Baseball Betting Money Line

How to Read Betting Lines

If your sports betting experience consists mostly of office pools during March Madness or a casual wager between you and a friend while you watch the Super Bowl, the transition to serious sports betting means learning how to read betting lines. The biggest difference between making the kind of casual bets mentioned above and placing wagers with online sportsbooks or at brick-and-mortar bookshops is the use of sports betting lines. Casual wagers usually involve each person in the bet picking one team to win, then wagering an equal amount, say $20 or $30. Professional bookmakers, online sports betting exchanges, and sports betting facilities in casinos have a more complex system for offering wagers on sporting events, in part to ensure profit on the part of the book, and in part to present a standardized representation of odds.

Let's start with the basics: what do sports bettors mean when they talk about a ‘line?' The word line, in the language of a sportsbook, can refer to either the odds and/or a point spread in any sports contest. Let's take a look at an imaginary line the way you'd read it off the board sitting in a Vegas sports betting lounge or on the screen at your online book. Let's imagine a game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. Your book's NFL betting line might look something like this:

The run line is the closest thing you will find to a spread in baseball betting. The standard run line is 1.5, which is what we will focus on here. The favorite on the money line will be listed at -1.5 on the run line. MLB, Major League Baseball, is the biggest professional baseball competition and was founded in 1869. MLB betting odds can be found across OddsPortal.com. There are thirty teams competing in the MLB at present with twenty-nine from the USA and a solitary team from Canada. Betting on the Money Line Betting on moneyline is the most common way to bet on a game in America, and it involves the entire game. There is no such thing as a drawn game, and that counts when it comes to gambling too. If you are looking to bet in the traditional American style then this is the market for you.

DAL -7.5-110 -405
NYG +7.5-110 +300
56.5 ov-110

What may look like a jumble of words, numbers, and punctuation is actually a precise and easy-to-read breakdown of the various odds and point spread details your book is offering. Here is a breakdown of each unit of information given above. Once you understand each part of the jumbled details above, you'll be able to read a sports betting line with confidence.

The Point Spread

Obviously, the first three letters on the top two lines of the three-line package of symbols represents a team in the game you're wagering on; NYG stands for the New York Giants, while DAL stands for the Dallas Cowboys. The number next to each team's name is known as the spread or the point spread. Wagers on the point spread are among the most popular sports wagers in the world. The reason this wager is popular is that it doesn't matter which team wins or loses; what matters is the amount of points the teams score, and whether or not the team you place your money on beats the difference in points (the ‘spread') or not.

Placing a point spread bet means gambling on how much a team will win or lose by. In our above example, the Cowboys are the favorite. How do we know that? The minus symbol in front of the point spread indicates that the bookmaker thinks the final score will have Dallas winning by 7.5 points or more. The underdog, in our example that's the New York Giants, will always be indicated with a plus sign. If you wager on the Cowboys on the point spread, America's Team will have to win by at least 8 points for your wager to pay off. Should the Cowboys win by less than 8 points, your bet is lost.

A wager on the Giants on the spread does not mean that New York has to win the game in order for you to win cash. All the G-Men have to do is come within 8 points of the ‘boys, and you're a winner. You determine a winning or losing point spread by adding or subtracting 7.5 from the final score, depending on which side you laid your bet. If you're confident that New York will at least come within a touchdown of beating the Cowboys, or beating them outright, then you'd wager on the spread in favor of New York.

A quick word on that annoying half point in the point spread – most lines you'll come across will use half points, but it's not standard practice across the board. When you see a line with a full number instead of a number with a half point, your wager could end up as a push. In our example, if the line were 7 instead of 7.5 and the final difference in points was exactly 7, your wager is returned to you, and neither you nor the book makes money.

What's the function of the second number in the line?

The second number in our example (-110 for both teams) tells you how much you have to wager in order to win $100. It's an easy way to calculate how much you'll win if your bet pays off, presented in units of $100 at a time for simplicity's sake. Most of the time, these two numbers will be the same, because oddsmakers want to set lines so that they get as much action on the underdog as on the favorite, guaranteeing them a profit. If a book gets a single bet of $110 (by a customer hoping to win $100) on the Cowboys and a single bet of $110 on the Giants, it will have taken in $220, but will only have to pay back $210 to whichever customer wins the bet. That's a guaranteed profit of $10, and since sportsbooks take far more than a single bet in either direction, they stand to earn that seemingly small amount of profit many times over. The $10 difference between what you wager and what you win is known as juice or vig in the sports betting industry, and it's the way books earn their bread and butter.

What does the last number in the line mean?

