How to Read Baseball Game Odds

Whether you are betting on Major League Baseball or Korea Baseball Organization, you should know how to read baseball game odds. When you bet on baseball, moneyline is the most common type of wager you can make. We’ll use it to explain sports betting odds.

For our example, we use:

Team A -200
Team B +170

As you can see, Team A is the favorite because of the negative sign before the number. Also, Team B is the underdogs because of the positive sign. Keep in mind that we are using American odds in our example. When you bet on sports, you will encounter odds in Decimal or Fractional form.

Usually, sportsbooks in Australia and Europe use decimals. UK sportsbooks use fractions. American bookies use the American system.

Guide on How to Read Baseball Game Odds

If you are going to bet $100 on Team A, your potential payout will be $150, which is the original wager of $100 with $50 winnings. If you bet $100 on Team B, your payout will be $270, which is the original $100 plus $170 winnings.

Another type of baseball wager is run line, which is baseball’s version of the point spread. Before the game, the bookie will have an advantage of 1.5 runs to balance the lines. Sportsbooks set the number of lines at 1.5 because baseball is a low-scoring sport. An example would be:

Team A -1.5
Team B +1.5

For Team A to cover the line, the team needs to win by two or more runs. For Team B to cover the line, the team needs to win the game or not lose by more than a run.

Baseball totals are wagering on the combined score. For instance,

Over 6.5
Under 6.5

As a player, you need to guess whether the combined runs from the two teams will be over or under the number. Suppose you think that the totals will be more than six, bet on over. On the other hand, bet on under if you believe the totals will be less than six.

Those are the things you need to know about reading baseball game odds. Be sure to read our other tutorials to learn how to bet on sports.