MLB Money Lines

Understanding MLB Money Lines is critical if you want to be successful betting on baseball. The margin of victory is so small in many baseball games that it’s impossible to have a point spread. While the point spread is concerned with who wins and by how much, the money line is solely interested in who wins.

The best way to learn how to read MLB money lines is to see an example of it in action, so let’s look at the ML for two famous rivals:

Boston Red Sox +135
New York Yankees -145

In this example, the Yankees are the favoured team, as signified by the minus sign in front of the 145. The Red Sox are the underdogs, as designated by the plus sign in front of the 135.

The above baseball betting lines indicates that those wishing to bet on the Yankees (favourite) will have to risk $145 to win $100, while those wanting to wager on the Red Sox (underdog) will risk $100 to win $135.

Please note that even though baseball betting lines are expressed in units of $100, you can bet as little as $5 or $10.

In point spread betting, the bookmakers hope to have an equal amount of money wagered on each team, which will guarantee a profit. In baseball, however, the majority of people wager on the favourites, which means that the bookmakers typically only make money when the underdog wins. Thus, the bookmakers can only hope to have enough wagered on the underdog to cover their potential losses on the favourite.

When reading MLB money lines, make sure that the odds difference between the favourite and the underdog is only 10 cents. 10-cent lines, also known as Dime Lines, offer sports bettors the most value for their baseball gambling dollar. This “10 cent” difference, or actually $10 ($145 - $135) using the Yankees/Red Sox example above, is the sportsbook’s 10% betting fee called vigorish.

Other Baseball Betting Lines

Run Lines. Baseball run lines are essentially a combination of the point spread and the money line rolled into one. Don't worry though − reading run lines are not nearly as confusing as it sounds.

Totals (Overs/Unders). Baseball totals are just like the totals for any other sport, in that you're betting the total number of runs is either over or under the bookmaker's predicted total.