While football is currently one of the most ubiquitous American sports, baseball continues to be a huge part of American culture as well.

• Soccer Betting Lines Explained
• How To Read Betting Lines
• Sports Betting For Beginners

Despite football’s superior popularity, baseball has more of a historical significance to America. Baseball is thought to be a spin-off of English games like Rounders and Cricket and variations of those games, that were set to become baseball, were being played by the time of the American Revolution.

What does “line” mean as a sports betting term? Another term for “point spread.” It is the betting “line” or gambling odds used to determine the parameters for wagering on either the favorite. What does “line” mean as a sports betting term? Another term for “point spread.” It is the betting “line” or gambling odds used to determine the parameters for wagering on either the favorite. A betting line is a form of betting whereby the bookmaker handicaps a team/player to effectively make the contest 50/50. This handicap is set by creating a margin (line) between the two teams, in a contest where there are only two outcomes possible. An Example of How Betting Lines Work. In Summary: Betting Odds Explained Betting odds represent the probability of an outcome occurring and the return (profit) you will receive if your bet is a winner. It could be the likelihood of all of your final four betting picks being correct. The probability represented by betting odds is often referred to as the ‘implied probability’.

Football on the other hand also originates from traditional British games like soccer and rugby, and like baseball, it has evolved into a different sport than its predecessors.

Football incorporated aspects distinctly separate from those found in soccer and rugby. Differences like blocking, down and distance rules, and line of scrimmage rules all served to separate football from its past and redefine it as an American sport.

Due to the differences in gameplay between football and baseball, much of their betting terminology is presented differently by both in-person and online sportsbooks.

Whether you are a seasoned football bettor looking to branch out, or a baseball fan who has never bet before but wants to spice up his relationship with the game, learning about baseball odds and lines is a necessity.

Moneylines

Before learning any other type of baseball bets, you should learn how moneyline wagering works. Party casino free spins no deposit.

Moneyline wagering is one of the simplest forms of baseball bets and also the most intuitive for any novice gambler to understand. The only barrier will likely be learning about odds and how the payouts can differ between favorites and underdogs.

The most basic part of a moneyline bet is predicting which team will win. Let’s say the Giants are playing the Dodgers in a classic California showdown. The two bitter rivals are facing off, and the Dodger’s ace, Kershaw, is taking the mound against the shimmying Johnny Cueto.

Kershaw’s a tremendous pitcher on a hall of fame track, while Cueto has struggled with injuries and effectiveness ever since signing his huge free-agent deal with the Giants.

You’re sure Kershaw will lead the Dodgers to victory— their hitting and fielding is superior to the Giants as well so it should be a cinch for them to take the Giants down. Placing a bet on the Dodgers to beat the Giants is an example of a moneyline bet.

Unfortunately, it’s not so simple. When you place a bet with a sportsbook, you have to factor in the odds they give you.

The stake is the money you put down on the bet. So if you said, “5 bucks on the Dodgers.”, your stake would be $5. How much that bet will payout though, depends on the odds the sportsbook gives you, which is where it gets tricky.

Odds can be positive or negative. Negative odds indicate the favorite and positive odds indicate the underdog.

Bookmakers adjust baseball betting odds so they can make sure they profit off any bet and stay in business. Part of gambling is understanding that books are in it for the profit.

Here’s an example moneyline bet using moneyline, or American-style odds:

Here, the Dodgers are the heavy favorite while the Giants are the underdog.

So it’s great that you predicted the Dodgers to win. The sportsbook agrees with you though, which makes it harder for you to make money off of the bet, and here’s why.

The Dodgers line of -150 means that you’d have to bet $150 to win $100, while the Giants line of +130 means that you can bet $100 and win $130.

As you can see, there’s less reward to bet on the favorite than there is to bet on the underdog. The heavier the favorite is, the further away the sportsbook will move the odds from 100.

Many bettors prefer to bet on underdogs because you can get a bigger payout with a smaller stake. Learning about how payouts are affected by the sportsbook’s odds is the key to successful moneyline betting.

Run Lines

Run line wagering is baseball’s version of spread betting.

Spread betting is a popular form of football betting and gives you a number the team is expected to win by.

For example, a football game may have a spread of 6.5, where the New York Jets are the favorite and the Tennessee Titans are the underdog.

The Jets must win by at least 7 for a bet on them to payout. If they win by fewer than 7 points, or lose, then you lose the bet on them as well.

A bet on the Titans will payout if they win or if they lose by 7 points or fewer.

Run line betting in baseball is similar to betting on the spread in football. The difference though is that baseball is a much lower scoring game than football, so the numbers need to be adjusted accordingly.

Run line betting uses the same odds as moneyline betting. The key thing to know is run line betting will have one more number than moneyline betting: the run line.

Let’s use an example similar to the one above but with the run line included:

• Dodgers (+160) -1.5
• Giants (-140) +1.5

Everything is calculated the same in this bet as in a moneyline bet except now the favorite and underdog are reversed.

Now, you’d have to bet $140 on the Giants to take home $100 and $100 on the Dodgers to take home $160.

Additionally, you now have to consider the run line when you make this bet. The run line is the final number of the line and is set to 1.5.

With the run line included, the Dodgers now have to win by 2 runs for your bet on them to payout. The Giants can lose by 1 run or win for a bet on the Giants to payout.

