Baseball Betting Guide - MLB Rules and Betting Odds Explained Baseball is easily one of the most interesting gambling sports. It is one of the four major sports in the U.S., is televised almost every day, it has a huge number of games, statistics and simple betting markets. MLB Moneyline Betting Odds Explained Betting the moneyline on Major League Baseball is simply betting on the straight up winner of the game. There is no run line, there is no point spread. If you think the Dodgers are going to beat the Padres, you bet on the Dodgers to win the game outright. As you can see in the above chart, a bettor betting the favorite has to lay the odds to win $100, while the bettor betting the underdog will win the odds when betting $100. The greater the favorite, the more money you risk for a smaller return. The greater the underdog, the less money you risk for a larger return.

1. Baseball Betting Odds Explained Against
2. Baseball Betting Odds Explained Betting
3. How Do Baseball Odds Work

How to Read Sports Betting Odds: Fractional, Decimal & American Odds

A runline bet is a 1.5-run spread attached to a baseball game. This unique form of baseball betting can be profitable for sports bettors who have done their homework on stats, trends and pitching performances. While a team may be a heavy favorite on the moneyline, that team will own reduced odds when pegged as a 1.5-run favorite. The run line in baseball betting is the equivalent to a point spread in other sports wagering. The run line is always set at –1.5 or +1.5. Example: A’s +1.5 (-130) Red Sox –1.5 (+110) In the above example, the Red Sox are a 1.5-point favorite, while the A’s are considered a 1.5-point underdog.

If you’re planning to start betting and you’ve had a look around at a couple of betting sites you will have come across betting odds. Betting sites show you odds to give you an indication of how much you can win if you place a successful wager. Once you know what you are looking at betting odds are simple to understand, but if you are a beginner looking at multiple sites it might be a bit overwhelming.

Don’t be too hard on yourself if you are staring at your screen scratching your head. There are many ways that bookies can show you the same information. Each online bookies have their preference in the way they show you the odds.

Fractional Odds

Fractional odds (aka traditional or British Odds) are popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

You’ll quickly identify that you are looking at fractional odds by their lay-out. They can be displayed with either a slash (/) or a dash (-). For example 4/1 or 4-1, this would be pronounced “four-to-one”

The chances are you’ve probably come across this method of displaying odds found yourself asking what it means. Some of the largest bookmakers in the world use still fractional odds. It remains popular largely due to tradition.

How to read fractional odds

In fractional odds, the numerator (first number) refers to the amount you will win if you were to wager the denominator (second number). In addition to your winnings, the betting site will also return your original wager.

I will use 4/1 or “four-to-one” as an example. If you were to wager £1 and win, you will receive your winnings, £4, plus your original wager, £1, for a total payout of £5. If you were a little gutsier and you had wagered £100 then the total payout would be £500

Total payout = [Stake x (Numerator/Denominator)] + Stake

At the time of writing, one major online bookmaker had the following odds for the outright winner for the 20/21 premier league.

From this, we can see that Man City are the bookies favorite to lift the trophy at the end of the season. If you place a £6 bet on Man City and they win you will receive £11 back, that’s the £5 you won and your £6 original wager back. If you wager £4 on Liverpool and they win you’ll get back £13 (£9 winnings + £4 stake). A wager £1 on Chelsea would return you receive £10 (£9 winnings + £1 stake) if they win.

A £100 wager on each team would payout £183.33 for Man City, £325 for Liverpool, and £1000 for Chelsea.

Related: If you’re anything like us then you love to watch and bet on the Premier League which is why we’ve put a guide together so you can watch every premier league game this season

Decimal Odds

Decimal odds are popular across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. They are also increasingly popular with younger users in the UK.

The growing popularity of decimal odds is likely to the ease of reading. You can look at the odds, and in a split second you can work out who’s the favorite and who’s the underdog.

How to read decimal odds

Decimal odds show you the total payout from the get-go.

To know how much you are going to receive if you win your bet you simply have to multiply your stake by the stated odds.

Total Payout = Stake x Decimal Odds

Let’s have a look at the same odds for the premier league displayed as decimal.

Here even at a glance, you can see that Man City are a heavy favorite followed by Liverpool and trailed by Chelsea.

With decimal odds, it’s easy to see what you are going to receive if you place a winning bet. If you were to bet £1 on each of these teams to win the Premier League each teams success would result in the return of £1.83 for Man City, £3.25 for Liverpool, £10 for Chelsea.

Note that the stated odds are what you get back, you don’t add your original wager to decimal odds.

American Odds

American odds or money line odds are popular across the united states.

Unless you are already familiar with this style of odds then it’s probably going to be a bit confusing, I know it’s my least favorite style. It is still useful to understand how they work, especially if you like to bet on American sports or follow any American media.

How to read American money line odds

Money line odds don’t provide an intuitive way to compute the return for a given stake. Moneyline odds can be displayed with either a plus (+) or a minus (-) in front of the number. Favorites are signaled with a minus (-), this indicated the amount that you would need to wager to win £100. Longer shot bets are signaled with a plus (+), this shows the amount you will win if you are to wager £100. In both cases, you also receive your initial wager if you win.

I know it sounds more complicated than fractional or decimal odds and to be honest they are. Let’s come back to our premier league example to see how money line odds actually look.

Now when we’re looking at money line odds we first need to take special care to notice the modifier and then look at the quoted odds. In our Premier League example, Man City are still the favorites to lift the trophy so we would expect there to be a negative modifier and that is exactly what we see. So for if at the end of the season we want to win £100 by betting on Man City we will need to wager £120, if they do win the league then we would get back £220 (£100 winnings + £120 stake). Liverpool have been given a positive money line, as they are not the favorites. This means that when we bet £100 on Liverpool to win our bet could return £325 (£225 winnings + £100 stake). Likewise, a £100 bet on Chelsea would return £1,000 (£900 winnings + £100 stake

Converter

We’ve searched the web to find the best odds converter for you to use and by far the best tool we’ve found is made by us-bookies

Conclusion

Most online bookies available in the UK will give you the option to switch between fractional and decimal odds, some will even offer American odds. You don’t need to be able to be literate in all the different ways odds can be displayed, you only need to get comfortable with one and you will be able to change the settings in your betting site to show the odds how you like them.

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