Understanding Baseball Odds

Decimal odds are not all that complicated when it comes down to it. The formula is maybe the easiest to do on your own. Hopefully, you will be an expert at understanding decimal odds from now on! American Odds Explained. American odds will also sometimes be referred to as moneyline odds. In the US, naturally, American odds are the most widely. Betting Odds Explained. Having never been explained betting odds can be intimidating. They come in different formats, and sometimes seem to work counter-intuitively. You can trust our team of experts. We have put together all the key information about how odds work and how to read their different formats.

1. Understanding Baseball Odds
2. Understanding Basketball Odds
3. Understanding Baseball Odds Line

Reading Baseball Betting Lines - Understanding How To Read MLB Lines and Odds
by Trevor Whenham - 06/27/2007

May 06, 2019 Using Major League Baseball Odds to Your Advantage The great part about the ML is that when you bet on underdogs, you can decrease the percentage of games you need to pick correctly to show a profit.

I really don't understand why more people don't bet on baseball. The huge number of games and the general consistency make it a very attractive sports betting option. In fact, I would suspect that most people who seriously play baseball would say that it is their most profitable sport. It's not necessarily the most interesting all the time because of the monotony of an endless season, but the bottom line makes that occasional dreariness more than worthwhile. I suspect that what keeps many people away from baseball is the perceived difficulty of reading baseball betting lines. Understanding how to read MLB lines and odds doesn't have to be tough, though. Sure, it's different than football, basketball and the other point spread sports, but once you get your mind around how the lines work it is actually easier to deal with in many ways than a point spread is.

The most common method of betting on baseball is with a money line. A money line is simply a bet on which team is going to win a game. Unlike with a point spread, it makes absolutely no difference how much a team wins by as long as they win the game. Of course, it would be incredibly easy to make money over the long term if all you had to do was pick the better team, but it's not that simple. The sports books have to have some way of evening out the chances of the two teams - making a bet on a heavy underdog as attractive as a bet on a heavy favorite - or they would go broke. In football or basketball they do that with a point spread. On the money line they do that by changing the cost of a bet. If you were to bet the same amount on two different teams, you would win more than you bet on the team that was an underdog, and make a profit of less than you bet if you chose the favorite.

The money line is most often presented as a number larger than 100, and it can either be positive or negative. A number that is -101 or lower is a favorite, and the more negative the number is, the more of a favorite the team is. A -130 favorite is more favored than a -110 one is. A team that has a positive money line of +101 or higher is an underdog. The higher the number is, the less likely are the team's perceived chances of winning.

The easiest way to understand how money lines work is to imagine in every scenario that you are working with $100. It is especially simple when you are dealing with underdogs. In that case the money line is the profit you would receive on a winning bet of $100, If you bet $100 on a +120 underdog, then you would receive a total of $220 when you won - the $120 profit plus your initial $100 wager. If you are a horseplayer or you prefer to think of things in terms of odds, then converting from a positive money line to odds is very simple - you just have to move the decimal place over two spots. That +120 favorite, for example, could also be looked at as 1.2/1, or 6/5.

When you are dealing with a favorite, the easiest way to think of it is not that you are betting $100, but that you want to win $100. In that case the price then becomes what you would have to bet in order to earn your $100 profit. If the favorite is at a price of -120, then you would have to bet $120 to win $100, so your total return would be $220, of which $100 would be profit. On a -170 money line you would have to bet $170 to win $100, so the -170 team is perceived to be more likely to win than the -120 team. If you want to look at favorites in the same way as underdogs - betting $100 per game regardless of the odds, then figuring out the payout requires a bit of math, but it isn't difficult. You can figure out why it works if you want, but the simple trick is to divide -10000 by the moneyline price to get the payout. For example, -10000/-120 is 83.33, so a $100 bet on a -120 favorite would pay $83.33 if it were to win. From that you can figure out the payout if you bet a different amount than $100. Twenty dollars is one fifth of $100, so it would pay out one fifth of $83.33, or $16.67. A $300 bet would pay three times as much, or $250.

There are other options for betting on baseball, including several different kinds of run lines. A run line is a bit like a point spread. On a -1.5 run line, the most common option, a team has to win by two or more runs in order for a bet to pay off. On a +1.5 run line a team could lose the game by one run and still earn a winning ticket. The difference between the run line and the typical point spread is that the price of the bet will vary much more than most point spreads do. A run line could be something like Yankees -1.5 (-145). That means that if you bet on the Yankees and bet that they will win by at least two runs then you would have to bet $145 to win $100. The price for run lines works exactly the same as we discussed above for money lines.

Thanks for visiting ExplainBettingOdds.com, where we will help you understand exactly how to read NHL betting odds. The NHL is a fast-paced sport, complete with a ton of action and wild entertainment. And with 82 games during the regular season, plus the playoffs, that provides both oddsmakers and bettors alike with a lot of opportunities when it comes to betting lines for the sport. The NHL has a number of different betting odds which are formed during the season for each matchup. Here on this page, we detail what types of lines you will see online sportsbooks come out with during the season, and explain them so that they are easy to understand. The NHL is definitely a different type of sport to wager on than for example the NFL. Actually, Major League Baseball betting lines could be compared most similarly to that of the NHL. So let's check out what betting lines you can expect to see formed for the NHL.

