2023-24 NBA Regular Season MVP Odds - How to Bet on NBA Awards

This guide has the latest odds to win the NBA Regular Season MVP award. Expanding on our NBA Futures odds tutorial, we explain how NBA player awards bets work. You’ll also learn how to place a bet on the Regular Season MVP at one of our recommended legal US sports betting sites. Also be sure to review odds for other NBA player awards, too.

The award is officially known as the “National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player Award”. Award winners have received the “Michael Jordan Trophy” since the 2022-23 season. The NBA presented previous winners with the “Maurice Podoloff Trophy“.

A preselected group of sportswriters vote on NBA player awards toward the end of the regular season. The award winner is typically announced anywhere from May to June of each year. There is no fixed award announcement date. The award winner usually has their trophy prior to the NBA Finals, regardless of whether or not they are participating in the Playoffs.


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Table of Contents

  1. Regular Season MVP Futures Odds
  2. Regular Season MVP Contenders
  3. What are NBA Futures?
  4. How to Bet
  5. Other NBA Futures Bets
  6. When to Bet
  7. Defensive Player of the Year Odds
  8. Most Improved Player of the Year Odds
  9. Rookie of the Year Odds
  10. Regular Season MVP Futures FAQs

Regular Season MVP Futures Odds

The following are the latest odds to win the NBA Regular Season MVP Award. One hundred sportswriters from around the world will cast their votes at the conclusion of the regular season prior to the start of the playoffs. The NBA typically announces award winners between May and June each year.

Voters rank-order five candidates for each award. Their first candidate gets 10 points. The second candidate gets 7 points and the third candidate gets 5 points. The fourth and fifth candidates get 3 and 1 points, respectively. Fans can also participate in an online poll that contributes one ballot to the vote. A third-party agency tallies each candidate’s point totals. The player with the most points wins the award.

Odds for each player will change throughout the regular season depending on their performance and health. SportsBetting3.com updates its futures odds multiple times each week throughout the regular season. Return to this page to keep tabs on the players most likely to win awards.

2023-24 NBA Regular Season MVP Odds

Team
BetMGM Sports Betting BetMGM BetRivers Sports Betting BetRivers
Nikola Jokic-5000
Bet
-10000
Bet
Luka Doncic+2000
Bet
+1400
Bet
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander+4000
Bet
+4000
Bet
Giannis Antetokounmpo+25000
Bet
Jayson Tatum+25000
Bet

Regular Season MVP Contenders

It is no surprise that Nikola Jokic is the leader of the pack in terms of NBA regular season MVP odds, as he may have been overlooked for his third consecutive MVP award last year. Instead, Joel Embiid won the award and faltered in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Jokic went on to win his first NBA title. Jimmy Butler of the defending Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat is nowhere near the top of the leaderboard, but it may be because he usually saves his energy for the playoffs. Meanwhile, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and especially Jayson Tatum can step up their statistics during the regular season and play a lot of games to be able to eligible.

Likely Winner

Nikola Jokic is of course the way to go here, as he can keep the strong momentum going from the NBA championship victory parade. Jokic was the best player in the 2023 postseason, so he could very well be the best in the 2023-24 regular season. All he needs to do is increase his numbers by a bit, and he should be good to go. His points and rebounds dipped in 2022-23, but his assists ballooned. He almost averaged a triple-double last season and had 24.5 points per game to go along with it.

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What are NBA Futures Bets?

A futures bet is placed on the outcome of a distant NBA event. Your bet wins if you chose the correct outcome. You may bet on more than one outcome at once, however the odds for each outcome will likely differ depending on each selection.

Popular NBA futures bets include odds to win the NBA Finals, Eastern and Western Conference winners, and each division winner. Additionally, sports betting sites will have odds to win player awards like the NBA MVP award.

You can place a futures bet up to any point before the actual event begins or the player award is announced. Odds will vary as the season progresses. A team with a strong winning record will gradually become a favorite to win their conference and possibly the NBA Finals. On the other hand, an underperforming player will gradually become a long shot underdog to win the NBA MVP award.

NBA futures odds offer sports bettors two opportunities. One, the chance to bet on a distant event with a potentially higher payoff than any single game bet. Two, insight into which teams or players are likely to come out on top by the end of the season. Whether you actually bet the future or not, the changing odds are a useful datapoint to sharpen your basketball handicapping as the season progresses.

How to Bet on the Regular Season MVP Award

Time needed: 1 minute

How to place a bet on the Regular Season MVP Award

  1. Review player award futures odds

    Review futures odds for the player award. Odds will update throughout the regular season. Votes will be cast at the end of the regular season, with the results announced between May-June each year.

  2. Each outcome has moneyline odds

    Each outcome will have moneyline odds at American sports betting sites. Minus values indicate how much you risk to win $100. Plus values indicate how much you win if you risk $100.

  3. Make your selection and place your bet

    Make one or more selections and bet your desired amount.

  4. You may place one or more futures bets on the same event

    You can place multiple bets on the same event at once or at different times. Simply choose a different outcome and place another wager.

