MLB Point Spreads (Betting Odds)

Major League Baseball is one of the most popular sports in America. Well, we all love the game of baseball but that is not the sole reason for the popularity. MLB betting is also one of the reasons that this sport is getting popular.

America is a place for sports geeks and legalized betting is just the icing on the cake. With each passing day, we are adding a huge number of bettors and each one of them are increasing their earnings every day. Bettors’ joy gets doubled when they realise that along with the earning potential, MLB also provides them plenty of betting opportunities. You can try your luck again and again in a 162-game season.

Let us have a look at the basics of MLB betting

Money Line

The simplest form of MLB bets is the Money Line bets. All you need to understand here is the standardized concept of American odds.

The concept is simple and it revolves around a favoured and an underdog.

Favoured – Team or player with a negative odds. The one with greater winning probability.

Underdog – One with a comparably lesser winning probability also, listed with a positive odds.

Negative or minus odds depicts the amount you need to bet to book a profit of $100 whereas the positive or plus odd depicts the amount you will book as a profit if you place a $100 bet. ($100 is the standard bet size, you can bet any amount)

As per the above example, the Yankees are favoured with a negative odd and the Angels are underdog with a positive odd. That means a $250 bet on the Yankees will yield you a profit of $100 whereas a $100 bet on the Angles will yield you a profit of $215.

Run Line

The point spread in baseball is known as Run Line. If you are aware of betting in NBA or NFL then point spread is nothing new for you. Even if you are not aware of the same then also there is no issue at all as Understanding Run Line is very easy. The Run Line in baseball is always 1.5 runs.

Here also the negative sign states that the team is favoured and the positive sign says that the team is an underdog. If we consider the above table for example then the Yankees with -1.5 in the Run Line column is the favoured team while the Angels with +1.5 is the underdog. To be considered as a Run Line winner a team must win or must not lose by at least two runs. (1.5 rounded off)

In the above example, if you place a Run Line bet on the Yankees then you will book a profit only when the Yankees win the game with at least two runs or if you place a bet on the Angels then they must win or must not lose to the Yankees by more than one run.

Total

Another type of MLB bet is over/under, or total. This bet revolves around the total number of runs scored by both the team in a game. You have to predict whether the combined score of both teams will be over or under a pre-described number.

For example, if the Yankees and Angels game have a total of 7.5, you can bet the under if you think that the combined score will be less than 7.5. However, you can bet the over if you are sure that the combined runs will be more than 7.5. One thing to notice here is that the odds are slightly different in Total bets. Each side will typically have odds of -110. Therefore, to win a profit of $100 you need to bet $110.

First 5 Innings Line

This is a unique bet which can only be found in baseball betting. That is one more reason to bet on MLB.

The 5 Innings Line means that you are solely betting on the first five innings of the game. There is less risk in the F5 bets because you will only consider the starting pitcher rather than the entire team. Here, you will bet on the dominant game of the starting pitcher also known as handicap starting pitchers. This kind of betting is best for those who prefer to avoid the bullpen.

How many RBIs will a player have?

How many homers will a player hit?

How many strikeouts will a pitcher have?

Will a player hit a home run in a particular game? And so on.

Parlays

A Parlay bet is also known as a bouquet of bets. Baseball Parlays allows you to combine multiple bets together. You can create a betting slip with more than two bets as simple as that. If you want to earn more dollars than regular bets, go for a Parlay.

You must understand that a high return can only be offered by a high-risk bet. If you have the guts to take the risk then combine your regular bets and go for a Parlay. What’s important here is that you can only win a Parlay bet if all of your regular bets hit, if one of the multiple bets didn’t hit then you will lose the Parlay bet.

You can combine 2-13 regular bets in a Parlay. The 13-bet Parlay is the most difficult yet the most rewarding one. The profit would be massive and you can enjoy a monster payday with Parlay betting.