How to Bet on Baseball — The Basics

Part 2– The three main bet types

If you're new to the world of baseball betting, there are three main bets that you should know about: the money line, the run line, and the game total.

The Money Line is the most straightforward of the three. When you bet on the money line, you are simply betting on which team you think will win the game outright. There is no point spread involved, and the odds will vary depending on the perceived strength of each team.

For example, let's say the New York Yankees are playing the Boston Red Sox. The money line might look something like this: Yankees -150, Red Sox +130

•  In this scenario, the Yankees are the favorite, and you would have to bet $150 to win $100.

• The Red Sox are the underdog, and a $100 bet on them would win you $130.

• If you think the Yankees will win, you would bet on them. If you think the Red Sox will pull off the upset, you would bet on them.

The Run Line (or “the Spread,” as it is labeled in some books), on the other hand, involves a point spread, and requires the favorite team to win by a certain number of runs in order for your bet to pay off. Betting on the run line involves placing a wager on the number of runs by which a team will either win or lose.

In this type of bet, a run line is set, which is usually 1.5 runs. This means that the favored team has to win by at least two runs for the bettor to win, while the underdog team can either win the game outright or lose by one run for the bettor to win.

For example, let’s say the New York Yankees are playing the Boston Red Sox and the run line is set at -1.5 for the favorite Yankees and the run line is set at +1.5 for the underdog Boston Red Sox.

In this case, a bettor who places a wager on the Yankees’ run line would only win if the Yanks wins by at least two runs.

• If the final score is 5-4 in favor of the Yankees, the bettor who bet on the Yankees run line would lose their bet.

• But if the final score is 6-4, then the bettor would win their bet.

Conversely, bettor who places a wager on the Red Sox’ run line would win if the Sox either win outright or lose by only one run.

• So if the Red Sox win, the bettor wins.

• But even if the final score is 4-3 in favor of the Yankees, the bettor who bet on the run line for the Red Sox would win their bet.

A Total bet involves predicting whether the total number of runs scored by both teams in the game will be over or under a certain amount. When betting on the total in baseball, also known as the "over/under," you are wagering on whether the total number of runs scored in a game will be over or under a certain number. The sportsbook will set a number, and you will bet on whether you think the actual number of runs scored will be higher or lower than that number.

For example, if the sportsbook sets the total at 8.5 runs:

• If you bet the over, the final score of the game would need to be 9 runs or more for your bet to win.

•  If you bet the under, the final score would need to be 8 runs or fewer for your bet to win.

Now that you are familiar with the three main wagering options, let us look at how to make your first wager in Part 3 (see link below).