The Complete Baseball Betting Guide

Pitch into the thrilling world of baseball betting with our detailed guide! Whether you're a rookie or a seasoned pro, you'll find insider strategies and essential tips that can help you round the bases. Discover how to analyze odds, understand different bet types, and make smart, informed wagers. Don't just play ball—get ready to score in the exciting game of baseball betting!

Type of Baseball Bets

One of the best strategies in finding the best bets for this particular market is to make a note of the total runs you think there will be in each game, then look at the totals offered by the bookies. 

Whichever ones you disagree about most, whether it is over or under what the bookie is suggesting as the most likely runs total, should be the best value plays in this market.

Match Betting

Match betting on baseball doesn’t tend to include a handicap as standard unlike other American sports due to the fact that baseball matches tend to be much closer in terms of scoring. Therefore match betting simply requires the punter to name the winner of a match.

Run Line

Like a point spread in other sports, the run line involves betting on a team to win by a certain number of runs or not lose by more than a certain number of runs.

For example, the run line below shows -+ 2.5 and -+ 1.5 run lines from Ladbrokes on a game between Chicago and Detroit. The figures mean they must win by at least that figure for the bet to pay out. You should choose the handicap you like rather than the team.

Total Runs

This is a bet on the total number of runs scored by both sides during the match. You won’t have to call the exact number of runs, instead the bookmaker names the amount of runs they think there will be in the game and the punter must call whether or not the total will be under or over that amount, with the odds usually the same (a shade odds on) for both outcomes.

In the same game as above the bookmaker gave a  large choice of over/under options. 

Most of the best betting sites cover baseball to the same degree, some of the smaller operators may not have as many options to choose from. Free Bets will be on offer from many bookmakers when you sign up to their service. 

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Proposition Bets

Proposition bets are wagers placed on specific events in most cases within a game, such as the number of strikeouts by a pitcher or the total hits by a specific player. Prop bets can be available on the entire season such as will any player win the triple crown? 

Make Use Of Resources

Baseball betting isn’t quite as popular over here as some other American exports but it still has an ever increasing following and should baseball games become televised more often then it could become very popular with the betting public this side of the Atlantic.

Possibly one of the most appealing aspects of betting on baseball is the amount of opportunities to bet on the sport. The Major League Baseball season may only last from April until October but in that season they manage to cram in a whopping 162 games for each team and that doesn’t even include the World Series! 

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The fact that these games happen so frequently means the odds compilers are always having to price up new games making it easier for punters to be selective and find value bets.

The most popular betting opportunities on MLB come during the World Series, at the end of the baseball season. The World Series is a best of seven series that can pit the best teams from the American League and National League against each other.

If you are new to the sport why not follow the OLBG tipsters who add their tips in the monthly baseball tipping competition. 

Baseball Advice

Know The Rules

Baseball isn’t the hardest sport to win money on, in fact many consider it one of the easier sports to handicap but to get ahead with baseball betting you need to know the rules inside and out. 

The slightly complex rules put many off betting on baseball but if you have a decent understanding of the sport it is worth spending the extra time to get to know it better before starting to bet on baseball.

Spend Time On The Statistics

In order to get the edge on baseball betting you’ll have to spend plenty of time going through stats and knowing the players, especially the pitchers. 

Baseball isn’t a sport in which you can simply glance at the fixture list and pick the best bets, it’s all about the strengths and weaknesses of each team coming together. 

Any time spent looking at all the stats for each game will not be wasted, and then you’ll be in a much better position to pick winning bets.

If you don’t have enough time to look at all the fixtures in depth, why not become an expert on say 4 or 5 different teams and concentrate on finding the best value bets on those teams when the opportunities arise.

Let The Teams Find Their Form

Betting in the early part of the season is rarely a sound strategy for any sport but baseball is one sport where results can be particularly shaky to begin with. Not only can the early baseball season weather cause havoc but many baseball coaches still aren’t fully decided on their line ups and they are still tinkering with selections. Let a month or so pass before betting seriously on baseball unless you think you have found a huge edge early on.

As previously stated you need to know the stats and do your research to make baseball betting pay so finding the best resources and making use of them is key to long term profits. You may find others but the ESPN website can be one of the most helpful sites in finding and producing stats for baseball matches. Use the search option in the OLBG Blogs section where you will find plenty of baseball related articles. 

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MLB and the World Series

Most of will almost certainly start our baseball betting in the US and then move on to other leagues around the world. 

In the US Major League baseball consists of a regular season, where every team plays 162 games in two leagues,  The American League (AL) and National League (NL).

After the regular season is complete there are range of post season/wild card games. 

Wild Card Games: In each league, the two teams with the best records that did not win their divisions play a one-game playoff, called the Wild Card Game, to determine which team advances to the Division Series.

Division Series: The Division Series is a best-of-five series where the three division winners and the winner of the Wild Card Game in each league compete. The winners of these series advance to the League Championship Series.

League Championship Series: The LCS is a best-of-seven in which the winners of each league's division series face off. The winners of the ALCS and NLCS advance to the World Series.

World Series: The World Series is the culmination of the Baseball season. The American and National League winners play each other in a seven-game decider to win the Commissioners Trophy. The matches usually take place in the Autumn. The New York Yankees have won the most World Series (27).

History Of World Series Results

FAQ

Responsible Gambling

Responsible Gambling is a key component of OLBG, and we have dedicated blogs and links on this subject including the one below. 

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Author

OLBG Betting Experts Steve Madgwick and Nigel Skinner created and formatted this Baseball guide.