How to Bet on Baseball
For many, betting on baseball is an exotic activity. Indeed, to understand the game, you should study the basic rules and deal with the main terms. Is it possible to put on a sport that you do not understand?
Before betting on baseball, follow a few matches of the teams. As a last resort, at least read the reviews. Then proceed to the analysis of the event:
- Read the results of recent matches (separately at home and away).
- Study the team’s calendar (when was the last game, did the players manage to recover or will they save their strength for a more important meeting).
- Disassemble the compositions (injuries, who is absent, whether the coach has changed); analyze the statistics of pitchers, pay special attention to the number of runs for a duel.
- Find out the class of pitchers (for example, if this is a baseball player of the grand class, there can be many points in the game).
- Find out the statistics of other athletes. In baseball, the current form of the players and the team as a whole is of decisive importance. If the club shone a week ago, this does not mean that this will happen tomorrow. Follow the team’s news regularly and analyze the reasons for the losses.
Most Popular Baseball Bets
Moneyline Bet
You can bet on the winner within the framework of:1st inning, match or tournament.
There is a stereotype that the winner of a baseball game cannot be predicted, but this is not so. In the 2017 season, in the MLB games, 60% of the matches were won by bookmakers. A large number of teams transfer their performance from season to season:
- “Los Angeles Dodgers” and “Chicago Cubs” over the past 3 seasons have not dropped out of the top 7 teams of the best league teams in the regular season.
- 5 teams (“San Diego”, “Auckland”, “Atlanta”, “Cincinnati” and “Philadelphia”) at once for 3 years have never risen above 21st place.
Last season’s finalists (Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston) are the main favorites for the upcoming MLB draw.
Over / Under Or Totals Bet
If in football the basic total is 2.5, then for two separate baseball games it can differ by 2 times (in MLB it is usually from 6.0 to 13.0). The total for a particular match depends primarily on the pitchers. Most bookmakers specify a specific pitcher at the time the line appears, and when it is unplanned, it gives a refund for all bets on the match.
The average total of MLB-2017 matches is 9.3 points. The Los Angeles Dodgers games turned out to be the most ineffective (the average total is 8.33 points per game), the Detroit fights (10.06) were the most spectacular and the highest.
Total is the number of points for 9 innings, although some bookmakers take into account additional innings, so it is important to familiarize yourself with the rules of the office.
Run Line Bet
In the extended baseball line you can find a market for the sequence of injuries (which team will earn the first and last point in the match).
Please note that on a straight line to the winner of the match that the first wounds will be performed by the guests (and the last by the hosts) the coefficient is always less. According to the rules of baseball, the hosts are the first to play defense (they finish the ninth inning in the attack).
Parlay Bet
This is one of the most common types of baseball bets. With the help of parlay bet you can increase your profit if you add other bets to one bet. In this case, all the odds will add up and you will end up with one big win.
But the truth in this has its drawbacks. If one bet from the parlay bet loses, then your entire total bet also loses. The simplest manifestation of this limitation is that you won’t be able to collect express from bets on the same match.
It’s clear that composing an express from the same bet that you have chosen twice or more will not work either.
Similarly, you will not be able to make an express out of bets on access to the playoffs of teams from the same group in the group tournament. You still cannot manage to collect express from the bets on the victory of the team in a separate match and on its way out into the next round of the competition.
Proposition Bet
The most popular type of bet is line betting, i.e. before the start of the match. In order to correctly use the line and achieve good results, the lines must be taken from many sources. To track them, you can go to baseball betting sites. There are a lot of them on the Internet today.
Consider several types of line movement – they will give you 50% of wins or more on bets with equal chances for a long-term game.
- The last movement of the line, whatever it may be, is always the right direction for you.
- If the handicap (line) from the moment of publication is standing, after which it moves sharply – by one point, for example – then you need to follow it
- When the line does not move, you need to put on the favorite
- In the case when the line is opened by a handicap moving in the same direction, then with decreasing handicap you need to bet on the outsider, and when increasing, on the favorite.
Baseball Betting Tips
First of all, be in the know. Constantly monitor and analyze the latest news, learn all the baseball rules. Stop betting on favorites. Yes, public recognition creates an erroneous belief that the team will win, but even leaders often have black bars and misses. In addition, bookmakers always underestimate odds for favorites, and such bets rarely make a profit.
Handicap bets are especially careful. Often, players make bets on winning a favorite with a handicap, chasing a high bookmaker odds. However, the statistics of recent years are depressing: a little more than 20% of the grants receive victories, the difference of which is 1 point. Therefore, net bets will bring you more profit than with the handicap.
