Moneyline

Moneyline is one of the simplest bets you can encounter in sports betting. Yet not a lot of bettors know how it works.

How does a moneyline bet work? When can you bet moneylines? What moneyline betting strategies can you use?

What Is a Moneyline Bet?

Moneyline bets are one of the most well-known ways to place a stake. You may not realize that you’re already making moneyline bets because it’s that easy.

For instance, if you put your money on the Boston Celtics to win game 1 of the NBA playoffs, that’s a moneyline bet.

The moneyline is a straight-up bet that works by picking a team that you think will win the game. If your team wins, you win your bet.

One of the benefits of moneyline betting is its simplicity. Moneyline’s uncomplicated nature does not intimidate novice bettors and empowers pro sports bettors to gain huge wins.

Placing a moneyline bet may be a good way to start your sports betting career. Still, you need to dig into the specifics and understand the nitty-gritty of this bet to maximize your chances of winning the moneyline.

Sportsbooks like SportsBetting.com attach numerical values to each team in a moneyline bet. These numbers are called moneyline odds or American odds.

These odds are used to assign the likelihood or probability of an event happening. What’s unique about moneyline odds is that the numbers are accompanied by plus and minus signs.

When you look at a moneyline odds, you may encounter something like this:

In this NFL (National Football League) matchup, the negative number represents the favorite or the team favored to win.

The positive number represents the underdog or the team less likely to win the match.

Aside from representing the favorites and the underdogs, the negative and positive signs correspond to the potential payouts and the amount of stake you have to bet.

Let’s take a look at the above example. The underdog’s positive moneyline odds (+140) mean that for your $100 stake, you can profit $140.

Meanwhile, if you bet on the favorite with negative moneyline odds (-130), you have to bet $130 to win $100.

Generally, negative odds mean that you have to stake more money than how much you’re going to profit. Positive moneyline odds imply that you will win a larger profit than you bet.

The underdog’s profit is higher than the favorite due to the higher risk of betting on the underdog.

For instance, an underdog with +200 odds means that if you bet a hundred dollars on the team and you win, you can earn a $200 profit. This will bring your total payout to $300.

Ideally, bookmakers assign these odds to balance out the wagering action on each side of the bet.

Due to the popularity and obvious advantage of the favorite, oddsmakers attract bettors to stake on the underdog by assigning a larger profit.

These odds are based on the oddsmaker’s research and each team’s past performances and historical stats.

Aside from moneyline odds, other types of odds may be used in moneyline betting. These types of odds include decimal odds and fractional odds.

These odds can be used to designate probability values for a particular team or outcome.

Decimal odds are often used in Europe and Canada, while fractional odds are typically utilized by bookmakers in the United Kingdom. Learn more about betting odds here.

When you’re betting the moneyline, note that you don’t have to stake exactly a hundred dollars. A hundred dollars is just used to demonstrate the payouts and profits in a moneyline bet.

The amount of your stake still depends on your bankroll management. Staying between 1% to 3% of your bankroll is ideal to stay disciplined and measured in your sports betting.

Determine Your Moneyline Payouts

To calculate the potential payout from your moneyline bets, you can follow this formula:

For the positive moneyline odds (underdog)

Potential Profit = Stake x (Odds/100)

For the negative moneyline odds (favorite)

Potential Profit = Stake / (Odds/100)

When you get your total profit, add it to the amount of money you stake, and that will result in your total payout for that bet.

You can also use an odds calculator to efficiently compute the potential profit and total payout.

Reading Situational Moneyline Bets

Now that you’re familiar with the basics of moneyline betting, let’s delve deeper into the more elaborate side of moneylines.

Moneyline wagers are pretty straightforward, but some situations are a bit tricky.

• The Three Outcomes of Moneyline Bets

There will be situations where moneyline bets may have three results--win, lose, and draw. This usually happens in UFC (Ultimate Fighting Champion) matchups or in MLS (Major League Soccer) games.

In these sporting events, the possibility of a draw or tie is likely due to the sport’s low-scoring nature.

Sports bettors “win” the game when they correctly choose the victorious team or winning outcome.

It’s also considered a win if you picked “draw” as one of the perceived outcomes. However, you lose the bet if you fail to pick the winning team or the game’s correct outcome.

A “draw no bet” is a bet which provides you with insurance against losing. Even if the bookmaker didn’t offer a “draw no bet” market, you can create the bet yourself.

• Line Movements

Line movement happens when the odds or the point spread for a wager changes. This allows you to get the best possible price on your bets and gives you information on how to bet.

To make the explanation simple, let’s take another NFL game as an example.

The New England Patriots are the favorite at -105, and the Los Angeles Chargers are the underdog at +120 odds.

You may initially bet $100 on the Patriots (favorite), thinking that you can get a $95 profit if they win.

You get $95 using this formula: Potential Profit = 100 / (105/100)

But if big hitters stake $10,000 on the Patriots and only $1,000 stake is placed on the Chargers, oddsmakers may consider adjusting their lines to attract more sports bettors to place their stakes on the Chargers.

The adjusted lines may look like this:

If you bet on the Patriots with these lines, you can only get a $77 profit compared to the initial profit of $95.

Meanwhile, if you bet on the Chargers with these odds, you may get $140 compared to the $120 in the initial odds.

