Baseball Betting Becoming More Mainstream
When it comes to betting on sports, football is still the king with March Madness a distant second place. And while summer is viewed as the “down period” for most sports bettors, betting on baseball is becoming more popular every year. In fact, Forbes tackled baseball betting from an investment perspective while the number of baseball wagers at online sportsbooks increase every year.
America’s Pastime wasn’t a hot commodity even a decade ago, with some basketball and football gamblers not really understanding how to play the moneyline sport. It’s not that people didn’t watch or follow baseball games, rather bettors didn’t know how to bet on baseball.
Prior to the advent of the online sportsbook, newspapers were the primary source for getting lines on games. Pointspreads and over / unders are easy to figure out, but a 6 ½ to 7 ½ line on a baseball game was confusing. Bettors that didn’t know how to bet on baseball couldn’t understand what to do – even if they thought a team would win easily.
For the record, when deciphering baseball lines in the newspaper, just multiply both numbers by 20 to get the moneyline odds (6 ½ to 7 ½ equates to 130 and 150, with the bigger number being the favorite at -150 and the smaller number being the underdog at +130).
Betting on baseball offers advantages that many other sports can’t match. There are a number of baseball games played every day, with teams rarely having off days. Often times you can find afternoon and evening start times. And you can protect your online sportsbook wager by circling one or both of the starting pitchers.
For those that prefer a pointspread, there is a runline wager which almost always has the favorite laying -1.5 runs and the underdog getting 1.5 runs with adjusted moneylines attached to both teams.
Another key advantage to betting on baseball is the bonuses for signing up at an online sportsbook during the baseball season. With baseball typically being the slow period for the online sportsbooks, these companies will often times offer better bonuses to keep or sign up customers.
One example is by 1vice.ag where they are offering an entry in their $8,500 MLB Handicapping Contest on top of their 150% Bonus and access to their dime lines to anyone who deposits $300 or more with them. You can find more information for this contest and other 1Vice promotions.
Knowing how to bet on baseball not only expands a sports bettor’s opportunity to earn a profit and back their favorite team, but it also helps kill the time in the summer until the NFL Preseason kicks off in early August. Judging by the numbers, more and more bettors are learning how to bet on baseball and becoming year-round players.