How To Bet On The Spread In The NHL

The NHL Goal line is a type of spread installed for each game on the schedule during the week. But unlike the NFL or NBA, the NHL goal line is a set number a 1.5 goals. A team will then be set in the role of having to cover that spread, which is always the team that is set as the favorite on the moneyline. We will get into the moneyline further down below. But for this purpose, consider the team that has to cover the 1.5 goal line with a two-goal win or more as the favorite to win the game out right. Every game is installed with this goal line, though most of the time the team picked as the one having to win by two goals or more is not the favorite to cover the spread. That's because statistically, the majority of hockey games are decided by one goal or less, or result in a tie. Payouts around the goal line can actually vary quite a bit, and you can see some big disparities between the team having to win by two or more goal, and the one that can still lose by a goal and cover.

Article: How To Read Point Spreads

NHL Moneyline Betting Odds Explained

Just like a goal line, every match up in the NHL is installed with a moneyline. This is a straightforward wager, where the bet is placed on the team to win the game outright, with no goal line or any type of spread involved. If you bet on the Canucks to beat the Islanders, the bet is won if Vancouver wins the game, no matter what the score is. This sounds easier right? Well it is. But you can see a disparity in the payouts. The favorite on the moneyline will obviously payout quite a bit less than a bet that would be made and potentially won on the underdog.

Here in this moneyline example, the Canucks are set as -300 favorites on the betting line. That means for every $3 wagered on Vancouver to win, a $1 profit is returned. In the role of the underdog, New York is going off at 2/1 on the payout.

NHL Over / Under Bets Explained

The goal total betting line is a game line set down with the total number of goals for a game between both teams. Oddsmakers will research the two teams, and then come up with an over/under goal total for the specific matchup. The wager is made on the actual scoring total of the game going higher, or lower, than the oddsmakers' prediction. Payouts for this wager are right around even.

Article: How To Read Over / Under Betting Odds

NHL Team Props Explained

NHL Team prop betting odds are lines formed for games and during the season that do not really relate to the direct outcome of the game. For example, a team prop in a specific game might be something like the first team to score a goal in the match up. The bet is placed, and once the first team puts one in the back of the net, the bet is closed. The rest of the game does not have any effect on the outcome of this particular wager. Prop betting odds reduce many of the variables in a game, and are smaller bets within a game. By smaller, we do not mean the amount that can be wagered; only that it's not a bet on the outcome of the game.

NHL Player Props Explained

Player prop betting odds for the NHL are just like team props, only related to specific players. Within a game, we could see as many as 30 or 40 prop betting lines set down for players. They range in nature, and typically revolve around the number of goals or assists, or a combination thereof for players during the game. The bet is made on the number installed for a player, whether it be one goal or 1.5 goals or whichever number. The wagered would then be made on the actual total going over or under that installed number from oddsmakers and online sportsbooks.

How To Read NHL Live Betting Odds

Betting live on sports is definitely something that is becoming more and more popular in this day and age. With the increase in technology and the accessibility of online sportsbooks, live betting is available right at your fingertips. As far as the NHL is concerned with live betting, it is available for games. Not every single game is available for live betting, but online sportsbooks will establish which ones are. From there, the available betting lines will also be shown. Alternate moneylines, team and player props are what are typically available. With live betting, odds are obviously changing every couple of minutes, making for a fun and exciting way to bet sports.

How To Read Stanley Cup Betting Odds

Stanley Cup futures wagers are a betting line which is formed during the season. In fact, these odds come out the day after the championship from the previous season is won. The bet is placed on the odds to win the Stanley Cup for the upcoming or current season. These odds are not set in stone, and do change during the season as teams do well, or fall out of contention.

Understanding Baseball Odds

Bovada Sportsbook - NHL Games Big On Bovada!

The reason that may fans come and sign up for an account with Bovada is because of the variety of games that can be bet on. Hockey is a sport that goes know but barely talked about but is still bet on often. Bovada knows that even though there are a few hockey fans everywhere, having the games on their sportsbook only means that more players will sign up and wager on NHL soon as the puck drops. This means that live betting feature that is present to all account holders can be very busy when it comes to all these games that last a few hours sometimes.

There are so many different money lines and also different betting odds that will be here for players to check out. The fact that there are many different prop bets here as draws a huge crowd of players and that means more and more players will drop money on a bet that could win them a lot of money. Check out the bonuses as well that could make a difference in how much money players can put on their account.

MyBookie Sportsbook - MyBookie The Best Place To Bet On NHL Games

Now for the most part players like to go on their online sportsbooks a place their bet and leave. With MyBookie, placing your bet is only the tip of the iceberg as far as what players can do on their account. With so many different betting options here on MyBookie, the NHL is one of the sports that after you place your bet, you can find other things to get into like checking out other money lines and also participate in live betting feature that it offers.

Understanding Basketball Odds

There is also a mobile betting feature here on MyBookie as well that lets players log in and check on their bets and even place other wagers while they are out of the office or not close to a computer. The games that are being seen will always show up as options and with the NHL season, there will always be plenty of games up on MyBookie so there is no reason for a player to be bored with this account they have!

Understanding Baseball Odds Line