In sports betting, what does the “money line” mean?
When betting on sports that do not typically offer a point spread, one of the most fundamental and common occurrences is what is known as a money line bet. Boxing is a good example of a sport that does not offer point spread betting. You choose the winner and there is nothing else you can bet on. Baseball is another sport that uses money line betting, although baseball also has a point spread betting system. This type of betting is much less stressful and much easier to understand if you are a beginner. So what is the money line and how does it work?
In a nutshell, a game with a money line bet looks like this:
New York Yankees -150
Boston Red Sox +130
In the example above, the Yankees are the favorite team to win the baseball game. The minus next to the Yankees is your indication of the favorite. The Red Sox are the underdogs. The plus sign in front of its name tells you so. Since the Yankees are a heavy favorite to win this game, a sports bettor has to bet $150 to win $100. Similarly, since the Red Sox are heavy losers, sportsbooks will pay a sports bettor $130 for every $100 bet. If he bet either team in this case, he only bets the money line. You are placing a bet to win outright.
These types of bets are popular because they do not involve points. If your team wins the game, you win the money line bet. There is nothing simpler than that. The bigger the favorite, the more money you have to risk just to win $100. The bigger the underdog, the more risk you take and the more sportsbooks will pay you for betting $100. In boxing, it’s more realistic to see bigger favorites and heavier underdogs. When James (Buster) Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in 1990, a $1500 money line bet on Douglas would have won him $57,000 (and it did, for a very lucky and very opportunistic bettor).
Money line bets are not the only sports betting option, but they are the easiest for beginners to understand and the easiest to place. Be careful though, as sportsbooks will charge you a lot of juice, or vigorish, for the big favorites. Public perception is what sets the lines, not the possible outcomes of the games. Blindly picking favorites because they should win will bankrupt you very quickly, and the sportsbooks of the world know it very well. They are masters at exploiting that fact and that is why they remain highly profitable businesses. If you are new to the world of sports betting, money line betting is a great place to start while learning how other types of bets work. It requires little knowledge of betting in general and will keep you entertained while you learn the rest of the basics. Having a solid understanding of money lines and how they are calculated will give you an advantage when deciding where to place your bet.