless bracket pools between friends, family, and co-workers unaccounted for. College basketball sportsbooks are a huge part of the sports betting landscape.

March Madness has helped college basketball cultivate a vibrant sports betting community over the years. There are many factors that have also led to college basketball betting becoming so popular in recent years, including interest in watching the NBA stars of tomorrow, but the thrills of the March Madness tournament have to be considered the main cause

So what are the best sportsbooks for college basketball betting?

We think these college basketball sportsbooks rise above the rest:

1. DraftKings Sportsbook - pools are perfect for March Madness
2. BetMGM - March Madness promos galore
3. FanDuel Sportsbook - streamlined mobile betting experience
4. Bet365 - phenomenal live betting experience
5. Unibet - generous sign up bonus for new users

The NCAA has yet to embrace sports betting the way professional leagues have. Given the fact that college athletes do not get paid, there are more competitive integrity concerns to consider than in pro sports.

With the Supreme Court decision allowing NCAA Athletes to profit off their own likenesses, players can now lend their face and name to various endorsement opportunities. And who knows what that could lead to - maybe even athletes getting paid directly at some point. With fewer players staying with their NCAA program than in the past, this may even be a positive for schools retaining their talent for multiple seasons since they can become wealthy off-the-court with sponsorships and shoe deals.

In any case, this evolution will certainly necessitate Power 5 Conference schools needing to open up and think even more business-minded than they have historically.

While Colorado is the first, they almost certainly won't be the last. With NIL now back in the hands of the players and the possibility of players being paid constantly being debated, NCAA basketball programs could be looking for more streams of revenue in the future.

This could create even more exciting opportunities for college basketball bettors, including more existing customer promotions and interesting ways to bet on college basketball.

March Madness is a marvel for sports bettors. Everyone and their mother has a least some interest in the NCAA Tournament every year. March Madness brackets can be seen just about everywhere leading up to the tournament, with constant water-cooler chatter about which Cinderella stories are making a run that year or buddies bemoaning how their bracket was busted on the first day of the Tournament. It's the biggest betting event in basketball, and sportsbooks often offer users generous March Madness betting promotions to bring in users in time for the Big Dance.

There are a couple of key factors that make wagering on the NCAA Tournament so fun.

• Schedule - Due to the sheer number of games, there are multiple games on TV at all hours of the day during the early stages of March Madness. I know from personal experience that the first Thursday of the NCAA Tournament is more or less a holiday in many offices.
• Upsets - Everyone loves a Cinderella story, right? A small school like George Mason or Stephen F. Austin catching fire, knocking off a major program, making a miraculous run is one of the most exciting phenomenons in sport. These stories seem to happen every year during March Madness and contribute to the most exciting sports betting event in the world.

When choosing a new sportsbook for betting on basketball, you would be wise to make sure you’re getting good value.

The best way to do this is to pick a sportsbook with generous bonus offerings.

Specifically, for betting on the NBA and college basketball you can look to sites that have regular odds boosts and promotions. During the season they will often be specialized for nationally televised games and major events. You stand to be eligible for special offers, such as same game parlay insurance, live bet insurance, odds boosts, and more!

Make sure you choose a sportsbook that offers you bonuses that matches up with how you want to play!

Once a sportsbook has offered you a sign up bonus for joining, they need you to keep coming back. Like any other business, repeat customers are crucial for online sportsbooks.

In order to keep you coming back, sportsbooks frequently offer existing customer promotions to users based around the game of basketball.

Frequent basketball sportsbook existing customer promotions include:

• Odds Boosts
• Bonus Bets
• Parlay Insurance

Put simply, odds boosts make odds more favorable in the bettor's direction. At no penalty to the player, sportsbooks shift the odds on specific outcomes to maximize the potential payout for the user.

Odds boosts can be offered around games featuring teams and leagues that sportsbooks have a partnership with or major events like NBA Playoff games or nationally televised college basketball games.

You can usually find odds boosts for existing customers on sites like BetRivers, DraftKings Sportsbook, and FanDuel Sportsbook.

Bonus bets are fairly self-explanatory: you get to place a wager without putting down any of your own money. Sometimes you get winnings in real cash, while other times you'll get on-site bet credits that you can use to place other wagers.

Sometimes you have easy access to these offers for major events like the NBA Playoffs, March Madness, or the NBA Draft, and some sportsbooks even offer users bonus bets on regular season games for NBA teams with which they have partnerships. Bonus bet promotions frequently require the player to complete a certain action before they are unlocked.

Earlier, we discussed how both traditional and same game parlays have become more common in the be sports betting landscape of today. Due to their high-risk nature, sportsbooks now encourage users to bet this way. One incentive used to entice users to engage in parlay betting is parlay insurance.

Parlay insurance guarantees that your entire parlay bet doesn't go bust if only one leg of your bet loses. Depending on the betting site, these offers are available for traditional parlays, same game parlays, or both.

There are different requirements from book to book on how to unlock parlay insurance, including the minimum wager amount and the number of legs that must be included in your bet.

If you want to take your bets with you on the go, it’s crucial to choose a sportsbook that has a great sports betting app.

The vast majority of bets placed on sports in the US are made via a mobile device and it’s clear to see why - having the action at the tip of your fingers is both exciting and convenient.

Some important elements of a great basketball betting app must be nailed in order for the product to really shine:

• App design - An eye-catching design can make a sportsbook stand out. FanDuel Sportsbook has a super-slick design that assures users they're on a modern platform.
• Functionality - Bettors should be able to easily access key features within one or two clicks and there should be little-to-no lag that could hinder live betting. Bet365 has a no-nonsense mobile app that is extremely competent and functional.
• Mobile features - Many sportsbooks have added features exclusive to their mobile apps. This makes sense as it incentivizes users to download the sportsbook’s app and the vast majority of legal online sports bets in the US are placed from a mobile device. For instance, the DraftKings Sportsbook app has an advanced stats hub that suggests wagers to users based on sports analytics.

There are other crucial elements to keep an eye on, of course. For more information check out our Sports Betting Apps page.