What is Money Line Betting?
Of all of the different gambling lines that might be seen in relation to sports games, money lines are the most straightforward. They deal with who wins and loses. In almost all cases, there is a favorite and an underdog. Betting on the favorite is presumed to be less of a risk and therefore yields a smaller return than betting on the underdog.
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Sports
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In many sports, a point spread is used for betting, in which a margin of victory is bet on. A money line is used in sports where margin of victory is either irrelevant or so small that it would be extremely difficult to create a spread for every game. Examples of these types of sports are hockey, baseball, soccer and tennis.
Differences
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In point spread betting, the goal is to get equal action on either side of a game to ensure that the house or bookie does not lose money.
In money line betting, the goal is that enough people will bet on the underdog to cover the losses incurred if the favorite does win.
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Favorites
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The favorite in a money line bet will be indicated with a negative number. For example, if Team A is the favorite and the line is -125, that means that a person would have to bet $125 to win $100 plus their money back.
Underdogs
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The underdog in a money line bet is indicated with a positive number. For example, if Team B is the underdog and the line is +250, that means that if a person bet $100, they would win $250 plus their money back.
How Payouts Work
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Take the two above examples as part of an actual game. If Team A is a favorite at -125, the hope is that at least two people bet on the favorite for every one that bets on the underdog (Team B at +250). If the bookie sees that he is not receiving the desired action on each side, he can change the line on either side of the wager to try to ensure that he doesn't lose money. The bookie takes the leftover money that is not paid out to the bettors.
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References
- Photo Credit money money image by Valentin Mosichev from Fotolia.com
