There are different types of bets involved in wagering on MLB , and all of them may seem really confusing to beginners in sports betting. They may see them as quite imposing too, but once they understand the essentials behind these bets they will realize how actually simple these bets are. One of those bets is the moneyline bet. This is actually a very common bet at sportsbooks, especially in the case of MLB betting.
The Basics of the Moneyline Bet
Similar to the moneyline bet is the point spread. With the point spread you are concerned with which team will win and by how much. The moneyline bet is much simpler because you are only concerned with who wins. The difference in points is not important and there is no handicap included. The simplest explanation of a moneyline bet is: the amount that you have to wager in order to win a specific amount. Let’s explain this with an example through a hypothetical baseball game.
When you are looking at moneyline odds, you will see something like this:
White Sox +130
Indians -150
These numbers tell us which team is more likely to win. The negative number is always assigned to the favorite, while the positive number is always assigned to the underdog. It is the same with point spreads, only that here you can project these numbers as money (hence money lines).
In the example above the +130 means that you will risk $100 in order to win $130. If White Sox win you will get $130 plus the $100 that you have wagered. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a $100 wager, you can wager whichever amount you want. For example, if you want to wager $15 and want to know how much you can win, you just need to convert the moneyline to +1.30 and multiply it with $15, which equals to $19.5 dollars, the amount that you can win.
If you want to wager on the Indians (-150), then you will have to risk $150 in order to win $100 if the Indians win. Since here the Indians are seen as the favorite, the amount of your wager on them will always be bigger compared to the possible payout amount. This will always be the case when making a moneyline bet on a favorite.
The Advantage of Moneylines
When you bet on the underdogs, you don’t necessarily need to make a big number of bets in order to attain a profit. For example, if you make 10 consecutive underdog moneyline bets, $100 per game, where the average underdog moneyline is +130, you only need to win half of the bets to have a reasonable profit. You would win $650, but lose $350, giving you a total profit of $150. Basically you have wagered $500 successfully and won $650. Technically you can be in profit even if you win 4 of the 10 consecutive bets made, but that would be a very small profit of $22.5, but nevertheless it is a profit.
Many sports bettors agree that baseball is one of the easiest sports in which you can make money, but still few people bet on baseball. Be a wise MLB moneyline bettor and pick as many high-value small to medium underdogs if you want to make some money on the MLB.