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What Are Blackjack Side Bets?Side bets are bonus bets placed on a round of Blackjack on outcomes beyond whether the player or dealer will win. The majority are staked at the start of the round before the cards have been dealt alongside regular bets and many have fixed odds that usually offer greater payouts than the simple 2:1 rewarded for beating the dealer.Play Blackjack at Pinnacle Casino

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Side bets provide an exciting way to make Blackjack games more interesting whilst offering you a greater number of ways to win. So what are side bets, what side bets are available and are they worth it? Read on to find out.

Blackjack Side Bets Explained

Finding a niche market in betting can often lead to value. This can be anything from specialist knowledge of handball betting to extensive experience in betting on Japanese baseball. Providing you know more than the bookmaker, there is money to be made.  &lt;Bet on soccer at Pinnacle&gt; They also make for interesting and potentially profitable bets, as they can be a little more reliable

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A corner is one of the most inexplicably exciting events in soccer. Only around three per cent of them lead to a goal, but you can guarantee that the attacking team’s fans will roar their approval and encouragement if their team are awarded one. Read on to find out how you can benefit from betting on corners.

Corners betting in soccer: Value in a lesser-known market

Poisson Distribution is a mathematical concept for translating mean averages into a probability for variable outcomes across a distribution. For example, if we know Manchester City average 1.7 goals per game, so by putting the Poisson Distribution formula tells us that this average equates to Manchester City&nbsp;scoring 0 goals 18.3% of the time, 1 goal 31% of the time, 2 goals 26.4% of the time and 3 goals 15% of the time.

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Poisson Distribution: Predict the score in soccer betting

What is Expected Value?The amount a player can expect to win or lose if they were to place a bet on the same odds many times over, calculated through a simple equation multiplying your probability of winning with the amount you could win per bet, and subtracting the probability of losing multiplied by the amount lost per bet.A simple example of Expected Value (EV) put into practice -&nbsp;if you were

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The Expected Value of a bet shows us how much we can expect to win (on average) per bet, and as such is the most valuable calculation a bettor can make when comparing bookmakers' odds. How can you calculate Expected Value in sports betting in order to predict your winnings? Read on to find out.

How to Calculate Expected Value

Scott has been writing about fantasy sports, sports betting and sports analytics for more than 20 years. He played varsity hockey at Wilfrid Laurier University, where he majored in Economics, and he has spilled a lot of digital ink on the National Hockey League over the past two decades. He has attended, hosted and been a panelist at hockey analytics conferences, and has earned a reputation as a data-first analyst, covering not just hockey, but baseball, football and basketball as well.

Scott Cullen

The first round of the NBA Playoffs brought mostly expected results. The only lower-seeded teams to advance to the second round were the Dallas Mavericks and the Indiana Pacers, both of which were favored in the first-round matchups.

Despite being a sixth seed, the Pacers were favored taking on a Milwaukee Bucks team missing Giannis Antetokounmpo, and then the Bucks lost Damian Lillard for games four and five of a series that the Pacers took in six games.

Dallas was the fifth seed taking on the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers and it was already looking like a close matchup, but once Kawhi Leonard missed Game 1 and was out of the series from Game 4 on, the Mavericks had the upper hand.

Can any of the underdogs pull off an upset in the second round?

Pinnacle will break down each series on the way to the NBA Championship&nbsp;

Here is a look at the four second-round matchups.

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<h3>BOSTON CELTICS VS. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS</h3>

The Celtics had the league’s best record during the regular season and had little trouble with the Miami Heat in the first round. The Heat took Game 2 at Boston when they hit a franchise playoff-record 23 three-pointers, but in the other four games, Boston won by an average margin of 22 points.

There was a much greater challenge for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round as they went seven games against the Orlando Magic and overcame a nine-point deficit at halftime of Game 7 before pulling away with the victory.

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The Celtics had an average point differential of 11.4 during the regular season, which was the second highest of the past 50 years, behind only the 2016-2017 Golden State Warriors.&nbsp;
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While the Cavaliers have a strong defensive track record, one that rivals the Celtics’ performance, there is such a gap on the offensive side, where Boston is among the best in the league and Cleveland has been below average.

Where the Cavs have some hope is that guard Donovan Mitchell is a tried-and-true playoff scorer who put up 117 points in the last three games against Orlando and has scored at least 30 points in 23 of 52 career playoff games.

Celtics center Kristaps Porziņģis is likely out for the series, so that does offer some hope for Cleveland, but the Cavs have their own injury issues, including center Jarrett Allen, who missed Game 7 against Orlando. Allen is dealing with a rib injury but could be more likely to play than Porziņģis. Injuries might provide Cleveland's best chance in the series.

