How to Bet On Baseball

If you don't know how to read a baseball line, then read this article. Below is an example of a baseball line. There are three ways to bet on baseball, excluding exotic bets. These three ways, in order from left to right in the picture, are the Runline, the Moneyline, and the Total.

Baseball Betting Line

Using the odds from the example above, example picks could look like this:

  • Runline: Los Angeles Angels -1.5 +105 at Baltimore Orioles
  • Moneyline: Los Angeles Angels -150 at Baltimore Orioles
  • Total: Los Angeles Angels at Baltimore Orioles OVER 10 -115

Reading Odds

The above odds are American style odds. Odds look like +XYZ or -XYZ. As an example, for the moneyline pick above, the odds for LA to win are -150. The odds for Baltimore to win are +135. This means that the LA is the favorite and Baltimore is the underdog. When you bet on a team with -150 odds, you have to bet $150 to win $100 (that is, to return $150+$100). When you bet on a team with +135 odds, you have to bet $100 to win $135. You can actually bet any amount you want, but the amount you can win will follow those ratios.

The reason that the odds aren't exactly opposite of each other is because the house (the sports book) takes a cut out of every game.

Runline

The runline adjusts the original line, kind of like a point spread in football. Although, unlike with football, the runline will almost always be +- 1.5. In the example line above, you can either bet on the LA Angels -1.5 or Baltimore +1.5. In order to win a bet on LA, LA has to win by MORE than 1 run (that is, two or more runs). In order to win a bet on Baltimore, Baltimore has to either win by any amount, or lost by EXACTLY 1 run.

Moneyline

This is the "straigt up" bet. You simply have to predict which team will win.

Total

In this bet, you predict how many runs will be scored by both teams combined. If the total amount of runs scored is above the total line (e.g. 10 in the above example) then the game will be graded an OVER. If the amount of runs is less than the total line then the game will be graded an UNDER. If the total runs equals the total line then the game will be graded a PUSH, and all bets on that game will be returned to the bettor.