Baseball betting has its place during the summer and it is something many professional gamblers look forward to all year. Baseball fans that have accounts at sportsbooks around the world are really not enamored with MLB betting because their hold percentage is just not that high. Part of the reason for this is the fact that the public doesn’t tend to bet baseball nearly as much as football or basketball and that means more of the professionals bet it.
Baseball is based on money lines, not pointspreads. That means that instead of a team having to win by a certain amount all they have to do in win outright. That makes baseball betting different than other sports. It is thought that many professional baseball betting players use the money line to their advantage by taking underdogs but that is not as much the case as you might think. The professional baseball betting players are not afraid to take some favorites in baseball as long as the price doesn’t get too out of hand.
The problem for the sportsbooks with heavy baseball favorites is that they usually only get one way action. For example, let’s say Kansas City is playing the Yankees. New York is listed as a -300 favorite with the take back on the Royals at +250 or so in MLB betting. The sportsbooks know that the only real baseball betting money they are going to get is going to come in on the Yankees. The public is sure not going to bet the Royals and the wiseguys usually will not take bad teams even if they are getting great value in baseball betting. Some of the pros will do it reluctantly because they sense some sort of “value” but in today’s baseball world there is no value in a loser and many people are realizing that. The days of the big underdogs biting back seem to be gone in MLB betting.
The sportsbooks are making baseball betting prices high because they know that is the only way the can deter people from betting the big favorites. Underdogs in sports betting rarely, if ever, hurt the books. It is the favorites that hurt the books and in baseball the MLB betting oddsmaker is making you pay a premium price to take them. As a baseball betting player you must be aware of this fact and react accordingly.