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Betting Guide
One of the key facets of baseball betting is moneylines. Very simply, who will win or lose any given game with odds attached to it. Picking a winner is sometimes predictable, but picking whether a winner will win by 1.5 runs? Who knows? Anything can happen in a game. A late homerun that costs you the spread or the under.
That’s why I prefer betting the moneylines. It’s far more pure and a good way to bet baseball. Of course, you pay a premium for the right to pick the winner, but who cares when you’re right? That said, you do need to be careful betting on major favorites. It can seem like easy money, but a few losses can make a winning record unprofitable. It’s all about finding the best values and betting accordingly.
In this article we are going to explain exactly what MLB Moneylines are as well as how to bet them, where to bet them and my own strategy for picking winners. Let’s get right into it.
Where To Bet MLB Moneylines:
America: I definitely recommend Bovada for betting MLB Moneylines. They typically have odds up early, sometimes the night before and also often a lot of ancillary betting options for each game. They have a big selection of props as well and are one of the better sites for you bet MLB Futures.
Canada: There is no better sportsbook for Canadians who like betting baseball than Sports Interaction. The moneylines are always up early and competitively priced. There put lines on every game, all season long with moneylines, over/unders, runlines, and a ton of prop bets.
Everywhere Else: One of the top sportsbooks in the industry, 888 offer a ton of betting options on every MLB game of the season. They offer a lot of good betting options including 5-Inning Moneylines.
What are MLB Moneylines?
MLB Moneylines are a straight bet of team vs. team with no spread attached. The moneyline part is decided by how much money you will “lay” to bet the desired result.
To explain, let’s say the mighty Dodgers are playing the sad Marlins and Clayton Kershaw is on the mound. This is a game the Dodgers will win like 90% of the time. The moneyline for this game might be Dodgers -350 and Marlins +400.
That would mean if you bet $100 on the Marlins and they won, you’d win $400. However, you’d have to bet $350 on the Dodgers to win $100. A $100 bet on a -350 line would only pay out a little over $28. You pay the premium for the lopsided match-up.
Using the same example as above. If you were to bet using fractional odds, a $100 at 1/4 would net you $400. While a $350 bet at 0.2857142857142856/1 would win $100.
For users of decimal odds, I’ll also use the same example game as above. A $100 bet at 5.0 would win $400. A $350 bet at 1.29 would win you $100.
Finding the right balance between not laying too much and betting the right underdogs is the key to winning these bets.
Common MLB Moneylines Questions:
How are MLB Moneylines decided?
A variety of factors are taken into play when making a moneyline. Home field advantage is worth something, team record, team offenses and the starting pitcher all play major factors.
The moneyline is a probability that a team will win. The lines are set against the likelihood that they are going to happen in a way that benefits the sportsbook. So while a team at -200 may win twice out of every three games, betting that line means you have to to win 67% of the time to break even.
What is largest moneyline in MLB history?
The biggest moneyline upset of all-time took place in 2019 when the Tigers upset the Astros.
The Astros opened at -500 and got as high as -600 at some sportsbooks before closing around -550. Some very large bets were placed on the Astros in this one as they seemed like a sure thing, but the Tigers were able to pull off the huge upset. As you can imagine, that equaled some huge money wins for the sportsbooks on that day as nobody gave the Tigers a chance.
The sportsbooks were said to be six figure winners on this day with the +400 Tigers coming in with the win.
How To Bet MLB Moneylines:
The nice thing about MLB Moneylines is that they are the easiest to find a sports betting website. You simply go to the baseball or MLB section of the sportsbook and there they are! Easy!
Bovada: Click “Baseball” from the top menu that lists all of the sports. This will take you to that day’s moneyline betting odds as well as the totals.
Sports Interaction: On the left hand side of the page you will see a list of all the sports. Click “Baseball” and then “MLB” to see all of the day’s moneylines.
888: Click the “Sports A-Z” area on the left hand menu and find “Baseball”. This will bring up a list of all the games with the moneylines, totals, and more.
MLB Moneylines Betting Strategy:
When betting MLB moneylines I don’t like to let the odds get too out of hand. While I fully believe that Clayton Kershaw will beat the lowly Marlins and the Dodgers will win, it’s not worth risking $300 to win $100 to me. I prefer to stay in the -160 or below range or else bet on underdogs.
As for actually picking winners, I like to look at the recent trends of the starting pitchers and the teams. Even a great pitcher can have a rough patch and he might not be priced at his performance level. An important stat to keep track of when betting on a starting pitcher is their home/road splits. Pitchers can have huge swings in home and road starts that are important to keep track of. I also like to look at the batting stats teams have against the handedness of the pitcher in question.
A lot of times lines are made with public perception in mind and not the latest stats. Keep up with those and you could pick some winners.
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