How To Bet On Major League Baseball

With the 2019 Major League Baseball season right around the corner, there will be plenty of fans looking to get in on the sports betting action. There are plenty of different ways to bet on baseball so I took the time to break down the different types of wagers in order to help get you ready. Here is a look at some of the most popular ways to bet on baseball.

The Moneyline

The simplest and most popular way to bet on baseball is to simply choose a winner on the moneyline. For example, if the New York Mets were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers, a line would be set for both teams depending on a range of factors including pitching, hitting, home field advantage and the number of money that has already been wagered on both sides. In this example, let us pretend the Mets are the home team and favorite at -150 odds on the moneyline, while the Dodgers are the underdog at +140. If you wanted to bet the Mets on the moneyline, you would have to risk $140 to win $100, $280 to win $200 and so on. If you wanted to bet the Dodgers, you would only have to risk $100 to win $140, $200 to win $280 and so on.

5-Inning Lines

The 5-inning lines use the same concept as the moneyline only they use the score of the game after five innings to determine the outcome of the wager. For example, if the Mets and Dodgers were playing then a 5-inning wager would simply require picking one or the other to win, with the outcome after five innings representing the final sore for that wager. Therefore, if Dodgers led 3-2 after five innings than anybody that took them on a 5-inning wager would have a winning bet. The 5-inning wager puts more importance on the starting pitcher matchup, which factors more heavily in to the betting odds for that bet.

Totals

This is the second most popular baseball bet, which is also known as the over/under wager. When betting baseball totals, you are essentially wagering whether or not the total combined score of the game will be above or below the line that has been set by the sports books. If the Mets and Dodgers were playing, the totals might be set at Mets/Dodgers Over-9.5 (-110), Under 9.5 (-110). Therefore, anybody that wants to bet on the totals will have to decide whether or not they think the final score will be more or less than nine combined runs with 10 or more scoring for the Over and nine or fewer scoring for the Under. The juice for the totals is often set at -110 but good be manipulated by the sport sbooks depending on the wagers they take or which result they think is more likely.

Run Lines

The run lines are a lot like the spreads you see when betting on the NFL and NBA. In essence, the run line is an alternative to the money line in which you can bet a team to win by more than one run or less by less than two runs. If we were to use the example listed above, we could make the Mets -1.5 run (+200) on the run line and the Dodgers +1.5 (-220). Under these circumstances, the Mets would become the underdog rather than the favorite since they would have to win the game by at least two runs in order to cover the run line. The Dodgers would only have to lose by one run or less to cover at +1.5, so the price to bet them on the run line would be a lot different than if you were betting on them to win the game straight up.