Betting on the run line is a useful way to bet if your team is the favorite. If you hate the Giants with a passion but also don’t want to make an underdog bet, you can make a run line bet on the Dodgers instead that will pay out $160 for every $100.

You can also make bets like these if you’re confident the game will be a blowout. If you’re so sure that Kershaw is about to pitch a swell game, or that Cueto is going to get beat by the great Dodger’s offense, a run line bet is a great way to increase your payout when you bet on the Dodgers to win.

Don’t forget this caveat though. If you’re betting on a run line, the game must go the complete 9 innings (or 8.5 innings if the home team wins). If the game is postponed or called early due to rain, the bet will be refunded.

Listed Pitchers

The starting pitcher of the day is a huge factor in a baseball bet, so sportsbooks offer betting options in the event that a starting pitcher changes before game time.

• You can make a bet on one team against another, regardless of the starting pitcher. Odds can be adjusted by the book if the starting pitcher changes before the game starts.
• One specified pitcher. You can wager on one of the starting pitchers. If the pitcher you bet on doesn’t start that day, the bet is declared “no action” and refunded.
• Both specified pitchers. Lastly, you can bet on both starting pitchers. If either of the pitchers fails to make the start, the bet is refunded.

Any starting pitching change before the game begins can result in the odds being adjusted for moneyline or run line bets.

One more caveat: once a pitcher throws 1 pitch, they’re declared the starting pitcher for the day.

One interesting wrinkle to consider with the rule just listed is the usage of the “opener”.

Openers Vs. Starting Pitchers

In 2018, the Rays began a mini-revolution in baseball pitching strategy when they started employing openers to start games.

The Rays used this strategy to give less effective starting pitchers an advantage by requiring them to only pitch to the opposing team’s batting order twice. Research has shown that pitchers perform worse when facing batters the third time through the order.

An aspiring baseball bettor can take advantage of this strategy though. The sportsbook will register the opener as the starting pitcher since they threw the first pitch. The real starting pitcher in an opener-started game will be the second pitcher though.

You can place a bet while considering the second pitcher to be the true starter. Using this pitcher evaluation strategy is a great way to make a value bet in a game started by an opener.

Conclusion

Do you prefer moneyline bets or run line bets? Let us know in the comments.

Soccer Betting Lines Explained

At the Online Gambling Paper we always stride in helping bettors by explaining the basic sports betting terminology in the simplest way possible. Here we will look at the term 'money line', its variations, mistaken meanings and more. As usual examples will be provided to help you better understand what money line means in sports betting. So let's begin without wasting any more time.

The term 'money line' will be seen in sports betting mostly in the United States and it's often referred to as 'American odds' (although this is a mistake, read last paragraph). It usually takes the form of a plus '+' or minus '-' sign, followed by a three digit number, for example, -110. The simplest explanation of the money line term in sports betting is - the odds on an outright (or straight-up) outcome of a game or other sporting event. This makes money line the best bet for beginners, since you simply bet on who will win the game, period. Here is an example, at the online sportsbook Bookmaker, the money line on the NFL game Broncos @ Patriots is as follows: Denver +145, New England -165. This means that the money line odds on Denver to win the game, without any other conditions, such as point spread, straight-up are +145 and the money line on the Patriots to win the game is -165. Here would be a great time to explain what these numbers (or 'lines') mean:

Calculating the American odds, or money line odds, is very simple, although to a foreign or a beginner bettor it would be a complete gibberish. This is how you calculate the money line - if there is a plus sign '+' in front of the number, the number shows how much money you will win for every $100 you wager, if your bet is a winner. For example, if the Denver Broncos win the game, you will win $145 for every $100 wagered, i.e. if you bet $200 you will win $290. And if the sign if front of the money line odds is minus '-', the number shows how much you have to bet in order to win $100. Looking at the above example, if the Patriots win the game you will have to bet $165 to win $100, i.e. if you bet $165 on the Pats to win the game and they do, your money will go from $165 to $265 (the $165 you initially wagered + the $100 won). By looking at the money line odds you can easily spot the favorite and the underdog - the favorite team holds money line odds beginning with minus and the underdog holds odds beginning with plus. There is one other form the money line odds can take, that being 'EVEN', often posted by the sportsbooks as 'EV'. This simply means that you will get paid even money on your bet. For example, if the money line odds on the Broncos were listed as 'EVEN' you will get $100 for every $100 bet, or $150 for every $150, etc.

How To Read Betting Lines

Now that you know how the money line works in sports betting, here would be the perfect place to clear a confusion often ran into by people new to betting or to the American system of betting odds. It's very important to make a clear distinction between 'money line' and just 'line'. As we already explained, 'money line' is a form of bet, relating to the straight-up outcome of the game. In this aspect, money line is similar to 'point spread' or 'total'. On the other side, 'line' is the payout on the bet, i.e. how much you will win if your bet is a winner. In this regard, 'line' is similar to 'odds', the form for calculating payout in the U.K. (fractional) or 'coefficient', the form for calculating payouts in Europe, also called 'decimal'. I know it got overly complicated all of a sudden so let's look at an example once again. The image below has been taken from the online sportsbook BodogLife and shows part of their NFL betting sheet. To show you the difference between 'money line' the bet and 'line' the form of calculating the payout, we have circled 'money line' with red and some of the 'lines' with blue:

As you can see, the Titans line on the point spread is -115 or how much you will win if the team covers the spread, while the money line on the Titians is -400 or how much you will win if the Titans win the game.

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Sports Betting For Beginners

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