If you know nothing about sports and you still feel the urge to wager, baseball is one of the best sports to wager on, especially in October. Here is a step-by-step guide to baseball betting…
The main difference between baseball betting and other team sports betting such as football and basketball is that while the latter ones use point spreads, the former uses the money line.
What is a Point Spread?
Point spread is the most common betting type in football and basketball. The sportsbook spreads the odds of a certain match by subtracting points from the favorite team, which is the team most likely to win, and adding points to the underdog, which is the team that will raise a lot of eyebrows if it wins.
What is a Money Line?
In baseball betting, the sportsbook sets the odds strictly on the match’s outcome. In order to even the action, bettors would have to risk more money on the favorite and risk less on the underdog. This is called the money line.
For example, if the money line is minus 170 on the favorite and plus 150 on the underdog, then you would have to bet 170 dollars on the favorite in order to earn 100 dollars. On the other hand, if you bet 100 dollars on the underdog, you would win 150 dollars if they would eventually win the match.
The difference between the minus 170 on the favorite and the plus 150 on the underdog is known as the twenty-cent line. If the money line was minus on the favorite and plus 150 on the underdog, it is called the ten-cent line or dime line. The fifteen-cent line is also common in baseball betting.
Sportsbooks also offer total bets and run lines in baseball betting.
1) Total Bets:
These wagers are based on the sum of the runs scored by both of the teams. For example, if the sportsbook sets the over-under total of a match as 7, the over wins if the sum of the runs scored by both teams exceeds 7 and the under wins if it sums up to less than 7.
2) The Run Line:
This wager is the baseball variation of a point spread. When you are betting on the run line, you are betting on whether one of the teams wins by more than one run, which is marked as minus 1.5, or stays within one run, marked as plus 1.5.
Conclusion:
Although the money line makes baseball betting simpler than football and basketball betting, it causes the payoff calculation to be more complicated:
1) In order to calculate the payoff when wagering on the favorite you should add 1 to the favorite price and divide it by the favorite price.
2) In order to calculate the payoff when wagering on the underdog you should add 1 to the underdog price.
