National Basketball League betting (or NBL Betting) sees Aussie punters place wagers on the country’s top basketball tournament. The league is filled with amazing players from across the nation and the world that are sure to give punters hundreds of great opportunities to make money on cheeky wagers. Aussies love betting on the NBL due to the great betting odds and more!
Below, we have crafted the ultimate NBL betting guide, with a list of the best sports betting sites as well as a comprehensive guide outlining how to bet on the league. So, read on and find out all about NBL basketball betting.
Best NBL Betting Sites
How to Bet on the NBL
There are several NBL basketball betting lines available to Australian punters at the best online basketball sportsbooks. To make it easier for beginners, we have divided the basic bets that can be made into the two major categories down below:
Match Betting
These are bets that are focused on a particular match or match week. The following are the most popular match bets at Aussies sports betting sites:
- Head-to-Heads – this is the simplest type of bet. Punters simply just select a winner. There are two types: moneyline and 1×2 bets. Moneyline bets take overtime into consideration whereas 1×2 bets do not.
- Handicaps – also known as line betting, the bookie places a handicap on a favoured team by giving them a point difference they need to win by in order for bets made on that team to be successful.
- Margin Bets – these bets are a variation of the handicap bet. Instead of betting on which team the will win, bettors attempt to select the point difference a team will win by. These NBL bets are extremely popular with our punters.
Outrights/Futures
These are bets attempt to predict the winner of some type of award or championship long before the final match is played or the winner is announced. The following outrights are available at our recommended betting sites:
- NBL Grand Final Winner – these bets see punters attempt to predict who will win the league’s Grand Final series and lift the Dr. John Raschke Trophy. It is important to note that odds shift as the league progresses.
- NBL MVP Betting – this is a bet made on who will win the Grand Final’s MVP award and be given the Larry Sengstock Medal. This is a difficult bet to make, especially when the teams due to compete in the Grand Final have not been decided yet.
NBL Betting Tips
If you’re new to betting on the NBL, you may want to keep the following tips in mind before placing your first real money wager. Failure to consider all of these factors may lead to some ill-placed bets.
- Pay Attention to Away Fixtures – it’s easy to capitalise on fixtures that see good teams play away from home. Sportsbooks are generally inclined to give home teams the edge, but fixtures that see a team that has a good history on the road against a side that is having a mediocre season could turn out to be quite fruitful for lucky punters.
- The League is Very Competitive – the NBL is a highly competitive league with very little separating the best teams from those on the lower rungs of the competition’s table. We advise that punters don’t rely too much on betting on favourites as there have been so many upsets in the league that it may prove costly to do so.
- Don’t Count Perth Out – the Perth Wildcats have been a strong competitor in the NBL since they first joined in 1982 as the Westate They have made it to 13 Grand Finals and even more knockout stages throughout their history.
List of NBL Teams
Over the NBL’s long and odd history, there have been several different teams across Australia and New Zealand that have competed in the competition. Currently, a total of eight teams compete in the southern hemisphere’s most exciting basketball league. These are the following teams:
- Brisbane Bullets
- Adelaide 36ers
- Cairns Taipans
- Melbourne United
- Illawarra Hawks
- Perth Wildcats
- New Zealand Breakers
- Sydney Kings
Of these eight teams, only two have competed in the league every year from when it was launched – the Brisbane Bullets and the Illawarra Hawks. A ninth team known as the South East Melbourne Phoenix will be joining the league in 2019-20 season. (Perhaps, an outright on the new team may prove to be very fruitful for lucky punters?)
NBL History
The National Basketball League was formed in 1979 and has gone through loads of changes to become what it is. Despite this, it has always maintained its status as the primary basketball league in Australia and New Zealand.
During the first twenty years of its existence, the league was played over the Australian winter period and competed with other major sports for the attention of the nation. It was unable to gain the traction that the league organisers desired during this period and was thus moved to be played during the summer months in 1998.
This would begin a period of great hardship for the sporting tournament as declining viewership nearly saw its demise in the early 2000s. It was only after the league got a new live coverage deal with a major broadcasting network in the nation and the help from millionaire Larry Kestelman that the league was able to regain popularity among the Australian public.
Since then, the NBL has grown into a widely popular basketball league in Australia, with each season breaking viewership records. With so many great players to watch moving in and out of the NBA to the NBL, there are so many reasons to follow the competitive competition.
Recent NBL Champions
Here is a list of the NBL winners of the league’s Grand Final over the last ten years. Thus far, the Perth Wildcats have proven to be the most successful team in league’s four decade plus existence, with a total of eight wins in 13 appearances in the final.
| Year | Winner |
| 2009 | South Dragons |
| 2010 | Perth Wildcats |
| 2011 | New Zealand Breakers |
| 2012 | New Zealand Breakers |
| 2013 | New Zealand Breakers |
| 2014 | Perth Wildcats |
| 2015 | Cairns Taipans |
| 2016 | Perth Wildcats |
| 2017 | Perth Wildcats |
| 2018 | Melbourne United |