Sports betting is now legal in many states around the country, and customers can even bet on their favorite baseball teams online.
Online wagering has opened a world of possibilities and a new economy. People can play at online casinos, bet on sports, and use services like the PA Lottery app to play lottery games. For LA Dodgers fans, wagering on the team or the wider MLB has never been easier. With more casual gamblers embracing sports betting, many newcomers are left confused.
In this guide, we will discuss the basics of MLB betting.
Understanding Odds and the Moneyline Bet
The best place to start is with odds. Most people recognize the numbers assigned by sportsbooks for individual sporting events. However, many people don’t properly understand odds and what they mean.
Whether its baseball or any other sport, when you see odds, they will look like this:
- LA Dodgers -100
- Boston Red Sox +70
It is worth noting these are the odds a sportsbook will display for moneyline bets. This type of wager is when you bet on one team to win outright. According to the odds above, the sportsbook says the Dodgers are favorites to win and the Red Sox are the underdog. In other words, the (+) symbol denotes the outsider and the (-) symbol denotes the favorite.
However, what happens when you see odds display with a fraction (1/2) or decimal (1.50)? This basically means the amount of money returned to you should you win. So, if you place a bet on the Dodgers to win at 1/2 or 1.50, you will receive the amount of money you initially wagered and 50% back. For example, a wager of $100 would see you get $150 back, a $50 profit.
Runline MLB Betting
When betting on baseball the runline bet is the equivalent of the point spread bet. A spread levels the playing field and means the team most likely to win must win by a specific number of points. In Baseball, the Runline bet ensures the team less likely to win is given an advantage of 1.5 runs to even the betting market.
So, the odds will look like this:
- LA Dodgers -1.5
- Boston Red Sox +1.5
For a wager on the Dodgers to be successful, the team would need to win by two or more runs. As for a wager on Boston, the team could lose by not more than one run and return a win for the bet.
Betting on the First Five Innings
Similar to the moneyline bet, the first five innings wager (F5 bets) are offered by sportsbooks and do just what they say on the tin… you can bet on the first five innings of a game. This wager requires a little more research because you’ll need to know how teams generally perform over the first five innings.
Conclusion
While the betting types above are the most common, there are several other MLB wagers available. For example, you can make combined score bets, futures bets, Prop bets, and in-play bets.
I never bet on any sport. Not my thing. Looked like they were going to have a settlement yesterday, and then late in the afternoon things got hung up again. Not too optimistic about a season right now.