NBA Betting: In-Season Tournament Odds & Picks

Because of the way the NBA is structured, the obsession with individual awards such as the MVP and the new in-season tournament, the NBA is one of the most popular professional sports for betting. While the season runs from October through the end of the NBA Finals in June (a good nine months!), the NBA betting season almost runs the entire calendar year because of the large interest around futures bets during the summer months.

Most of NBA betting typically involves three bet types: futures bets, betting on the individual games and player prop bets. There are other bets available, but most of the action involves one of these three categories.

Of supreme interest during the early parts of the 2023-24 NBA season is the first ever NBA in-season tournament. This new tournament increases the stakes of a subset of regular season games throughout November and December and culminates with a “Final Four” in Las Vegas in mid-December.

Not only does the new in-season tournament bring increased viewership but also increased betting interest. The NBA has structured the schedule to where certain nights are all tournament games. This allows the NBA to more effectively “own” certain nights of the week with increased interest. Sportsbooks are coming alongside these nights with special promotions to take advantage of with respect to betting during these nights.

Moreover, the “Final Four” in Las Vegas on December 7th and 9th will give fans another sporting event to gather interest and betting activity.

Here’s the full schedule for the forthcoming NBA in-season tournament games:

All teams participate during the group play stage. Eight teams advance to the knock out stage: the winner of each of the 6 groups (plus the best team to finish 2nd in a group from each conference). The knock out stage which will be single elimination. Four winners move on to the semifinals which will take place in Las Vegas on December 7, 2023.

bet365′s NBA Betting Odds

bet365 has a myriad of NBA betting odds to consider for the NBA in-season tournament, the NBA Playoffs, and the NBA individual awards.

If you’re not yet a user of the bet365 platform, you can take advantage of the bet365 bonus code AJCXLM which will unlock a great sign-up bonus upon registering and making your first bet.

NBA In-Season Tournament Odds: Outright Winner

Here are the odds as of November 14, 2023 to win the first ever NBA in-season tournament, according to bet365:

NBA In-Season Tournament Odds: MVP

The NBA is awarding a Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the in-season tournament specifically as well, similar to how the NBA has a NBA Finals MVP award. Here are the odds from bet365 as of November 14, 2023:

Our Picks for the NBA In-Season Tournament

The winner of each group will move on to the knock out stage. A single wild card will also move on from each conference (3 groups in each conference). For our picks now, we’re going to limit ourselves to the teams and players from teams that are undefeated so far in group play. The single biggest variable here is simply moving on out of the group play stage, so we’ll focus there as of now.

As of November 14, 2023, there are fourteen 1-0 teams, and three 0-0 teams. So, we’ll limit ourselves to these teams. For now, we’re going to concentrate on four teams: Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics. Each of these four teams are 1-0 in group play. These also happen to be the top four teams in the NBA with respect to net rating this season.

The Nuggets and Celtics are playing excellent basketball, but there’s not enough value in the odds here for me. I’m going to look hard at the Timberwolves out west and the 76ers in the east.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have won six games in a row including wins over the Celtics, Warriors and Nuggets. The T-Wolves sit at a 7-2 record and have the best defensive rating in the league.

I currently like the Timberwolves at +900 to win the tournament outright, and I absolutely love Anthony Edwards to win the MVP at +1800. An up-and-coming team playing excellent basketball with a clear no. 1 star, I like this a lot for the NBA In-Season Tournament odds.

The 76ers have an extremely favorable group. Eastern Conference Group A includes the 76ers, Pacers, Hawks, Cavaliers and Pistons. The 76ers are 8-1 on the season so far with recent wins over both the Celtics and Suns. The 76ers have the 4th best net rating in the league, and Tyrese Maxey has really emerged so far this season with James Harden moving on to the Clippers.

You can take the 76ers at +1000 to win the in-season tournament, and if you want to take a flyer on Tyrese Maxey, you can get him at +4000 odds to win MVP.

We’ll continue to update the in-season tournament odds and picks while more games are played.

bet365′s NBA Championship Odds

As of November 15, 2023, the odds to win the NBA Championship for the 2023-24 season are as follows:

NBA MVP Race

The MVP race in the NBA is constantly one of the more talked-about awards in all of professional sports. Because of the dominance of the NBA superstar, the NBA MVP award is certainly an interesting individual award with respect to futures betting.

Here are the odds for the NBA MVP race from bet365 as of November 15, 2023:

Who do we like for MVP? Barring an injury, it’s difficult to see a world where Nikola Jokic doesn’t win the award this season. Jokic is putting up incredible numbers, and Denver continues to be the frontrunner for the championship.

Two interesting “fliers” potential out of the west might be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (+1600) and Anthony Edwards (+1800). Both of these players are at the top of their game, but to win the award, their respective teams will likely need to be at least a top 4 seed in the Western Conference Playoffs. It’s possible.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not an online gambling operator or gambling site. We provide this information about sports betting for entertainment purposes only.