  5. Your bet wins if you picked the correct outcome

    Your bet wins if you picked the correct outcome. Review your sportsbook’s rules to see when a futures bet can be cancelled.

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NBA Futures Bets

The following are the most popular NBA futures bets. These bets are the most commonly placed by recreational and professional bettors alike. Use the odds to guide your handicapping throughout the season.

When to Bet On NBA Player Awards

There’s an art and science to betting NBA futures. The trick is to properly time your bet. You don’t want to bet too early without knowing much about how your team or player will perform. But you also don’t want to bet so late that your selection is an obvious winner with a small return.

A preselected panel of one hundred sportswriters plus an online fan poll will vote on NBA player awards at the conclusion of the regular season. The NBA will reveal the results between May-June.

Unlike team futures that are based on objective performance standards, voting for a player to win an award involves some subjectivity. This is particularly true when three or more players are in close contention to win an award. The final outcome will inevitably demonstrate some biases in those who voted for the winning player.

Also, unlike the NFL Regular Season MVP Award, the NBA uses a rank-choice voting format that allows voters to select five candidates, with the first choice awarded 10 points and a decreasing quantity of points awarded to choices two to five. This voting system can potentially produce close results when there are two or more strong candidates for the award.

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Player Award Betting Strategies

Betting NBA player award futures comes with more risk than betting team futures. While teams can compensate for underperforming or injured players with their second and third-string, individual players must remain healthy to be competitive for an award. Unlike teams, individual players have no backup plan. Once injured or sidelined, they will be quickly removed from consideration for a regular season player award.

First, identify three or four players most likely to win a particular award. The players should be high performers, in good health before the season begins, and at reduced risk to get injured during the regular season.

Second, eliminate the least likely players from consideration. Longshots rarely win NBA player awards unless multiple favorites have a terrible regular season. Then, focus on the performance of each player throughout the season, particularly from late January onwards. Sportswriters voting for the awards will be most likely to base their decision on recent performances versus what happened in the early stages of the regular season.

Third, keep tabs on weekly injury reports and starting lineups, carefully monitoring the overall health of each player’s team. The ability of a player to maintain their performance throughout the regular season inevitably relies on the health of their teammates. Note when a coach rests a player against weaker opponents: this may signify the player is nursing an injury, or they’re being saved for more important matchups.

Finally, review historic player award voting trends and biases. Also review articles and interviews from sportswriters and media figures who previously voted for player awards. Try to get a sense of the criteria they used to cast their vote. Knowing how the sportswriters analyzed each player and which characteristics garnered the most attention can help you refine your own selections.


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Regular Season MVP Futures FAQs

What is a Regular Season MVP futures bet?

A Regular Season MVP futures bet is placed on the outcome of the NBA Regular Season MVP award. Your bet wins if you chose the correct outcome. You may bet on more than one outcome at once, however the odds for each outcome will likely differ depending on each selection.

What do Regular Season MVP futures odds numbers mean?

Minus values indicate how much you risk to win $100. Selections with a minus value are considered strong favorites. Plus values indicate how much you win if you risk $100. Selections with plus values are considered underdogs. A selection with the lowest plus odds value among a market with no minus value favorite would be considered a modest underdog to win.

When is the best time to place a Regular Season MVP futures bet?

There’s an art and science to betting Regular Season MVP futures. You don’t want to bet too early without knowing much about how your player will perform. But you also don’t want to bet so late that your selection is an obvious winner with a small return. Most importantly, know the award’s historical trends and the typical biases of the sportswriters casting the votes.

NBA Betting Resources

  • NBA Betting Guide – Learn how to bet on the NBA with point spreads, totals, moneylines, and exotic bets like parlays, teasers, prop bets and futures.
  • NBA Betting Sites – Hoops there it is! Dive into our list of highly recommended NBA betting sites just in time for the next big game.
  • NBA Odds – Latest odds for upcoming NBA matchups, including team NBA finals, conference, and division futures.
  • NBA Prop Bets – Learn how to bet NBA props. We also have prop betting lines and odds for upcoming NBA matchups.
  • NBA Underdogs – Review underdogs point spread and moneyline betting opportunities for upcoming NBA matchups.
  • NBA Futures Odds – Review odds for popular NBA futures events, including the NBA Championship, Eastern and Western conference winners, division winners, regular season MVP award, and other player awards.
  • NBA Win Total Odds – Review regular season win total lines and odds for each team. Remember to place you bet before each team’s first game of the regular season.
  • Undefeated NBA Teams – See which teams are still undefeated in the current regular season.
  • NBA Championship Betting – We explain the best bets for the NBA finals, plus you can see the latest NBA Finals futures.
  • Eastern Conference Win Totals – Season win totals for every NBA Eastern Conference team.
  • Western Conference Win Totals – Win totals for every Western Conference NBA team.
  • Halftime Middling – Learn how to make a bet a halftime that can’t lose. We explain how halftime middling can work for NBA and college basketball games.
  • Five-Game Rolling Average – Use a team’s five game rolling average stats to sharpen up your handicap analyses and making winning NBA bets.
  • NBA Team Betting Odds – Latest odds for each NBA team, including upcoming matchups, futures, and season specials.