How to Bet Baseball
If you are just getting into baseball betting, it will be a huge help for you to have a basic understanding of the different types of bets you can place. Each MLB season I am flooded with e-mails asking about the basics of baseball betting. This article serves as a good beginners resource for learning how to bet on baseball.
Money Lines – You can bet on the money line in just about any sport, the difference in baseball is that is the primary method of betting. This actually makes your job somewhat easy because you don’t need to worry about a point spread. You are simply betting on who you think will win with money lines, how much they win by is of no consequence.
Whenever you take the favorite in MLB matchups, you are laying odds. For example, if you see a line that says -135, that teams is favored and you would need to wager $135 to win $100. If you’re taking the underdog, you are getting odds, meaning you might see a line like +125, in which case you could lay $100 to win $125. At most baseball sportsbooks, you will see what’s called a 20 cent line. This is the difference between the two prices in any one matchup. Say the Yankees are playing the Red Sox. At a 20 cent sportsbook, the line would be something like Yankees -125/Red Sox +105, where the difference between the two numbers comes out to 20. This gives the house a pretty solid edge, however, there are several dime line sportsbooks available that offer 10 cent lines, which means on that same game you would see Yankees -125/Red Sox +115. It may not seem like much, but over the course of the season, if you bet any underdogs that 10 cents really adds up, which is why you should always choose a dime line sportsbook if you can find one.
Totals - Baseball totals are just like any other sport. You bet on the total number of runs scored by both teams in an individual game.
Run Lines – Think of run lines as a fixed point spread in baseball games. The standard is 1.5 runs, meaning the favorite in the match up has to win by at least two runs, or the underdog has to win outright, or lose by just one run. There is a money line attached to the run line as well, but you will get better odds on favorites, for example, a -150 favorite might be listed at -1.5 at a +130 money line. Underdogs get worse odds, so a +150 underdog would be something like +1.5 at a-150 money line. The most common use of the run line is for huge, high-scoring favorites because you can risk a lot less on a favorite on the run line, you just have to hope they can win by 2 or more runs.
