Tonight at 8 PM on ESPN, the NBA Draft Lottery will begin. Instead of awarding the top pick in the draft to the team that finished in last place, the NBA places the bottom 14 franchises that did not make it to the playoffs into a pool and randomly draws them to determine the selection order.
This process discourages NBA teams from dumping games just to improve their Draft position the following year and goes a long way toward preserving league integrity.
Online NBA betting sites have created props on which teams will be awarded the top picks in the 2023 Draft, with sizable payouts available to those that wager on the correct franchise.
NBA Draft Lottery Odds For 1st Pick
- Detroit Pistons +550
- Houston Rockets +550
- San Antonio Spurs +550
- Charlotte Hornets +650
- Portland Trail Blazers +750
- Orlando Magic +900
- Indiana Pacers +1200
- Washington Wizards +1200
- Utah Jazz +1800
- Dallas Mavericks +2800
- Chicago Bulls +4500
- Oklahoma City Thunder +4500
- Toronto Raptors +8000
- New Orleans Pelicans +10000
The Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs are in a logjam for first place, all with +550 moneyline odds to win. The same three teams are featured at the top of the NBA odds to nab the 2nd overall pick, but this time they all have a +600 moneyline.
NBA 2023 Draft Lottery 2nd Pick
- Detroit Pistons +600
- Houston Rockets +600
- San Antonio Spurs +600
- Charlotte Hornets +650
- Portland Trail Blazers +800
- Orlando Magic +900
- Indiana Pacers +1200
- Washington Wizards +1200
- Utah Jazz +1800
- Dallas Mavericks +2500
- Chicago Bulls +4500
- Oklahoma City Thunder +4500
- New Orleans Pelicans +8000
- Toronto Raptors +8000
The NBA’s Communications Twitter revealed a probability schedule for how likely each franchise is to secure the first pick tonight. Shrewd observers will notice that the betting odds presented by the sites featured in our online sportsbook reviews, for the most part, align with the probabilities presented below.
The 2023 NBA Draft Lottery presented by State Farm will be held tomorrow night in Chicago and air live at 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Below are the 2023 lottery probabilities for each of the 14 teams ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/3XGjp5hLkW
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 15, 2023
Bovada also has NBA prop bets posted for picks three through ten but has refrained from offering odds on selections eleven through fourteen. BetUS has posted definitive NBA Draft odds on which pick will come off the board first
2023 NBA Draft Odds For First Overall Pick
- Victor Wembanyama -15000
- Other +2500
If anyone other than Victor Wembanyama is drafted first, 25-to-1 payouts are on the line for those brave enough to lay some action on it. Wembanyama is a 7’2″ power forward who is currently playing professional basketball in France.
Victor is considered a generational talent which is high praise a year following the first selection of forward Paulo Banchero by the Orlando Magic. It is believed that Wembanyama will be selected first, no matter which team holds the rights to the top pick.
Betting on the NBA Playoffs begins tonight after the Lottery is over at 8:30 when the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets tip off Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
2023 NBA Draft Lottery Odds Provided By Bovada.LV (Bovada Sportsbook Review), BetUS.com.pa (BetUS Sportsbook Review)
