A Quick Guide To Betting The Game of Baseball - Lesson 1

thedailyroto (53)in #sports • 7 years ago

A Mini-Series Guide to Betting on Baseball Games - Lesson 1

If you are new to sports betting, there are a few things you need to learn when it comes to betting baseball. A little about myself before I start this article, my name is Chris and I used to play daily fantasy sports professionally but recently moved to Las Vegas to transfer my skills to baseball betting.

I also authored three daily fantasy sports books that went on to be Amazon Best Sellers in Sports Betting and Daily Fantasy Sports categories. And I am co-founder of XtraMoney.co with Richard for those who follow us.

The Basics of Baseball Betting

The Money Line

I’m going to explain how betting works as well as give you a few tips in case you are interested in betting but aren’t exactly sure how it all works.

To start with, baseball doesn’t have a points spread like football or basketball, so a lot of the times you don’t need a team to win by a certain amount of runs to “cover” the spread like you do in other football and basketball.

Rather baseball uses a “money line” and that’s how you determine who’s the favorite in the game. Next to the teams that are playing you will see a little number adjacent to the team's name. This indicates how much you need to bet to win $100.

For example, if a team is playing with a top pitcher and you see they have a -180 next to their team, that means you need to bet $180 dollars to win $100.

It’s important to realize you get the money you bet back as well as what you won.

I had to explain this to my mom because she has no clue what is going on and said “why would you bet $180 to win $100? If your team wins you lose money!."

Silly Mom!

It doesn’t work that way, if I give the sports book $180 and take a team to win that is -$180, I get $280 if that team wins the game.

Now if a team is an underdog you will a + next to their team name meaning if you bet $100 you get that number.

Another Example

So if you see that a team is +165 this means if you bet $100 you will win $165 if that team pulls off a victory. Same as before, you get the money you bet back so if you placed a $100 bet on a team that is +165 and they win, the sports book will give you $265 when you cash out.

The Run Line

Now sports books also have things called run lines and I’m going to explain this to you as well as why you should never bet this if you are a serious sports bettor.

The run line is always the same, it’s -1.5 meaning if you take a team with the run line, you need to the win by AT LEAST two runs.

This entices a lot of bettors to take the run line because you typically get better odds if they can win by two.

For example, a few days ago I made the mistake of taking the National with the run line because their money line was -200 while their run line was -115.

So what this means is if you want to win $100 on the bet, you either need to bet $200 for them to win using the Money Line or you can bet $115 on the Run Line and they have to win by 2.

Naturally they won 3-2 and I lost my bet because I took them with the run line.

Over time, this is not a good bet to make in baseball.

You need to remember this is a game where guys with a round bat are hitting a round ball and there is a lot of variance taking place.

While it may seem enticing to bet the run line because you get better odds, over time it’s not worth it.

Think of it like this, a good baseball bettor will bet the same unit price per bet and let's say that bet is $100. So if all your bets are $100 and you lose two games because you took the run line and the team only won by 1, you are down $200.

Now most the time (and this is different for every game so this isn't 100% correct) the run line will add about 60-90 points give or take.

This means if the money line is something like -185 the run line will most likely be -110 So if you lose two bets because a team only wins by 1 you will need to win at least 4-6 games with the run line to make up for those two games you lost.

In a game with variance like baseball, take the easiest way to make a profit and avoid the run line unless you are a recreational bettor who’s just trying to have some fun for a weekend.

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