Baseball has had a place in American history for over 100 years now and people have always bet on the sport. In 1919 the White Sox were involved in one of the most famous betting scandals in history. Eight players from the White Sox team were each paid $10,000 to fix the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.
The players involved in the scandal were permanently banned from baseball and the same goes for anyone else that bets on games that they are involved with. Pete Rose is another iconic baseball player that was banned from MLB in 1989 because he was betting on games that he was involved in.
There may be a lot of MLB betting scandals throughout history, but as long as you’re not involved in the outcome of a baseball game you’re allowed to bet on baseball. In our baseball betting guide we’re going to look at the different types of bets and how to understand the odds that you’re looking at.
How to Bet on Baseball
Technology has transformed the way the world bets on sports. Online sportsbooks make it possible to bet on MLB from anywhere you want in the world within minutes. By betting on baseball with an online sportsbook you’ll have the ability to bet on more types of bets than you would if you bet on baseball through traditional methods.
How to Read Baseball Odds
Understanding baseball odds will only take a few minutes, but it’s vital to your success. In our example below we used American odds, which I find are the easiest to read. American odds are based on betting $100/bet. The favourite’s odds reflect how much a bettor needs to bet to win $100 while the underdog’s odds reflect how much a bettor can win on a $100 bet.
The favourite in baseball will have a (-) sign in front of their odds while the team that isn’t supposed to win (underdog) will have a (+) sign in front of their odds. The Yankees are the favourites in our example below and by looking at the odds you can see that you’d need to bet $150 to win $100. If you bet on the Padres you can win $140 on a $100 bet.
- New York Yankees -150 vs. San Diego Padres +140
Types of Baseball Bets
- Moneyline – The moneyline bet in baseball is popular, but it’s important to find value in the lines. With this type of bet you need to pick the baseball team you feel is going to win the game.
- Runline – The runline bet in baseball is great because it allows you to bet big favourites at + money or low juice. With a runline bet you can bet on a team to win by -1.5 runs or not lose by +1.5 runs although in baseball we never recommend betting on the runline of an underdog because there is no value.
- Over/Under – Some bettors find success betting on run totals rather than picking teams to win. The bookie might set a run total at 9.5 runs, which means you can bet on the game going over 9.5 runs or under 9.5 runs. You may also bet on team run totals rather than the run total of both teams combined, which is advantageous when you only follow 1 team.
- Parlay – A parlay is a bet with more than one event on the same bet. The payout odds increase with each event you add to your parlay, but with more than 3 games on a parlay you’re simply gambling and hoping to get lucky.
- Props – Betting on props in baseball can be difficult. I tend to stick with pitching props because batting props can be hard to predict on a nightly basis. A prop bet is any type of bet offered by the sportsbook that isn’t listed above such as how many strikeouts a pitcher will throw in a game or betting on whether or not a player will hit a home run in a game.
- Futures – If you think you can predict the future why not try your luck out on some baseball futures. You can bet on what team you think will win the World Series or a specific division if you’d rather bet on that. Some bookies also let you bet on what player will win certain yearly rewards or what player will hit the most home runs in a season.
MLB is the best baseball league to bet on in the world and you won’t find odds for many other baseball leagues. Some sportsbooks have coverage of some of the big Asian baseball leagues, but if you focus on MLB you’ll have plenty of action to bet on. The MLB season is extremely long and there are typically 10+ baseball games daily during the regular season. |
