Tracking Public Betting During The 2015-16 NBA Season

Tracking Public Betting During The 2015-16 NBA Season

The 2016 NBA Finals begin tonight with the Golden State Warriors hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers in a rematch of last year’s Finals. Prior to the start of the season the Warriors (+200) were the favorite to win the Western Conference while the Cavs (-220) were the favorite to win the Eastern Conference at 5Dimes.

Casual bettors overwhelmingly like betting winning teams, especially if they have at least one bona fide superstar. With LeBron James and Stephen Curry leading the charge, you would expect Cleveland and Golden State to be two of the most popular teams in the league.

Using our historical database, I wanted to determine the most popular teams in the NBA by examining the number of bets at two of our contributing offshore sportsbooks. After that, I wanted to reveal the most heavily bet games from the past year and determine exactly how much public betting increases between the regular season and postseason.

My research found that during the 2016 NBA regular season, we tracked an average of 9,112 bets per game. During the playoffs we have tracked an average of 25,044 bets per game — an increase of nearly 175 percent! The value of betting against the public is directly correlated with the number of bets placed on each game, which explains why many of our contrarian systems (including fading the trendy underdog) have been so successful during the postseason.

As it turns out, the Warriors and Cavaliers have been the two most popular teams during the 2015-16 season. On average, Golden State received 66.53% of public bets per game at our contributing sportsbooks. That number includes both regular season and postseason games; although the percentage was slightly lower during playoffs when public bettors are increasingly willing to take underdogs.

Over the past season the Warriors have closed as underdogs in just five of 98 games, all of which came on the road. That’s particularly interesting because the look ahead lines at 5Dimes have the Warriors listed as 2.5-point underdogs for Games 3 and 4 in Cleveland.

  1. December 31, 2015 at Houston (+3.5)
  2. January 18, 2016 at Cleveland (+3.5)
  3. March 19, 2016 at San Antonio (+4.5)
  4. April 10, 2016 at San Antonio (+3.5)
  5. May 28, 2016 at Oklahoma City Thunder (+3.5)

Although underdogs have been historically undervalued, favorites thrived during the 2015-16 NBA season going 616-598 against the spread (ATS) during the regular season and 47-32 ATS during the playoffs. In fact, the Warriors were the most profitable team for bettors last season posting a record of 56-42 ATS.

During their 24-game winning streak to start the season, Golden State went 16-7-1 ATS while receiving overwhelming public support. This was great news for casual bettors and awful news for sportsbooks. According to Scott Cooley, an Odds Consultant for Bookmaker.eu, “Even with inflated lines during the winning streak, we couldn’t dissuade public action on the Warriors.”

The Cavaliers, who were the second most popular team among bettors, weren’t nearly as detrimental to sportsbooks. The Cavs have gone just 47-47 ATS, and the level of public support dropped off slightly from last season. This was also confirmed by Cooley who said, “The square support on the Cavs cooled off early, much earlier than it did last season.”

The table below ranks all 30 NBA teams in terms of popularity among bettors during the 2015-16 season. We have also included their ATS record and units won for each team.

PopularityTeamRecord (ATS)Units Won
1Golden State Warriors56-4211.13
2Cleveland Cavaliers47-47-2.37
3San Antonio Spurs48-432.94
4Oklahoma City Thunder48-51-5.07
5Chicago Bulls36-46-12.01
6Miami Heat51-445.34
7Los Angeles Clippers43-410.1
8Toronto Raptors52-50-0.42
9Boston Celtics45-420.64
10Indiana Pacers46-421.9
11Detroit Pistons44-393.61
12Portland Trail Blazers49-443.14
13Washington Wizards43-392.12
14Charlotte Hornets45-421.16
15Dallas Mavericks47-395.74
16Milwaukee Bucks38-43-6.74
17Houston Rockets37-49-13.62
18Atlanta Hawks45-45-2.21
19Memphis Grizzlies42-42-1.67
20Utah Jazz41-41-1.93
21New York Knicks44-383.26
22Orlando Magic45-366.67
23Denver Nuggets42-381.96
24Los Angeles Lakers36-46-11.43
25New Orleans Pelicans36-46-11.77
26Minnesota Timberwolves39-42-4.85
27Sacramento Kings38-42-5.88
28Brooklyn Nets37-44-8.34
29Phoenix Suns36-46-11.93
30Philadelphia 76ers37-44-8.62

The Warriors and Cavaliers were the two most popular teams last season, followed by the Spurs, Thunder and Bulls. Despite the popularity of these five teams, $100/game bettors would have actually lost $538 betting on them every game. That’s largely due to the struggles of Chicago, who remained popular among bettors despite their 36-46 ATS record this past season.

You may also notice that many of the league’s least popular teams posted losing records this season, which raises questions about the value of betting against the public. Just last week Bet Labs manager Travis Reed wrote an article which explained that there are still several winning strategies that utilize our public betting percentages, but simply betting against the public no longer wins at the 52.38% threshold needed to cover the standard juice as most sportsbooks.