The last number in the top two rows of our sports line example is known as the money line. If you're not interested in betting on the point spread, you can wager on a team to win outright. The plus sign next to the underdog (in our case, the Giants) indicates how much money you'll earn for every $100 you bet on the money line. Conversely, the minus sign next to the favorite's line tells you how much you have to wager in order to win $100. In our example, a $100 wager on the Giants earns you $300 should they pull off the upset, while a bet of $405 on the Cowboys will net you an extra $100. Representing odds in units of $100 makes placing different size bets easy; if you want to bet $10 on the Giants, you stand to earn $30 if they win, while a $40.50 bet on the Cowboys will net you an additional $10.

What does the bottom row of numbers and letters mean? Top 10 uk online casinos.

The final line of information in our example line is the over-under. Wagers placed on the over-under have nothing to do with which team wins or the difference between the points they score, but rather the combined number of points both teams will score in the game.
The first number (56.5 in our sample line) is the book's predicted total score, while the second number (110 in our Giants/Cowboys rivalry game) is how much a punter has to bet in order to win $100. If you were to bet the over-under on this game, you'll have to decide whether you think the combined score of both teams will be higher or lower than the number put up by the book. Let's say you bet the over, assuming the game will be a shootout between two talented offenses, you're hoping that the final score will be anything that totals 57 or more. It could be Dallas 54, New York 3, or any other point combination that adds up to 57 or more and your bet will win. Betting the under means that the two teams cannot score more than 56 points combined, or else you lose your bet.

Reading sports betting lines becomes easier with practice and experience with different sporting events. What looks like a jumble of letters and numbers actually gives a lot of information in a tiny amount of space. Different sports have different types of wagers available, such as the run line in baseball or the puck line in hockey, both of which replace the money line found in our football example. The more experience you have watching and gambling on different sports, the faster you'll be able to read betting lines.

With 7-8 months of baseball action every year, and several games every day, tons of betting opportunities are available. The key to making money wagering on baseball games is finding the best price. For the casual bettor looking to have some fun, shopping around isn't so critical, but serious bettors need to get the best price on every bet they place.

Small advantages can make the difference during a long season with so many games to bet on. Whether you're betting to win millions of dollars or just a few dollars, yoou should have accounts at the gambling sites listed below.

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Understand the Different Types of Baseball Bets

Money Lines

A money line is a straight-up bet on the winner of a game. Since one team is generally favored over the other, the payouts for each team are different. For example it may require a $10 bet to win $6 on one team, but only $5 to win $10 on another.

Negative (-) money lines indicate the favored team in a game. Positive (+) money lines indicate the underdog. A typical baseball money line might look like this:

• San Francisco Giants -120
• Los Angeles Dodgers +130

Money lines are based around the $100 figure for simplicity, but do not require a $100 bet. Negative money lines display the amount of money needed to wager to win $100 in profit. Positive money lines display the amount that would be won from a $100 bet.

In the Giants vs Dodgers game above, it would require a $120 bet on the Giants to win $100 in profit (or $12 to win $10). If the Dodgers win, a bet of $100 would result in a $130 profit (or $10 to win $13).

Money line bets are the most popular way to bet on MLB baseball.

Run Lines

A run line wager is similar to a puck line bet in hockey. The favored team in a game has to give up 1.5 runs in a game, while the underdog gets 1.5 runs. For a bet on the favored team to win, they would need to win the game by two or more runs. The underdog could lose the game by one run and still win the run line bet. Here's how it works:

• Baltimore Orioles +1.5 -180
• Kansas City Royals -1.5 +160

In this game, the Royals are the favored team, so they have to give up 1.5 runs. The Orioles are the underdog, so they're getting 1.5 runs. For run line bets on the Orioles to win, the Orioles could lose the game by one run and still cover the run line. For example, if the game score was 4-5 with the Orioles losing, a run line bet adjusts the score to 5.5 – 5, for the Orioles win.

For run line bets on the Royals to win, they would have to win the game by two or more runs. For example, if the Royals win the game 6-4, the adjusted score becomes Royals 4.5 to 4 for the Orioles. If they won the game 5-4, run line bets on them would lose because the adjusted score would be 3.5-4.

Since baseball is a low scoring game and anything can happen, the team who's favored to win outright is typically the underdog on a run line bet. For example, in the game above, the Royals are the favored team to win, and this is why they have to give up 1.5 runs. However, the odds on them are +160, meaning you'll get $160 profit on a $100 wager. For the Orioles who are getting 1.5 runs, it would require a bet of $180 to win $100 in profit.

Totals (Over/Unders)

A totals bet (also called over/under) is a simple wager on the total number of runs scored in a game. If the score is 5-4, the total is 9. If the score is 8-3, the total is 11.

Sportsbooks post the number of runs they think will be scored in a game. It's the handicappers job to predict if their number is too high or too low. If you think their total is too high, you would bet the under. If you think their total is too low, you would bet the over.

Most online sportsbooks offer totals bets at -110 odds, except when the lines are adjusted based on betting trends.

