Baseball Betting Guide: How to Bet on MLB

 Major League Baseball, also known as the MLB, is one of the oldest and most recognisable sports leagues in the world. Unsurprisingly, betting on the league is a popular pastime for baseball lovers, and at TopSport there is no shortage of MLB markets to swing your bat at. In this piece, we’ll take a look at how to place a bet on the MLB with TopSport, how to read and calculate baseball odds, the various types of bets you can place on the league, before ending with a few of the most frequently asked questions about MLB betting.

 

How to bet on MLB

It’s easy to place a bet on the MLB at TopSport – all you need to do is follow these simple steps. To start, head to the TopSport home page and then locate the ‘Sports’ tab on the left-hand side of your page. Click on this and then scroll down to the ‘Baseball’ tab, which will open up a drop-down menu of available baseball leagues when you click on it. Click on the MLB link, and you’ll be taken to a page showing all upcoming games and the corresponding markets for each of them. 

 

How to Read & Calculate Baseball Odds

 Betting on baseball is relatively straightforward and, for the basic markets, follows the same process as with most other sports. If you’re still learning that process, however, then this section will be particularly useful.

In baseball, as with most other team sports, the most common and simplest market to wager on is a win bet (also known as a moneyline bet). This simply involves the punter choosing which team they think represents the best value to win the game. Below, we’ve provided an example of odds you might get for an MLB match.

 

New York Yankees:  $1.51

Boston Red Sox:  $2.62

 

In the above scenario, the New York Yankees are the favourites to win the match. If you bet $10 on them and they win, you’ll receive a $15.10 payout – equivalent to your stake multiplied by the odds. This means that your overall profit is $5.10 – equivalent to your payout minus your stake.

In contrast, if you bet $10 on the Red Sox, you’ll get a $26.20 return if they end up triumphant. Of course, this superior payout for the same stake is offset by the fact that, in the eyes of the bookmaker, a Red Sox win is a less likely outcome than a Yankees win, so determining which team’s odds represents the better value is the key here.

 

Baseball Bet Types

While moneyline is the most common bet type for baseball, you have plenty of other options at TopSport, too. In this section, we’ll go into some of these in detail.

 

Baseball Win Bet

A baseball win bet is the same as a moneyline bet, which we discussed in the previous section. As mentioned, it simply entails picking one of the two teams to win, and if you are proven correct then you’ll be paid out according to the odds which were prescribed to the team you selected.

 

Baseball Line Bet

Line betting is another common bet type in most sports, and baseball is no different. Line bet markets handicap one team by a certain number of points and then offer equal odds for both teams, subsequently providing more value if you think that either the favourite will win by more than expected, or the underdog will outperform expectations but not necessarily win. 

For instance, in the above example involving the Yankees and the Red Sox, the line bet market would likely look like this, or something similar:

 

New York Yankees -1.5: $1.90

Boston Red Sox +1.5: $1.90

 

The easiest way to understand this is to imagine that the Red Sox are starting the game on 1.5 runs. This means that if you bet on the Yankees at the line, you need them to win by 2 runs or more. In contrast, if you bet on the Red Sox at the line, you need them to either win the game, or lose it by 1 run.

 

Baseball Over/Under Bet

A baseball over/under bet is a different way to bet on the game which focuses on the total score, rather than how each team will individually perform. This is a very simple way to bet on the sport; TopSport will have a line set at a certain number of runs, and you simply choose whether you think the total number of runs scored in the match by both teams – will be over or under this total.

 

Baseball Team Totals Bet

A team totals bet in baseball is similar to an over/under bet, but with one key difference. Rather than betting on the total number of runs to be scored in the game, you’re simply betting on the total number of runs to be scored by a particular team. If you feel confident that one team will score heavily, for example, or alternatively will struggle to put runs on the board, this can be a good market to look at.

 

Baseball 1st Half Markets Bet

First half markets are common in lots of sports – rather than betting on the result at the end of the game, you bet on what you think the score will be halfway through the match. This can come in a couple of different forms, including moneyline and line bets. It’s important to note that in baseball, given that there are nine innings there can be some confusion about what point of the game is considered half-time. On TopSport, 1st Half Markets for the MLB are determined at the end of the 5th innings.

 

Baseball Live Betting

With TopSport, you can also find markets on MLB games after they’ve begun, adding a whole new dimension to betting on the sport. Typically the range of markets is a little bigger for regular betting than live betting, but nonetheless there are still plenty of live betting options when it comes to the MLB. You’ll find all the most common markets like moneyline, line betting and over/under points total, but with TopSport there are plenty of others, too. You can also live bet on the correct score in a particular game, a market which is hard to nail but for which there is plenty of value, as well as team totals, and even the number of runs to be scored in a particular innings. There is a comprehensive range of markets for live betting, and enables you to bet on the MLB in an entirely different way, getting a feel for the game as it is unfolding before placing a bet. 

 

Baseball Betting FAQs

 

Where can I bet on baseball?

With TopSport, you can bet on baseball both on the desktop site or the mobile app. Locating the markets is simple and requires you only to follow a few simple steps as outlined above.

 

What is a double result bet in baseball?

A double result bet in baseball is essentially the same as a half-time/full-time bet in other sports, which you may be more familiar with. Essentially, rather than betting on the result at the end of the game, or at the halfway point of the game, you’re betting on both and thus getting increased value.

There will be four double result options for each game; Team A to lead at the halfway point and end of the game, Team B to do the same, or two options for one of the teams to lead at the halfway point and the other to win the game. As mentioned above in the ‘1st half markets’ section, half-time in the MLB on TopSport is considered to be the end of the fifth innings. 

 

What does -1.5 mean in baseball betting?

This term is used when line betting, and would be applied to the team which is considered the favourite to win the game. If a team has a -1.5 next to their name, it essentially means that in determining this market, 1.5 runs will be taken off their final score. This means that if they win the game 6-5, for example, they would be the loser of the line bet. In other words, with a -1.5-run handicap, they need to win the game by two runs for a bet on them to settle as a winner. 

 

What is a moneyline bet in baseball?

A moneyline bet is the simplest type of baseball bet. If you are betting on the moneyline, all you are doing is selecting one team to win the game – simple as that. If the team you select is expected to win then you’ll get less bang for your buck, while if you think the underdog will win then the return for the same investment will be higher if the bet is successful.