Certain game circumstances, like player injuries or unexpected sports news forecasts, can also cause the moneyline prices to move and change. For this reason, extensive research and shopping for the best lines are essential before placing your bets.

Start shopping for the best betting lines and odds here at SportsBetting.com. We also offer boosted odds to maximize your chances of winning your bets.

Click here to check out the odds we have for every bet type and every sport.

• No Obvious Favorites

In some cases, sports betting sites don’t have an obvious favorite or underdog. This happens when the teams playing are in a tight matchup or in moneyline futures.

For example, in an MLB (Major League Baseball) matchup of Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs, the odds are listed as follows:

These odds indicate that the bookmaker feels that both teams have equal chances of winning the game.

Don’t let these standings confuse you. Remember that in cases like this, you may need to handicap the game.

Handicapping is usually done by professional oddsmakers who do intensive research on the game, specific matchups, and team advantages to decide which team will most likely win the game.

One sport betting option you may want to consider in handicapping your bets is point spread betting or handicap betting.

Moneyline vs. Point Spreads

Aside from moneyline bets, you may also see moneyline odds in other popular sports betting options, like over/under, teaser bets, futures, and point spread betting.

You can read more about these various types of bets here. But for now, we will focus on the betting spreads or point spread.

In point spread betting, the final scores of each side of the bet are essential in winning the stake. Meanwhile, moneyline bets rely on the final outcome of the game regardless of the score.

Typically, moneyline bets are used in low-scoring sports like soccer, hockey, or baseball. These sporting events generally have final scores of 2-3 or 3-1.

But some popular leagues like the NFL and NBA also utilize moneyline odds with the spread.

Point spreads are a bookmaker’s way to handicap or balance the action on each side of the bet. An example of a spread is this NBA matchup below:

In the sample above, you can simply read the spread by looking at the -2.5 and +2.5 odds.

These values mean two things: the negative signed number is the point favorite, and the positive signed number is the underdog.

Meanwhile, the -2.5 spread means that the Timberwolves should win the game by at least three points for you to win the bet.

On the other hand, the +2.5 spread means that the Pacers should win the game outright or should not lose the game by more than two points to win the bet.

Note that the home team is always listed on the bottom, and the away team is on the top.

You can also do moneyline and point spread parlays to maximize your betting victory. But you can’t parlay a wager against the moneyline and a spread bet from the same event.

In a moneyline parlay, you can place multiple bets on one betting slip. Though parlays offer bigger payouts, they’re riskier than single bets.

Note that to profit from a parlay bet, all of the stakes (or legs) you placed should win for you to win your parlay.

You won’t get left behind with our broad scope of in-play events and sports market. We definitely have something for every sports fan.

Our list of house rules for each sport will guide you in your betting journey.

Moneyline Strategies

It seems easy to win a moneyline bet by just looking at which team is the betting public’s favorite. Betting on the favored team makes sense in the eyes of an inexperienced sports bettor.

However, from a sharp’s or a wise guy’s perspective, there’s more to moneyline bets than betting for the favorites or the underdogs.

Here, we list some of the moneyline strategies that you may find helpful when placing your bets.

1. Learn How to Handicap Your Bets

Even if you’re not a professional sports bettor yet, you can start handicapping your bets by initiating comprehensive research on the sporting event you’re planning to bet on.

Kick off your research by opening odds daily on our betting site. As soon as a matchup or a game is announced, we automatically assign odds for this event.

Your job as a bettor is to consistently track odds and the latest line movements. This habit will enable you to estimate the timing of when to place your bets.

You also need to understand home-court advantage and a team’s road performance.

Sports analysts say that a team that’s playing in its territory shows better performance than the team that has to travel to the venue.

Fatigue from travel can be a significant factor that impacts a player’s performance.

Before placing your bets, you have to analyze how the teams perform when they are at their home court rather than competing outside. You can do this by watching previous games and checking historical stats.

Similarly, take note of the matchups for each of the games you plan to bet on. Whether it’s the NFL Super Bowl, NHL (National Hockey League), or NCAA’s March Madness (National Collegiate Athletic Association), specific events impact the moneyline based on the player or team rivalry.

Follow your team’s recent plays to stay updated on the team’s latest news and its players. This edge will help you forecast their future plays and assist you to sensibly place your stakes.

You will constantly be updated about your favorite teams’ latest updates and the breaking sports news with SportsBetting.com’s news page.

We cover the most significant sporting events, like championships and playoffs. Our news articles are categorized by sport for easy tracking.

2. Familiarize Yourself with Sports Betting Juice

Sports betting juice or vigorish (vig) is the profit sportsbooks take home for every bet placed on a sporting event.

Vig is incorporated in the odds as a means for sportsbooks to earn their commission for facilitating the betting process.

To compute for vig, you must first determine the true odds by calculating the implied probability of each odds. In doing so, you can identify the percentage of probability of an outcome happening.

You can solve for the implied probability (IP) using this formula:

For odds with a (+) sign (underdog):

100 / (Positive Odds + 100) * 100

For odds with a (-) sign, use this formula (favorite):

Negative Odds / (Negative Odds + 100) * 100

It’s standard for sportsbooks to charge for juice that’s equivalent to no more than 5% of the bet amount.