The NBA is going to crown a new champion this year — that much is official. But now that we are down to only four teams, the question is, how are bettors going to handle NBA Championship odds, and which teams are going to see the biggest odds movement? BetMGM has released some betting data ahead of the Conference Finals, so let’s break down some of BetMGM’s NBA Playoffs betting insight and check out championship odds for the Timberwolves, Celtics, Pacers and Mavericks.
BetMGM NBA Playoffs Betting Insight: NBA Odds Movement
Looking for other ways to cash in on some sports action this week? For a limited time only, you can use promo code MLBSIMSWEEK to get access to one week of our industry-leading MLB Sims Max, Sims Data or Data packages for 40% off by clicking here!
Unsurprisingly, the Celtics are heavily favored to represent the East in the NBA Finals, as they have been since the playoffs began. They are also the only remaining team not in plus money to win it all, sitting at -150 on BetMGM . Still, 13.9% of the bets have come in on Boston to win the championship, trailing only the Nuggets, who have since been eliminated. Even with Boston now facing short odds, expect them to garner the majority of bets in the coming days.
The odds in the West are much closer, with Minnesota slightly favored at -185 after knocking off the defending champs. The Timberwolves have gotten a lot of respect from the betting public all postseason, seeing 11.4% of bets to win the championship, not too far behind the Celtics. The Nuggets have still gotten the majority of bets to win the west at the moment, though.
The T-Wolves aren’t really pushing Boston too hard in terms of title odds — +260 at the moment, which is the second highest of the four teams left.
Bettors have not really been buying Dallas in the postseason during its two impressive series wins thus far. Only 5.5% of bets have been on the Mavericks to win the NBA title despite the fact that they probably have the best player in the playoffs now. It should rise a bit, but given what Minnesota just did to Denver, the movement for Dallas is probably not going to be significant.
And then there is Indiana. The Pacers will get some money and bets on them since the odds are going to be too juicy for some to pass up, but thus far only 2.9% of bets have gone to Indiana to win it all. A whopping 74% of money is on Boston to come out of the East, and unless the Pacers pull out a road win in one of the first two games, that number is only going to get bigger.
