Baseball Betting

The biggest difference between baseball betting and wagering on other sports is the absence of any form of spread betting. Instead, money lines are most common and all of the basic bets come down to who is the starting pitcher for each team. If a scheduled pitcher does not start, most sportbooks will either adjust the line or cancel the wager in its entirety.

Although some bookmakers offer markets for collegiate games, the vast majority of baseball betting focuses on the teams of North America’s Major League Baseball (MLB). A total of 30 professional teams are featured, with 16 clubs in the National League and 14 in the American League. They are further divided into three divisions for each league: East, Central and West. Four of these six divisions have five teams each, while the NL Central is comprised of six teams and the AL West has only four.

The regular season begins in April and runs through September, with the betting beginning even earlier. The opening lines come out in November for ante post wagers, which are also known as “futures.” Bets can be made on which teams will win next year’s divisions, league pennants, and ultimately face off on the MLB World Series, which is the equivalent of the sport’s Cup Finals.

Early odds tend to be quite loose, but they can tighten up quickly as soon as preseason play begins. Wagering on a potential World Series winner in January, for example, could fetch 5:1 or 8:1 on a team that will be offered at 2:1 by mid-April and 2:3 by mid-summer. The early focus of baseball betting is in Florida, where 16 of the 30 clubs conduct their spring training.

Wagering on preseason games starts in late February and continues through March, with Opening Day scheduled in April. Each team plays a 162-game schedule, roughly a game a day, and sometimes there are two games played against the same opponent in a single day—a so-called “double header.”

One interesting market for individual games is known as the “runline.” It consists of predicting whether the total number of runs scored by both teams combined will be over or under a certain amount. Runlines are frequently given with half-points attached, which eliminates the possibility of a tie.

By May the early division leaders become clear. That is when interleague play takes place, as the teams of the NL match up against AL clubs. These contests typically involve cross-town rivalries, such as the New York Mets versus the New York Yankees or the Chicago White Sox versus the Chicago Cubs. These rivalries draw a lot of action from recreational bettors.

As the season progresses, one milestone much anticipate by bettors is the “All-Star break” in July. The best of the AL form a single team to take on the best of the NL. Available wagers for this match-up include which team will prevail, how many strikeouts will be recorded, and who will be named the Most Valuable Player, among others. The game is always preceded by a special batting contest, the Home Run Derby, which contested by the top home run hitters in both leagues, with wagering on who will hit the most balls out of the park.

Late in the season, strong teams play their very best to advance to the post-season playoffs. These are best-out-five series in an elimination bracket that will decide the two clubs that contend for the World Series Championship. This is when the wagering is the heaviest of the year, special markets are introduced, and live “in-running” betting is widely available. It is also the time for hedge betting, assuming some of the preseason ante post pick have survived to the final round.