Betting Money Line Definition

1st 5 Inning Bets

Many sportsbooks offer bets on the results of the 1st 5 innings of a game. New free online games without downloading. For this bet, the game is considered over at the end of the fifth inning. Some bettors prefer five inning bets over full games because results tend to be more predictable. This is because starting pitchers generally pitch most or all of the first five innings. Without bullpens to worry about, it can be easier to select which team will be ahead after 5 innings than 9.

Five inning bets also give cappers another betting option to add more excitement to a game. Now you can bet on the first five innings and the full game as well.

Propositions (Props)

Prop bets (also called special or exotic bets) are wagers that don't fit into any of the other betting categories listed above. These are usually wagers on individual events or accomplishments during a game. Most sportsbooks offer team and player props for baseball games, but some offer a better selection than others. Also the vig is generally higher on prop bets than bets related to the final result of a game. For these reasons, baseball prop bets tend to be less popular than others.

Designed mainly for casual punters who are looking to add some excitement to a game, some common MLB baseball prop bets might include:

• Player matchups on who will have more hits, runs, and rbi's in a game.
• Pitching matchups on who will record more strikeouts in a game.
• Over/under on strikeouts recorded by a pitcher.
• Will player X get a hit?
• Will player Y hit a home run?
• Which team will score first?
• Will there be a run scored in the first inning?
• Over/under on runs scored by an individual team.

Futures

A futures bet is exactly as it sounds. In baseball, these are bets that pick the winner of a division, league, or World Series winner. Some online sports betting sites also offer over/under futures bets on the total number of games each team will win.

A totals bet (also called over/under) is a simple wager on the total number of runs scored in a game. If the score is 5-4, the total is 9. If the score is 8-3, the total is 11.

Sportsbooks post the number of runs they think will be scored in a game. It's the handicappers job to predict if their number is too high or too low. If you think their total is too high, you would bet the under. If you think their total is too low, you would bet the over.

Most online sportsbooks offer totals bets at -110 odds, except when the lines are adjusted based on betting trends.

Betting Money Line Definition

1st 5 Inning Bets

Many sportsbooks offer bets on the results of the 1st 5 innings of a game. New free online games without downloading. For this bet, the game is considered over at the end of the fifth inning. Some bettors prefer five inning bets over full games because results tend to be more predictable. This is because starting pitchers generally pitch most or all of the first five innings. Without bullpens to worry about, it can be easier to select which team will be ahead after 5 innings than 9.

Five inning bets also give cappers another betting option to add more excitement to a game. Now you can bet on the first five innings and the full game as well.

Propositions (Props)

Prop bets (also called special or exotic bets) are wagers that don't fit into any of the other betting categories listed above. These are usually wagers on individual events or accomplishments during a game. Most sportsbooks offer team and player props for baseball games, but some offer a better selection than others. Also the vig is generally higher on prop bets than bets related to the final result of a game. For these reasons, baseball prop bets tend to be less popular than others.

Designed mainly for casual punters who are looking to add some excitement to a game, some common MLB baseball prop bets might include:

• Player matchups on who will have more hits, runs, and rbi's in a game.
• Pitching matchups on who will record more strikeouts in a game.
• Over/under on strikeouts recorded by a pitcher.
• Will player X get a hit?
• Will player Y hit a home run?
• Which team will score first?
• Will there be a run scored in the first inning?
• Over/under on runs scored by an individual team.

Futures

A futures bet is exactly as it sounds. In baseball, these are bets that pick the winner of a division, league, or World Series winner. Some online sports betting sites also offer over/under futures bets on the total number of games each team will win.

While some futures bets can offer attractive odds, winning bets take all season long before they pay out. If you have a set bankroll for sports betting, futures bets should be kept to a maximum of .5% of your bankroll. Online mobile slots no deposit bonus. Don't tie up large sums of money on futures.

Parlays

A lot of handicappers like baseball parlays because a lot of games have very close odds. A parlay bet is a wager where 2 or more teams are picked to win, and put onto a single ticket. Every team on the parlay must win, or the entire bet is lost. However, the odds for a baseball parlay bet are greatly increased, giving cappers a chance to score a big win with a relatively small wager amount.

Popular MLB Pages

– MLB Baseball Lines
– MLB Futures
– MLB Team Win Totals
– World Series Betting

More Useful Information

Major League Baseball (MLB) is one of the most popular sports in the United States, along with football and basketball. Most of the MLB players are American although many come from Canada, Cuba, Japan and the Dominican Republic. The MLB season is played from April and doesn't end until October or November depending on how long each playoff series takes to finish.

Nfl Betting Odds Money Lines

There is more betting on the World Series than any other game during the season. World Series games can be bet on at every major sportsbook on the net. A wider selection of prop bets are also available for the World Series.