Betting on Baseball can at first seem confusing, there are a number of variables, but when you start to become more familiar with the types of bets at your disposal and get used to it, it becomes easier. In 2017 betting on the MLB made up 23% of the overall betting pool. It is the national past time and one of the United States’ most traditional sports.
Baseball betting requires a little bit more math knowledge than other sports like NFL, Soccer, or Basketball. In other sports, the point spread is how the bet is balanced out and fairly easy to follow. In Baseball, however, there are runline betting options that are based on runs scored, it’s kind of like the NFL over/under betting option.
In this article we will examine the different types of MLB betting options, how to read Baseball odds, Baseball futures, Props betting, and Betting against the public. You will find that it is not as hard as it seems all you have to do is follow the math and follow your gut.
How to read MLB Baseball Odds the Moneyline Bet
Moneyline MLB betting it is just like Soccer, NBA, or NFL betting. The Moneyline bet is when you pick a team to win the game outright over the other. For example:
New York Yankess -200
New York Mets +170
In this case, the Yankees are favored over the Mets, Favorites are always shown with the (-) and underdogs are with (+). So if you bet on the Yankees, let’s say $100, you would win $50 for a total of $150. Your winnings would be only $50 for this bet. But if you bet on the Mets, you would get $270, your $100 plus $170 of winnings.
A Baseball Runline Bet
The Baseball version of the point spread, in this case. Before the start of the game, one team will have an advantage of 1.5 runs to create an even betting situation. Like soccer, Baseball is usually a low scoring game, and odds are created based on those statistics.
San Francisco Giants -1.5
St. Louis Cardinals +1.5
So for the Giants to cover the runline, they would have to win by two or more runs. The Cardinals would just need to cover the spread, so they need to win or not lose by more than 1 run.
Betting on the Top Half of the Game
The top half of a Baseball game is generally referred to the first 5 innings. The bet in this situation is similar to the moneyline bet except you are betting on what will take place in those first 5 innings. Here it will be important to know how the team you are betting on performs at the start of each game.
MLB Totals betting
MLB totals work like this, the Yankees and the Mets are playing each other, in this case, the odds would look like this.
Over 7.5
Under 7.5
Here the bettor must determine if the combined runs of both teams will be over 8 runs or below 7. It’s like the NFL over/under bet, but adapted to Baseball.
Baseball Futures Betting
Much like the other sports, Baseball has futures betting. As mentioned before, you can bet at the start of the season if X team will win the World Series if Y player will get 40 home runs in the year, if Z player will steal 20 bases in the year, or if C pitcher will win 20 games. You can also bet on MVP, Cy Young award winners, basically everything at the start of the season.
What is Betting Against the Public?
Betting against the public is a way of betting against the favorites, home teams, and teams with star players.Basically, it’s betting on the team that is not the favorite or betting against the team that is favored by fans or media.
MLB Prop Bets
Prop betting in baseball allows the bettor to wager on specific events in a game.Basically, how many RBI’s X player will hit, How many strikes Y pitcher will throw, How many Home Runs Z player will hit. Basically, all the variables of a game can be betted on for that specific game no matter the outcome.
Live Betting on Baseball Games
Live betting comes down to odds that appear during a game for players who may score a run at an at-bat. Which base a batter will get on, how many strikeouts a pitcher will record during the course of an inning. If a relief pitcher comes in how many strikes will he throw.
That is the basic guideline for MLB betting. So understand the math and go against the public if you want to surprise many. Good luck!