All you need to know about: Moneyline Betting

Moneyline betting explained

Moneyline betting is the basic wager offered in any sports event where you simply choose which team or athlete will win a certain sporting event. If it is a team sport, like football, basketball or baseball you simply pick a team that you place your bet on.

If it is an individual event like tennis or boxing you place a bet on a certain athlete to win. There are also sports events with more than two competitors such as Formula 1, track and field or swimming, for which certain online bookmakers offer moneyline betting.

As mentioned above, moneyline betting is the simplest way to bet. There are many other betting options that online sportsbooks offer that you need to have a deeper knowledge of. Betting on spreads, totals, individual totals, quarters, halftimes, over and under requires certain knowledge while moneyline betting is basically understandable for every average sports fan.

With online moneyline betting all you need to do is to pick the team or the athlete you hope will win, sit back and enjoy the sporting event supporting the option you placed a bet on.

If you find watching sports events fun, placing a bet on one of the teams makes it even more exciting. Having friends who share the same passion for sports betting as you and watching a game together with your bets placed, can be real fun on any given day especially if you are supporting opposite teams.

Most of the bettors, especially those who have just started with sports betting, choose moneyline betting online as their option simply because of the obvious assumption that every team or an athlete is eager and dedicated to winning the given game or event.

Another reason for choosing moneyline betting is that it does not require a lot of time. You simply visit the best online betting website, take a look at the games schedule and choose the team/s you believe will win. You can place a moneyline bet on a single game or you can choose multiple games you want to place a bet on which is known as parlay betting.

Most of the moneyline sportsbooks offer options to place a single bet on multiple games from different sports. Some of the online sportsbooks are not limiting the number of games you can place a bet on while other do, usually on 20 games.

Possible outcomes using moneyline betting

Depending on the sports, there can be 2 or 3 possible outcomes of a given sporting event. If you want to place a bet on a basketball, baseball, ice hockey or tennis match, there can be only two moneyline betting options, win or loss of a certain team or a player, while if it is a football or boxing, there can also be a draw outcome.

Most online sportsbooks offer moneyline options in regulations for each sport. This means that if you want to, you can place a bet on a draw outcome for sports such as basketball and ice hockey.

In order for that bet to be a winning one, the basketball or ice hockey game needs to finish in a draw in regulation time (40 or 48 minutes for basketball or 60 minutes for ice hockey). If that occurs, your bet is a winning one regardless of the outcome of the overtime period(s).

The key element of moneyline betting is the given odds for each of the options in which a certain sporting event can finish. The betting odds or wagers vary depending on the perceived possibility a certain team or athlete will win a given sporting event.

When looking at potential betting options and the perceived possibility a certain team or athlete will win, there are three components of a moneyline odds or wagers: the favorite, the underdog and even.

The Favorite

A favorite is a team or an athlete who is most likely to win. The likeliness of the winning is based on quality, recent form, competition, home court advantage, injuries, head-to-head matchups, the importance of the game and many other factors that influence the odds.

For example, if you want to place a bet on a basketball game between the United States and China, the options for each team to win will have way different odds simply because the United States are widely considered as the best basketball team in the world for decades while China has a limited quality.

The odds for the favorites are most of the time starting with a minus (-).

The Underdog

The underdog is the team or the athlete who is less likely to win. Placing a bet on an underdog gives you an opportunity to win much more than what your bet is, which even is less likely, sometimes really pays off.

The best moneyline bettors know how to sense a possible upset and when those teams or athletes win, the amount they get from their bet is a couple of times bigger than the placed amount.

Each NCAA basketball tournament brings many upsets and whoever places the right bets would say that he has had a good season.

The odds for the underdogs are most of the time starting with plus (+).

The Even

An ‘even’ games are the ones where either team or player has similar chances to win. For example, if you want to place a bet on a game between France and Argentina in the FIFA World Cup, the odds for a win of each of the teams will be really close which makes the pick more difficult but the possible win much higher than when you bet on the favorite.

The moneyline odds for a given sporting event are changeable from the moment they are posted until the game starts. You can see them going up and down and being different at different online bookmakers.

The reasons for that can be different. Usually, the odds change if a certain player or multiple players are ruled out of a game with injuries or other personal reasons. Another reason for the odds to go up or down is the amount of money a certain bookmaker has received on certain betting options.

For example, if there is more money than usual or expected placed on the Boston Celtics defeating the Los Angeles Lakers, the odds for the Celtics’ win will drop.

If the odds changing will affect the betting really comes up to the player himself. Roster changes or the number of bets placed on a certain option may or may not have a valuable impact on the game itself and is up to the player if he will take them into consideration.

If you as a sports fan want to add some excitement to watching a game or show loyalty and belief to your favorite team or player, moneyline is the right choice for you. Having a bet placed on a win of a certain team or a player gives you an additional feeling that you are a part of the game which can be real fun if the game goes according to your expectations.

Another reason why you should pick moneyline betting is that it is the easiest to follow. Whether you are watching the game or you are only following the score, all it requires is one look and the screen and you know where your bet stands at the moment.

There are multiple factors you need to pay attention to if you decide to place your bet using moneyline betting especially if you are serious about it.

You will need to get all the info on the current roster and injury report on a certain team, recent form, how busy their schedule is, the time spent traveling by the team, team record, the history of the head-to-head games and the importance of the game for both teams.

All these factors make even more of a difference when it comes to individual sports such as tennis or boxing.

If you take sports betting more seriously, you definitely need to build a short or long term strategy. You need to choose if you are going to place single bets or parlay bets if you are going to stick to a certain team or a sport or if you will mix all of these. As deeper you go, it will require more time but whatever you choose you will need luck.

What is the difference between moneyline and spread?

Moneyline betting is choosing which team or a player will win the game while a spread is placing a bet with a given handicap that makes the chances for both outcomes of the game even.

Do moneyline odds differ from one sportsbook to another?

If you compare the odds for a specific game given by multiple bookmakers, there will definitely be differences. These differences will not be large but if you are placing a single bet and you involve a decent amount of money, picking the best odds makes a difference.

Can moneyline odds changes affect my bet after I have placed it?

No. Once you place your bet on certain odds, those odds are relevant no matter how much and in which direction they will change after your have placed you bet.

On which sports I can bet using moneyline betting?

Moneyline betting is the basic betting game and is offered by every bookmaker. Therefore, you can use moneyline betting in any given sport by the bookmakers.