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Betting Guide
Picking winners in baseball is easy. Picking award winners and World Series winners? Not so much. Which is what makes betting MLB Futures so much fun. The odds are always really great because of just how dang hard they are to pick. When you nail one though? That’s the stuff that legends are made of.
There are quite a few different MLB Futures that you can bet. From MVP to Rookie of the Year to League Winners to Division winners and all the way up to the World Series. The amount of bets is endless and each one offers it’s unique challenges.
In this article we’re going to cover all of the options for betting MLB futures as well as how to bet them, where to bet them and our strategy for picking winners.
Where To Bet MLB Futures:
America: Bovada offers a wide selection of futures and constantly updates them throughout the season.
Canada: Sports Interaction is always on the ball when it comes to MLB Futures and keeps them updated frequently.
Everywhere Else: A great site for MLB Futures is 888. They post a good amount and update them throughout the season.
What are MLB Futures?
Essentially, betting things that will happen in the future of the MLB. MLB Futures. Get it?
What this means is that you are better on long term outcomes. Sometimes placing a bet in March that won’t settle until October or November. This isn’t for everyone, but the profits you can make from a successful futures bet are great and the temptation of betting them is hard to resist.
A few variants of an MLB Future bet are:
Regular Season MVP: Odds based on the best players in both league where you bet on who you think will win the MVP award. The odds are better the further out you bet, but the closer you get to the end of the season the clearer the picture. Thus the worse the odds.
Rookie of the Year: Same as above, but for the Rookie of the Year award. This can be one of the most difficult ones to bet as you just never know when players are going to get called up during the season. The odds for this one can be kind of erratic for that reason.
Most Home Runs: This is a particularly fun and difficult futures bet. Odds are set on most of the top homerun hitters in the game and you have to bet on which one you think will finish the following season with the most homeruns.
MLB Win Totals: An over/under set for each team’s final win total for the season.
Division Winners: Odds on who will win each division in baseball’s leagues. These don’t always have the best odds as the favorites are clear once free agency is done and the projection systems do their work.
League Champions: Odds on who will win the National League and American League championship and represent their league in the World Series.
World Series Champion: Perhaps the hardest futures bet of them all as there can be only one. These odds are posted early, but are constantly updated throughout the season as we get closer to the World Series. Odds change, but it never gets easier. The Wild Card era playoffs are just that, wild.
Common MLB Futures Questions:
When can I bet MLB Futures?
Most MLB Futures are posted during the spring with the exception of World Series odds which are usually posted immediately after the previous year’s World Series ends.
Most odds stay up throughout the season with constant updates to the betting odds. For instance, the 2017 Dodgers entered the season as a +500 bet to win the NL Pennant. After 90 games in the season that number was down to +240 and by October they were down to +150. All those bets won, but the ones made earlier made more money.
Other bets like Most Home Runs and Win Totals are only available in the preseason.
How to bet MLB Win Totals?
Win totals are one of the biggest and most popular betting markets for baseball during the preseason. Each team will have an over/under set on them that you can bet on. A good team might have a number like 87.5 while a bad team will have a total like 70.5. You would then bet over or under on where you think they will land.
This can be good to pick and I’ve had success in the past by simply using the team standings projections at Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs. Simply look for teams that are over or under that amount by a 2+ game margin. These can be very profitable if you bet them, but the downside is that you have to bet and wait for the entire 162 game season for it to payoff!
How To Bet MLB Futures:
Bovada: From the sportsbook, select “Baseball” from the menu, then “MLB”. There will then be a link within MLB to “Futures”.
Sports Interaction:: From the left side of the website find “Baseball” and click that. Underneath there you should find “MLB” and an option for “Futures” will be underneath that.
888: Right from the homepage find “Baseball” under the “Sports A-Z” section. Click “MLB” from there and you will see an option for “Futures”.
MLB Futures Betting Strategy:
Projection websites like Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus are your friends. These sites have gotten pretty good at projecting the best players and teams in baseball.
Of course, you do need to account for injuries. I always like to focus on players without an injury history and veer towards the younger stars. Bryce Harper and Mike Trout come to mind for MVP awards. The Cubs youth movement would be a great example of a recent success story for betting on a division, pennant and World Series winner.
One area that is good to look at for betting MLB Futures is the Division Winners. There will always be a few divisions that have clear cut winners and huge odds in their favor. This has happened quite a bit with the Houston Astros and New York Yankees over the past couple of seasons. However, there are usually a couple of divisions that are considered wide open and picking one of these right can pay off well.
All Where To Bet MLB Articles:
Where To Bet MLB Player Props:
Where To Bet MLB Futures & Awards:
Where To Bet Other Baseball Leagues:
