Betting on Baseball

Baseball is the American pastime, but then the Toronto Blue Jays joined in the 1970’s and won two consecutive World Series in 1992 and ’93, so it’s safe to say that it’s the North American pastime, especially when you consider the huge number of Latin American players in the MLB as well. Baseball is a game of statistics and pacing, and watching a game can be increased in enjoyment significantly by placing bets. From kids betting quarters on who can guess the pitcher’s speed the closest, to all the exciting bets you can do at an online casino, it’s a game seemingly tailored with the gambler in mind. Here are the bets you can make at Internet bookmakers.

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Money Line

The money line bet is a straight up bet, and it pays out simply based on if you bet on the team that wins. Unlike in the run line bet, the number of runs scored does not matter. The team that is favoured by the bookmaker will have a minus (-) symbol next to its number, and the underdog will have a (+) symbol, though sometimes, in the money line, both teams will have a favoured or an underdog symbol. The money line number represents how much you can expect to win with a $100 bet, and you can click the bet and type in an amount to see how much the potential payout will be before having to place it.

Here is an example of what it may look like:

New York Yankees (+130)

Toronto Blue Jays (-115)

Run Line

In the run line bet, the number of runs scored makes a difference. If you place a bet on the favoured team, which is also represented by the plus and minus symbols, that team has to win by more than the run spread, which is colloquially known as, “Beating the spread.” If they do, there’s a payout. However, the run line bet specifically tilts the odds in the favour of the underdog, because in order for the underdog bet to pay out, all they have to do is lose by less than the run spread or win. For example, if the Yankees were playing the Jays, and the Jays were favoured by -2½, the Jays would have to win by at least three points to beat the spread, while the Yankees would only have to lose by two points to pay out.

Over/Under

The bookmaker will guess how many runs will be scored in total over the course of the game. The player has the option to bet that the total number of runs scored will be more than the bookmaker’s guess (over bet), or fewer than the bookmaker’s guess (under bet). This is a fun alternative to who wins or loses, because you are hoping that both teams will hit a lot of runs, or that both teams will showcase excellent defense. Each are paid out based on the money line favouritism, same as the run line and money line. Over/Under is often titled Total or O/U.

Props

Props are bets you can place that really up the statistical aspect of the baseball and betting combination. In props, you can bet on specific outcomes of the game as well as specific outcomes for specific players. Prop bets on the game can be which team scores first, the margin of victory O/U, total hits, runs, and errors O/U, whether there will be extra innings, whether there will be an odd or even number of runs, and so on. For the specific players, you can guess O/U on total number of strikeouts made by a pitcher, whether or not a player will hit a home run, whether or not a player will record a hit, O/U on total hits, runs, and RBI’s made by a player, and who will have the most hits, runs, and RBI’s.

Futures

In futures, you can bet on who wins the World Series, the AL Pennant, or the NL Pennant. These pay out hugely, especially when you bet early on. For example, at the time of writing this article, the Cubs were favoured to win the World Series, and the pay line was +500. With a $100 bet, that’s a $500 payoff if they do it. The Atlanta Braves had the lowest odds of winning the World Series, and their pay line was +30,000. With a $100 bet, that would pay out $30,000 if they managed to do it.