Sports betting odds on baseball are based on money lines. Internet sports betting gamblers have the option of betting sides or totals. Let’s examine how the baseball sports betting money line works.
Sports betting odds use money lines on sides and totals. Since there is no pointspread in baseball, sports betting gamblers instead lay odds on the favorite or take odds with the dog. An example of a baseball money line would read like, “Houston Astros +$115/St. Louis Cardinals -$135.” Sports betting gamblers wanting the Astros would bet $100 to win $115 (or proportionate amounts), while sports betting gamblers taking the Cardinals would wager $135 to win $100. The twenty cent difference between the Astros and Cardinals makes for what is known in sports betting jargon as a “twenty cent line.”
In close matchups such as our example, you might have a ten cent baseball sports betting line where the Astros would be +125 instead of +115. With higher priced sports betting favorites the difference might be greater. For example, you might have a -300 favorite with the price on the underdog +250. The difference in the Internet sports betting line is the house “vig” for booking the bets as the losing side forfeits the difference. As long as there is equal baseball betting action on both sides, the house is guaranteed money for booking the bet.
Totals are the other main way people bet baseball. They are also based on money lines. In our previous example the total on Houston and St. Louis might be 9 over -120. You would risk $120 for ever $100 you wanted to win on the over and get even money on the under.
The ingredients of the baseball sports betting money line are very similar to other sports in that it is largely based on public perception. The baseball betting oddsmakers job is to attract equal gambling action to both sides of a matchup or to trap the public into a “too good to be true” line in which they bet on the wrong side. The Internet sports betting oddsmakers simply utilize their knowledge of the baseball betting public in setting the lines.
This means that the baseball sports betting lines are not set on pure merit but are based on the oddsmakers’ anticipation of what the public will do. The difference between the merit and perception equals the value in Internet sports betting.