As massive underdogs, the Cavs will try to put the defensive clamps on Boston’s offense while hoping that Mitchell scores enough to give them a chance. While it’s theoretically possible, that is not the most likely outcome of this series.

Pick: Celtics (<a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/en/basketball/nba/matchups/#nba-series-prices-best-of-seven">-1400*</a>) 
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<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/en/basketball/how-to-bet-on-the-nba-the-ultimate-nba-betting-guide/ed82utraaalum299" target="_blank">How to bet on the NBA: The ultimate NBA betting guide</a></li>
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<h3>NEW YORK KNICKS VS. INDIANA PACERS</h3>

With the second-best record and second-best scoring differential in the Eastern Conference, the New York Knicks are worthy favorites against the Indiana Pacers, a team that finished in sixth place in the conference.

While the Knicks tend to play a solid defensive game, especially with center Mitchell Robinson in the lineup, they have resorted to making Jalen Brunson the offensive leader. He averaged 29.2 field goal attempts per game against Philadelphia in the first round. After struggling in the first two games, Brunson averaged 41.8 points per game in the last four games of the series.&nbsp;

If the Pacers are going to have a chance, they will have to find a way to slow down Brunson.

The problem with that objective is that for all of the things that the Pacers might be as a basketball team, they are not capable of shutting down the opposition. Indiana played at a high tempo this season, scoring a league-high 123.3 points per game, but they also allowed 120.2 points per game, which ranked 27th.

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It will represent a head-to-head matchup of two players who started the season with the Toronto Raptors, OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam.
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Anunoby has been a standout for the Knicks, adding defensive versatility and New York had a 20-3 record with Anunoby in the lineup during the regular season. For Indiana, Siakam led the Pacers with 22.3 points per game against Milwaukee in the first round of the playoffs.

Can the Pacers get the Knicks into a track meet? Probably not, but that is probably their best approach, hoping for higher scoring games which plays more to Indiana’s strengths.

Pick: Knicks (<a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/en/basketball/nba/matchups/#nba-series-prices-best-of-seven">-269*</a>)

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<h3>OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER VS. DALLAS MAVERICKS</h3>

Even though they have arrived as contenders perhaps sooner than expected, the Oklahoma City Thunder are favored in their second-round series against the Dallas Mavericks.

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The Thunder finished as the top seed in the Western Conference, winning a tiebreaker with the Nuggets, and Oklahoma City had the second-best scoring differential (+7.4) in the league.
</blockquote>

The Thunder swept the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaging 27.3 points per game to lead the attack.

While the Thunder have a well-rounded roster, they will face a tough test against a Dallas Mavericks team that is leaning heavily on superstars. Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving combined to average 56.3 points per game in the first round against the Los Angeles Clippers.&nbsp;

Power forward P.J. Washington averaged 10.8 points per game in the first round, the only other Mavericks player scoring in double figures.

The Mavericks were sizzling down the stretch, going 16-2 before resting their stars for the last two games of the regular season.&nbsp;

Can Dallas lean on their two stars and expect to take down the team that was best in the Western Conference during the regular season?

Pick: Thunder (<a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/en/basketball/nba/matchups/#nba-series-prices-best-of-seven">-118*</a>)

<h3>DENVER NUGGETS VS. MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES</h3>

When Minnesota Timberwolves shooting guard Anthony Edwards dropped 43 points in a 106-99 Game 1 win at the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, that changed the outlook for the Western Conference playoffs.

The Timberwolves had a fighting chance in any series because they had the best defense in the league this season combined with Edwards, a 22-year-old rising star that could be something of a wild card when taking on the defending-champion Nuggets.

While the Nuggets have a difficult path through the Western Conference, they were the favorites to represent the West in the NBA Finals.&nbsp;

Nikola Jokić is very likely to win his third MVP award in the past four seasons, and he and Jamal Murray were excellent against the Lakers in the first round.

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The challenge for the Nuggets can be their lack of scoring depth, especially as Murray continues to deal with a strained calf that leaves him questionable for Game 2.
</blockquote>

Michael Porter Jr. is averaging 22.3 points per game in the playoffs, so he gives the Nuggets a strong top three, but it gets rather lean after that. There is no one coming off Denver’s bench that is averaging even five points per game in the playoffs.&nbsp;

By contrast, the Timberwolves have seven players averaging in double figures for the playoffs, including Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker coming off the bench.

After a Game 1 win, the Timberwolves are now favorites in the series, and as unexpected as that might be, Minnesota’s play has justified that swing.

Pick: Timberwolves (<a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/en/basketball/nba/matchups/#nba-series-prices-best-of-seven">-123*</a>)

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*Subject to change.

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