The Ultimate Baseball Betting Guide

The amount of statistics available plus the sheer number of matches that occur throughout the year can make baseball a lucrative sport for bettors. Indeed, some of the sharpest bettors in the world wager on baseball. Though the number of markets you can bet on might seem daunting at first, in reality it gives you even more chances to return profit.

This article will explain the markets available at Cloudbet, what events you’re looking for during the match and what could influence the results of your wager. Once you’ve read it, you’ll understand the basics of baseball betting and be familiar with specials markets.

The basics of baseball betting

The objective in baseball is to score more runs than the other team when batting (known as innings). The most common baseball bets are Money Line, Totals and Run Line. These bets cover: Who wins (Money Line), the number of runs scored (Totals), and the margin of victory (Run Line). Get to grips with these markets first, they’re the simplest to understand.

If the listed pitcher doesn't start, your stake will be returned and your bet declared void

Unlike other sports, you'll notice there are names underneath each team. These are the pitchers. As the pitcher can heavily influence the result of a game, it's information that you should take note of. In rare cases, the listed pitcher doesn't start the match, most likely due to injury. In this case your bet would be declared void, so your stake would be returned.

There are sportsbooks out there that would adjust the odds of your bet in this case, but this will more than likely leave you worse off. The way it works at Cloudbet means you'll never be let down if a pitcher is changed. Now, let's take a closer look at the most common bets in baseball.

What is Money Line betting in baseball?

Money Line betting for baseball is predicting which team will win. The number of runs scored by each team or the margin of victory for the team doesn’t influence the result of this wager. If you correctly predict the result, your bet will win. That’s all there is to it. With American odds, it's easy to quickly see how the teams match up. You can work out who the favourite and underdog is by looking for the plus (+) or minus (-) signs. By default, Cloudbet shows the odds as decimal. It works slightly differently but the favourite will be the team with odds closest to 1.

In this article, we'll use American odds for our examples. The underdog will generally have a plus (+), the favourite the minus (-). It's simple to read American odds. If it's negative, that's the amount you have to wager to win €100. If it's positive, that's the amount you'd win, excluding your original stake, if you stake €100. Of course Cloudbet is a cryptocurrency-focused sportsbook but the math is the same if you're using bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash.

From this example, we can see that the Minnesota Twins are the underdog and the New York Yankees are the favourites. At Cloudbet, you can see different types of odds displayed. American will display the Money Line odds but if you prefer, you can select a different view like decimal or fractional.

How to bet on Totals in baseball

This market refers to the total runs scored by both teams during the match added together. The result doesn’t influence this bet. If you think that it'll be a low-scoring game, you’d select under (U). If, however you think that the batters will have a slight advantage over the pitchers, you'd select over (O).

Cloudbet usually have more than one totals option available with different odds depending on the total line. Depending on how closely matched the teams are, a totals market might be a whole number or end in .5. Let’s look at the same example and another to demonstrate the difference in outcome:

In this match we select over 8.5 in the Yankees game. If the game ends with 9 or more runs scored in total split between either team, we win our bet. We get our stake back plus the winnings from the bet. If fewer than 9 are scored, our bet loses.

The Dodgers game works slightly differently but only if the total runs scored is exactly 9. Again, we choose over 9 and if there are 10 or more runs in total, we win out bet. However if there are 9 runs scored, it's known as a “push” and our stake would be returned.

What is the Run Line in baseball betting?

The run line is a way of betting on how close the scores will be between the teams. Think of it like a handicap. The plus and minus signs indicate the favourite (-) and the underdog (+). Using the same examples as above, we can see that the Dodgers and the Yankees are favourites. If we choose to back either of those teams, we need them to win by 2 or more runs for our bet to win.

If we choose the Twins or the Reds, as underdogs, they need to either lose the game by a single run or win outright. Similar to the Totals market, Cloudbet often has several options for betting on the run line. If you think that a team is at a particular advantage or disadvantage then you could choose a different run line spread to the one first displayed on the market page.

What are the Player Specials you can bet on at Cloudbet?

There are a number of player-based MLB special markets available at Cloudbet. You can see which markets are available by clicking on the "Specials" tab of the game. If the markets are available you’ll be able to bet on any of the following aspects of a specific player’s game:

• Total Bases
• Runs Earned
• Total Home Runs
• Earned Runs
• Hits Allowed
• Total Strikeouts

They're perfect for betting on individual form instead of the team performance.

What is reduced juice or low vig?

Finding sportsbooks with reduced juice or low vig means you’ll make more money in winnings in the long run. It simply means the bookmaker is offering better odds than standard as they're working with a reduced margin (margin is the cut the bookmaker makes), also referred to as "vigorish", "vig" or "juice". The standard juice for American sports is -110 (1.91 in decimal odds) which means you’d need to win 52.37% of your bets to break even. However at Cloudbet, the margin is lower on MLB games which means you'll turn a profit after winning fewer bets. You can work out the margin, or overround for yourself if you know how to calculate odds.

So now you’re ready to bet on baseball, take a look at the latest MLB odds, Japanese Nippon Professional League odds or Mexican league odds.

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