While most people think about football when talking about Bet88 Asia on major sports, it’s baseball that offers the best chance to the bettor. The reason for the great payoff is the National Pastime is easy to handicap. Since baseball is most often a low scoring game, sportsbooks do not use point spreads in baseball.
However, betting baseball does take a little getting used to. There are 3 ways to bet on baseball: Money Lines, Totals, and Run Lines. Let’s take a look at the basics of betting on baseball. To make the basics stand out we will use an example of a game between the New York Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals.
Sportsbooks don’t use point spreads in baseball. Instead they use a Money Line. The Money Line looks complex to the novice baseball bettor but is simple to understand after learning the basics of how it works. The best part about the Money Line is the gambler only has to worry about picking the winner of the game.
No more betting the winner only to lose on the point spread. Let’s take a look at our fictional match-up between the Mets and the Cardinals to help explain the Money Line. The Money Line for this game might look something like this: When you bet Run Lines the favored team will often pay off more than your $100 because they have to win by 2 runs. Run Lines look like this:
The favored team in baseball always has the minus sign in front of their Money Line while the underdog has the plus sign. To bet the underdog Mets in this game you will put up $100 to win $120. Play the favorite by betting $130 to make $100. This example shows that betting the underdog gives a better opportunity to make more money.
This example also takes the fear out of betting the Money Line. The Money Line is the biggest difference between betting baseball and other sports like football. Betting football puts your money at more risk due to the point spread. While betting the favorite in the Money Line will give you less payout, there are also fewer variables involved in the bet.
Playing the totals means placing a wager on the total number of runs scored during the game. You place a bet either over or under what the bookmaker’s prediction is. People also call this betting the over/under. Betting totals includes the score in extra innings. Pitchers play a major part in run totals. So both scheduled starting pitchers need to play for the bet to go ahead.
The sportsbook will refund your bet if either scheduled pitcher does not start. If you play the totals you really need to pay attention to the starting pitchers. The Majors are full of pitchers with different styles. There are some pitchers who give up runs, but still win games while other pitchers are stingy. Playing totals is very different from betting the Money Line.
Betting the baseball Run Lines is similar to betting on the point spread in football, but the Run Lines are always the same in every game. The favored team is always -1.5 and the underdog is always +1.5. This means that the favored team must win by 2 runs for that bet to pay off. Betting Run Lines is becoming a popular way to make more money on favored teams. If you bet a heavy favorite on the Money Line the payoff is usually not great. Sometimes you will have to bet $300 to win $100.