Moneyline Betting

When looking to bet on sports, one of the basic forms of betting is Moneyline Betting. Moneyline betting to some people seems very confusion, but in all reality it is not, and actually one of the easiest bets to make. When looking at moneyline bets for sports, the bettor is simply selection on which team he/she thinks will win the game.

You will see a moneyline bet for a majority of the sports games played. Some times when the game does not appear to be a competitive one, there will be no option to bet the moneyline. What the moneyline does is give you two choices of which team you want to select. The moneyline will tell you how much money you could win if you bet on that team, and it was a correct bet.

Moneyline bets a lot of times look like this:

• New England -130
• Indianapolis +120

In this scenario, the New England Patriots appear to be the team they are projecting to win. Why is this the case? Because for every $13 you wager on them, you would win $10. This ratio is not as good as the ratio for Indianapolis. In this case, if you bet on Indianapolis at +120, and you win, for every $10 you wager, you would win $12.

In other sports, you may see a moneyline bet look like this

• Chicago Cubs -110
• Chicago White Sox -110

In this scenario, both teams have an even chance, according to odds makers, to win this game. In Baseball, moneyline bets are used all the time, due to not have point spreads per say. For the scenario listed above, for every $11 wagered, a correct bet would win #10.

Sometimes you will see moneyline odds as high as -700 and +500. A lot of times in boxing matches or UFC tilts the moneyline will look like these when it is apparent one fighter is just that much better than the other.

The reason for the moneyline option is because of most point spread bets, the book hopes to have an equal amount of money wagered on each team. With the moneyline option, many times bookies feel that there will be significantly more bettors selecting the favorite. They just hope that enough bettors have selected the underdog enough to cover their potential losses.

Moneyline betting can be golden for those that understand what they are doing. Certainly betting the favorite on the moneyline is an approach that some sports bettors have taken. While this may not pay out significant amounts of money at once, but over the long term, it may be the best way to milk a bankroll and keep it going. For those that are a little savvier, betting the underdog via the moneyline is a little the way to go, due to the amount of money paid out in a win.