Baseball is often a thrilling sport to watch and betting on baseball can make things even more interesting! Major League Baseball boasts the best players in the world and consists of countless betting opportunities to get stuck into. In this article, we’ll take a detailed look at the fundamentals you’ll need to get familiar with in order to start betting on baseball games.
First, we’ll go through the various types of bets that you can make.
In-Game Betting
In-game or live bets are great for when you are watching a game and you think you can predict how it’s going to end up. With these types of bets, the odds update constantly as the game is played. If you realise, for example, that one team has just turned the tide of a contest, an in-game bet is the way to go.
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Prop Bets
Prop bets relate to certain results in a game or the performance of certain players. For example, you can bet on things like whether or not a team or specific player will hit a home run.
Futures
Future bets are the grand vision bets in which you predict what the end of a season will look like. This can equate to which team you think will win the World Series. It’s important to keep in mind that the odds of futures bets constantly change as the season progresses.
Parlays
A parlay or multi-bet refers to a bet that predicts multiple outcomes and it will only net a win if you correctly predict all the outcomes. So, the more things you bet on, the riskier it becomes and the higher the potential rewards.
Totals
Totals are bets that predict the total number of runs scored in a game. They work by letting you choose whether this result will be over or under a certain number. If the over/under for a game is 7 you’ll need at least 8 runs to win the over total bet and a maximum of 6 runs to win the under total bet.
Usually, however, baseball total bets are set at a number with a .5 on the end. So if it was 6.5 the total runs would either need to be 6 or less to win the under bet, or 7 or more to win the over bet. This helps to avoid situations where the final runs equal the total.
Run Lines
Run lines are also known as point spread or handicap bets. In these bets, you not only predict the winner or loser of a game but also how many runs they will win or lose by. If you bet on a team to win at +1.5 odds, they will have to win by at least 2 runs. If your team loses the game, you could still win the bet provided the team doesn’t lose by more than the spread.
Moneylines
Moneyline bets are the simplest type of bets and let you predict the winner of a game. In each game there will be a favourite, and of course betting on the favourite is less risky and less rewarding than betting on the underdog. For example, if a team is 1.20 and the other team is 3.50, the team with the lower number is the favourite and the higher number is the underdog.
A Couple of Baseball Betting Tips
When betting on baseball, you should avoid choosing clear favourites, because it’s simply not worth it. It makes more sense to bet against the crowd and maximise the potential rewards in turn.
It’s also smart to do your research before placing a bet, like looking up the history of specific contests and the current forms of the competing teams. It’s never a good idea to go in blind or to bet with your heart, no matter what sport you’re betting on.
