Importance of Vegas Odds in Fantasy NBA

NBA Vegas Odds, Lines and Totals play an important role in NBA Daily Fantasy Basketball because players minutes are directly correlated with the score of the game. When building your NBA daily fantasy basketball lineup, you want to be build a team around players that is expected to play heavy minutes, because minutes equal production. Players can’t earn fantasy points when they are sitting on the bench.

NBA Point Spreads
Known as the line or spread, it is the projected margin of victory for one team over the other. For example if the line was: Chicago Bulls -7.5 vs Toronto Raptors +7.5. The negative value (-7.5) indicates that the Chicago Bulls team are favored by 7.5 points. The positive value (+7.5) indicates that the Toronto Raptors team are the underdog by 7.5 points. Betting on the favorite means the team must win by at least 8 points to cover the point spread. The underdog team can lose by 7 points (or win outright) and still cover the spread.

You want to roster players in a close game because they are expected to play down to the wire. The benefits of rostering players in a game with a small point spread margin is the possibility of overtime or late free throw shooting by the winning team. On the contrary, if the game is a blowout, there is a tendency that the winning and losing coaches will pull their starters in the 4th quarter. It is better to target second-tier or bench players if you expect the game to be a blowout.

NBA Draws Fans To Las Vegas Sportsbook
NBA Fans at a Las Vegas Sportsbook

NBA Totals
Widely known as the over/under, it’s the total number of points to be scored in an NBA game by both teams combined. If you picked under 190.5, you want tough defense, shot-clock violations and slow tempo games. If you picked the over 190.5, you want 3-pointers galore, free throw shooting frenzy and no defense at all. In totals betting, you are predicting whether the combined total score will be more than or less than the Vegas total.

Games that have high totals will have more fantasy points scored, and are based on the teams’ pace of play. High total games will yield more points, rebounds, assists, blocked shots and steals because of the fact that there are more total possessions in a high scoring game. Sites such as Fanduel give bonus points for your players when they earn double-doubles and triple-doubles.


Important Tip: Always try to target players in a game with a low point spread (team is favored by 5 points or less) and a high game total (over 205 or more). By doing so, you will gain an immediate advantage over other fantasy team owners who unknowingly roster players in lower scoring or blowout games.

You can view the latest Vegas Odds and Totals at VegasInsider.

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