Although we found that teams receiving less than 35% of spread bets went 239-214 ATS (52.8%) during the 2015-16 regular season and 11-8 ATS (57.9%) during the playoffs, teams receiving less than 20% of spread bets were far less successful. It’s typically only the league’s worst teams (like the 76ers, Nets and Kings) that receive such limited public support, but there are some great opportunities to fade these teams as we examined when we looked at late season tanking strategies.

Bettors are very reactionary and will consistently gravitate towards the league’s hottest teams. For example, the Celtics were 31-23 ATS at the All-Star break, and this caused them to emerge as one of the league’s most popular teams among bettors. However, as books began to properly account for the team’s talent and shade their lines to account for public action, that value dissipated. After the All-Star break the Celtics were just 14-19 ATS, yet they continued to garner public support.

It will be interesting to see how public betting fluctuates during the NBA Finals, since the Cavs and Warriors have been the most popular teams in their respective conferences. Although a blowout victory for either team could dramatically impact public perception, I believe we will see fairly even levels of public betting during the Finals, with the Warriors receiving a slight majority. Not only did Golden State receive the highest percentage of spread bets this season, they were also pounded by bettors who thought they would win the championship.

It’s worth noting that this Cavs/Warriors Finals matchup is the worst case scenario for sportsbooks in terms of the futures market. These are the two most popular teams in the league, and bettors have been hammering both teams throughout the season. “In terms of futures liability, this was obviously our nightmare matchup,” said Cooley. “We’re not going to do well either way but we’ll be rooting for Cleveland to claim its first championship.”

So how popular were the Warriors this season? They were featured in 12 of the 20 most heavily bet regular season games, and that number would have been 13 had I not included the 2016 NBA All-Star game. It was also interesting to see that bettors love betting basketball on Christmas Day, with four of the ten most heavily bet regular season games taking place on December 25.

The table below displays the 20 most heavily bet games from the 2015-16 regular season.

Regular Season

RankDateVisitorHomeHome LineVisitor ScoreHome Score
112/25/2015Cleveland CavaliersGolden State Warriors-6.58389
212/25/2015San Antonio SpursHouston Rockets+78488
31/25/2016San Antonio SpursGolden State Warriors-4.590120
412/25/2015Chicago BullsOklahoma City Thunder-1010596
5*2/14/2016West All-StarsEast All-Stars+5.5196173
61/18/2016Golden State WarriorsCleveland Cavaliers-3.513298
71/22/2016Indiana PacersGolden State Warriors-12.5110122
810/27/2015New Orleans PelicansGolden State Warriors-10.595111
912/8/2015Golden State WarriorsIndiana Pacers+5.5131123
1012/25/2015New Orleans PelicansMiami Heat-4.58894
1112/25/2015Los Angeles ClippersLos Angeles Lakers+12.59484
1211/4/2015Los Angeles ClippersGolden State Warriors-7.5108112
1311/17/2015Toronto RaptorsGolden State Warriors-9110115
144/10/2016Golden State WarriorsSan Antonio Spurs-3.59286
1512/11/2015Golden State WarriorsBoston Celtics+5124119
162/27/2016Golden State WarriorsOklahoma City Thunder+3.5121118
1711/30/2015Golden State WarriorsUtah Jazz+7.5106103
1811/12/2015Los Angeles ClippersPhoenix Suns-2104118
192/6/2016Oklahoma City ThunderGolden State Warriors-7.5108116
202/9/2016Houston RocketsGolden State Warriors-13.5110123

The Warriors have continued their sky-high levels of popularity during the postseason, with seven of the eight most heavily bet games involving Golden State. In fact, their Western Conference Finals Game 7 matchup with the Thunder was the most heavily bet game of the season and the third most heavily bet game since the start of the 2005 season.

The only games to receive more bets were Game 2 and Game 5 of the NBA Finals last season. That lofty bet count coincides with extremely high TV ratings.

The table below displays the 10 most heavily bet games from the 2015-16 playoffs.

Playoffs

RankDateVisitorHomeHome SpreadVisitor ScoreHome Score
15/30/2016Oklahoma City ThunderGolden State Warriors-78896
25/28/2016Golden State WarriorsOklahoma City Thunder-3.5108101
35/16/2016Oklahoma City ThunderGolden State Warriors-7.5108102
45/22/2016Golden State WarriorsOklahoma City Thunder+2105133
55/24/2016Golden State WarriorsOklahoma City Thunder+1.594118
65/12/2016San Antonio SpursOklahoma City Thunder-199113
75/26/2016Oklahoma City ThunderGolden State Warriors-7.5111120
85/18/2016Oklahoma City ThunderGolden State Warriors-991118
95/15/2016Miami HeatToronto Raptors-4.589116
104/17/2016Portland Trail BlazersLos Angeles Clippers-8.595115

With increasing gambling coverage in the mainstream media and a matchup including two of the league’s most popular teams, this may be the most heavily bet NBA Finals of all-time.

Sportsbook Insider subscribers are able to view the number of bets on every game, but bettors can also track the latest lines, betting trends, injuries and more by visiting our free NBA odds page.

Have any questions for the staff at Sports Insights? Utilize our live chat to speak with a customer service representative or e-mail us at help@sportsinsights.com.

David Solar

David was the Content Manager at Sports Insights. He has since moved on to greener pastures.

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