- The result and total of a baseball game primarily depends on the particular pitcher – its statistics should be a decisive factor when placing any baseball bets;
- Pay attention to the rules of a particular bookmaker: most legal bookmakers accept bets taking into account possible additional innings, but there are exceptions;
- An important factor is the current form and fatigue of teams: long flights, change of time zones, as well as morale can seriously affect the results of teams;
- Do not use “catch-up”, as well as any of its derivatives of this strategy (this also applies to other sports, however, in baseball, the implementation of this paragraph is especially important).
If you take all these factors into account when analyzing painless matches, then you can consistently make a profit from this.
Rules Of the Game
Inning is a period in a baseball game in which a team plays once in defense and attack. When three baseball players of the same team go out, the opponents switch roles. Each inning has 3 outs, a total of 6.
Usually a match consists of 9 innings. With an equal score after the end of the last period, additional innings are appointed until someone wins. There is no one in baseball, with the exception of some tournaments, for example, in Japan and South Korea. A pitcher is a player who throws a baseball, one of the most important baseball players in the team.
Better is an attacking batsman. A catcher is a defending player who receives the ball sent by the pitcher.
Runner is a base player. Ran is the point of the attacking team.
Home run – hit when a better runs through all the bases at once.
The goal of the game is to score more points (runs) than the opposing team. The point is counted when the player of the attacking team, alternately runs through all the bases.
Major Baseball Events & Competitions
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs
National League is one of two MLB leagues. At the moment, it consists of 15 teams from different states of America and Canada. At the end of each season, the best team is determined in the league through playoff competitions. It is here that the best team of the National League is determined. After that, the National League winners play against the American League winner in the MLB finals.
As you already know, there are 2 leagues, 6 divisions and 5 teams participate in each division. It is between the teams within the same division and within the same league that the largest part of the games is held. And all 162 games are distributed for each team in this way: 76 games inside its division (19 games * 4 opposing teams in the division); 66 games within their league (6 or 7 games * 10 opposing teams in two other divisions of their league); 20 games against opposing teams from another league. Matches against teams of another league are called inter-league matches, as you can see there are not so many in the season (only 20 out of 162 for each team).
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs
The American League is one of two MLB leagues. Unlike the National League, it has a special difference in the rules. This is the “Designated Slugger” rule, introduced in 1973 and effective only in AL. The designated batter (hitter) is one of the players on the team who does not play in the field, but which the team uses to exit to the bat instead of the pitcher.
The semi-finals at MLB are called Champions Series: American League Champions Series (ALCS) and National League Champions Series (NLCS). This name is because in essence in these series the champions of each league are determined – the champion of the American League and the champion of the National League. ALCS and NLCS series are played up to 4 wins.
The World Series
Well, actually the champions of two leagues – the American and the National – are playing with each other the main series of the season – the World Series. She is played until 4 victories.
The main baseball league is the union of two formally independent leagues. At the same time, the National, as the older one, has the highest status in relation to the American.
- Major League Baseball is less dependent on pitchers than other leagues.Almost every team has spare pitchers of good quality. Bookmakers analyze pitchers well and set coefficients depending on their strength, so you should pay attention to other lines of teams in which bookmakers can miss something important.
- In Major League Baseball teams usually play 5-6 games a week (and even 7!).Such a tight schedule of games is reflected in the form of teams that have several successful and failed series over a long season.
- Teams play a series of games with teams of their league (3 games each).In very rare cases, in such series all 3 victories are won by one of the teams. You can try to play catch-up on such series, but not in each of them.
- In general, Major League Baseball teams play much better at home, but this statement does not apply to all teams.For example, last season Seattle Mariners scored 40 victories at home, and only 36 at home.
The Central League
The Central League – This is Japan’s equivalent to the National League in America. It features six teams such as the Chunichi Dragons, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp and the Yomiuri Giants. Having been founded in 1949, the league has grown in popularity year on year.
The Pacific League
This league was created as an alternative to the American Baseball League. There are 6 teams participating in this league: the Chiba Lotte Marines, the Orix Buffaloes and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. They play according to the rules of the American League and have the same tournament structure with access to the playoffs.
The Japan Series
The Japanese series is a complete copy of the MLB. The bottom line is that the winners of The Pacific League and The Central League meet in the final meeting. The rules are exactly the same. Winners of their leagues play up to 4 wins in a series of 7 matches. The winner receives the title of champion of The Japan Series. This tournament has been held regularly since 1950.
World Baseball Classic
This tournament is not very significant in the world of baseball. Its main goal is to arouse the interest of fans in this sport. It is made in the same way as the World Cup. There are teams all over the world. Here are held qualifying, group and playoff matches.