The exacta bet has long been the crown jewel of horse racing, based in large part on the inherent prestige—and lucrative payout—that comes with the acumen to not only correctly select the winner of the race, but the runner-up as well.
In fact, the exacta wager remains such an engrained piece of horse-racing pageantry that the result and payout of the exacta wager are still reported with the same urgency and priority as the result of the race itself.
In recent years, sportsbooks have caught on to both the romanticism and lottery-ticket appeal of the exacta wager to sports bettors and found a way to transfer this discipline as an option to traditional future wagers. It was a fairly simple amendment; in addition to the standard fare of future wagers, such as wagering on the Super Bowl winner or Stanley Cup champion weeks or months ahead of the event, you can now bet an exacta wager that requires accurately selecting both the winner and the runner-up.
These wagers can offer a fun sweat and also provide the opportunity for additional value on a proposition when other routes are limited. For example, we lean toward the Boston Celtics repeating as NBA champion. But with odds around +200 for this future wager, there is little implied value when weighted against the 16-game journey it takes to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy. A more value-insulated way to bet on this outcome might be simply to wait for a potential NBA Finals matchup and take the NBA future odds offered on the series price.
However, having an NBA Finals exacta in your pocket in which you've invested in a prediction of a 1-2 finish could provide a handsome award that a mere chalky future wager doesn't offer. With that, here is our 2025 NBA Finals exacta wager:
NBA Finals exacta selection: Celtics over Lakers (+1600)
We believe the Celtics are destined for a return trip to the Finals, with the talent-loaded Cleveland Cavaliers the likely biggest threat in a potential Eastern Conference Finals matchup. The value for this wager lies in taking the No. 3-seeded Los Angeles Lakers to emerge from the Western Conference. We're banking on playoff inexperience to be the undoing of the top-seeded Thunder and No. 2-seeded Houston Rockets. The blockbuster trade acquisition of Luka Doncic, who led the Mavericks to a Finals appearance last year, will make Los Angeles a difficult out in the playoffs. He is the perfect complement to 40-year-old LeBron James, who is no longer capable of single-handedly pushing a team through multiple playoff rounds but is more than capable of holding up his end of perhaps the most dangerous playoff backcourt in the NBA this season. If Los Angeles' role players also continue to deliver, it's not a stretch to envision this classic rivalry renewing in another NBA Finals showdown.
Josh Nagel is the assistant managing editor of SportsLine. He heads into the 2025 NBA playoffs with a lifetime record of 154-117-3 on NBA against-the-spread picks on the site, bringing his followers a profit of nearly $2,700. His accurate NBA futures predictions include picking the Nuggets (+425) to win it all before the 2023 playoffs.
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