A nine-game Wednesday slate in the NBA has given sharp bettors plenty of options from which to choose, and they've landed on a couple featuring four teams currently in the playoff picture.
Let's take a look at how pros are betting Magic vs. Celtics and Nuggets vs. Jazz.
Odds as of Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. ET. Check out PointsBet, where Action Network users can access an exclusive promotion to get a 200% deposit match (deposit $50, bet with $150).No strings attached. No rollover required.
Magic vs. Celtics
7:30 p.m. ET
The absence of an All-Star starter in Kemba Walker (knee) is expectedly going to have an impact on any Celtics betting line, and that can make it tough to decipher how much of a line move comes from sharp bettors as opposed to the injury itself.
It does help when the line still moves significantly after the injury is announced, though.
In this case, the total fell from around 212 to to 211.5/211 immediately following the news, and sharps didn't let it stop there.
It's now down to 209 across most of the market, even though 70% of bettors have taken the over since the line opened. Those bettors have generated just 12% of actual money on the total, however, meaning bigger bettors — the ones more likely to be sharps — are all over the under.
Two Sports Insights Bet Signals — which track and record market activity based on sharp action — have been triggered on the under, confirming that oddsmakers are following their more respected customers.
Sharp angle: Under (moved from 211.5 to 208.5)
Nuggets vs. Jazz
9 p.m. ET
Generally speaking, public bettors tend to be drawn to favorites. It's much easier to stomach a bet on a superior team, so most teams laying nine points, for example, attract a majority of spread bettors.
Not tonight's Jazz, though (at least for now).
Forty-six percent of bets have landed on the Jazz, who actually opened down at -7.5 at some books. Still, they've generated 62% of actual money, and two more SI Bet Signals have confirmed sharps to be laying the points, pushing this number toward the double-digit range.
Sharp angle: Jazz (moved from -7.5 to -9)
