Guide: 5 Essential NBA Stats For Sports Betting in 2026

Both sports betting sites and punters in New Zealand are spoiled with all the action going on in yet another thrilling season in the NBA. With different teams given a chance to win the NBA league by online casinos and bookmakers, it’s clear however that no one can quite predict who will be actually lifting the trophy in June.

The Boston Celtics and the Denver Nuggets are the current frontrunners in their respective regions, but there are still heaps of games to be played before we get to the finals. The good thing about this is that it gives major opportunities for punters to use their knowledge to their advantage. But they still might need a bit of extra help to get the most out of it.

Here at Best Online Casino Reviews we’ve made sure to crunch the numbers on points scored over the past decade giving our followers some very useful information. We would even dare to call these 5 essential NBA stats for sports betting in 2023. Are you ready for some slam dunks and three pointers? Here’s how to get going with your bets in the NBA 2022/23 season.

Table of Contents

5. Away Win Percentage

There was a time back in 1991 when away teams only won 34,21% of the games played. In 2022/2023 they even make it to a number of 45,20%. The reason for this upward trend in away results in recent years is something that has been noticeable across different professional team sports. Just like in other sports such as rugby or football, the negative effects of playing away from home have significantly reduced over the last few decades. Sports teams now fly in to play their games, compete in the same conditions, and fly out again after the match. Players in the NBA are so used nowadays to being out and about that it doesn’t affect them as much as it did back in the days. Overall improved standards for pitches and other basic facilities means that the home advantage is further reduced.

4. Home Win Percentage

As a consequence, the NBA home win percentages have dropped dramatically in the same period of 30 years. Home winners are less probable than ever before. Whilst the top teams like the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks always seem to be good wagers to reach the finals, it’s also now well known that anyone can beat anyone else. The chance of a home win earned in the 90’s was set at a comfortable 61.49%, representing a 2-in-3 chance of winning. At the time, this meant that those into betting on basketball had a lot more confidence in making a winning shot. That percentage has now dropped to a whopping low 54,65%. This trend started during the pandemic and it hasn’t managed to recover ever since. Based on data of the last three years, NBA home teams win 54,60% of the games. This makes it a lot harder for bettors to back host teams as easily as before.

3. Points Per Away Team

Towards the end of the 90’s, in the 1998/99 season to be precise, away teams in the NBA scored an average amount of 89.56 points per game played. Although that’s way more than the points scored by teams playing in the EuroLeague, it is still a mediocre reflection on the NBA just before the turn of the millennium. These days, the average away team points in the NBA tends to stick around the 109-mark. The gap between home and away points totals has thus become a lot more narrow, giving sports bettors some very interesting data to be aware of. Whereas in the 1991/92 season, home teams scored about 4,3% more points than away teams, in 2021/22 this was only 1,7%. The games being played in the NBA are getting tighter and the best New Zealand sports betting sites have followed this trend carefully. Somehow, away teams have found an effective way to score on average 20 more points than they did about a quarter century ago.

2. Points Per Home Team

Backing the home team’s points in basketball is still very common in online casinos in New Zealand, particularly when a top dog favourite’s odds mean the profit margin isn’t really worth the risk. As the average home points per NBA game has gradually fallen, it has then increased again over the past 3 decades. At the beginning of the ‘90s, bettors of other basketball enthusiasts could expect 108.49 home points per game. But over the decade the total of home points per game fell every year and got to a low of 92.94 in 1999. This number has failed to go up past the 100-point mark until the year 2013. In the last 4 seasons we’ve seen an average 111.27 points per home NBA team. This is some important piece of information as it shows that players are now likely to make their bets on the home team edging +110.5 points. This is especially true if it concerns the favourites.

1. Average Points Per NBA Game

The NBA is the highest-scoring basketball league in the world, and we’ve been able to see a big increase in the average points per NBA game since the year of 2016. Over the last 6 years, there has been an average of 218.92 points scored per NBA game. Between 2012 and 2015, the average was 200.70 per match. Jumping back to the ‘90s, gambling enthusiasts witnessed a total of 199.64 per game. The most important reason for this rise in points is the increased speed of the sports at the world’s highest level as well as players now scoring more 3 pointers than ever before. More room for players to perform and better fitness levels have all contributed to the explosive number of average points per NBA game.

Betting on NBA in NZ

The National Basketball Association (NBA) league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the US and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in North America. It is the most important men’s professional basketball league in the world. The National Basketball Association of the United States has maintained high sporting and fairness standards in the sport for decades, allowing enthusiasts to enjoy it and allowing bettors to wager on it at their convenience. Thanks to tv and online broadcasts, the games are now available to enthusiasts all over the world, NBA betting opportunities have seen a sharp rise as well. This also holds for New Zealand where betting on the NBA continues to be one of the most popular categories. Betting on the NBA is allowed in NZ at locally offered TAB NZ or at offshore based online casinos and sportsbooks. Players in New Zealand need to be 18 years of age if they want to be able to gamble online on NBA games.

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