How Does The Moneyline Work In Sports Betting

Moneyline bets, also called win bets in some parts of the world, are hands down the most popular type of bet available to sports bettors. While they are simple, it’s still important to make sure that you fully understand these bets to ensure you don’t make mistakes and to empower yourself to utilize them for maximum profits. Besides baseball and hockey, moneylines are used for betting on other sports where a point spread becomes irrelevant, such as auto racing, boxing, soccer, and tennis. While there are margins of victory in some of these, they are so small that it would be impossible to create a point spread for every game.

If you are new to sports betting, you may just be wondering, “How does sports betting work?”

Top Tips for the Novice Sports Bettor

The concepts of the point spread, the Moneyline, and reading odds are fairly simple. It is also easy to find places that will accept your sports wagers, such as the platforms offered by AcePerHead.com. However, moving on from the basics is often a challenge for novice sports bettors. Let’s take a look at some tips to help you move from the basics of sports betting as you look to start turning profits from your wagers.

Tip #1: Begin with smaller bets

Figuring out how to outwit the sportsbooks will take you a great deal of time. Different sports bettors figure out the path to victory more quickly than others, but even for the most ingenious sports bettors, you have to get through a learning curve. Unless you just won the lottery, you just have some money that you have free to wager on sports, so while you are in the learning phase, do not make the error of betting too large per game.

While you are in the early phases, think about limiting your biggest bets to about $20. For other bets, shoot for the $5 to $10 range. Over time, as you start to learn more and more about how to win, you can put that maximum higher, but remember to limit your wagering to using money that is not part of your budget for living essentials.

Another way to figure out your maximum is to figure out how much you can spare for your bankroll. Put this money apart from your other funds, and only use it for sports betting. Divide that bankroll by 100 to get your maximum bet. So if you have $2,000 in your bankroll, your max bet would be $20. While very little in sports betting is certain, one thing you can bank on is that you will make mistakes, so using small parts of your bankroll will limit the damage that mistakes cost you, giving you a longer wagering life before your bankroll disappears.

Tip #2: Focus your wagering on a specific area

The vast majority of sports bettors get into the action by wagering on their favorite sports teams and putting down bets on big events, like the NCAA men’s basketball tournament or the Super Bowl. This is a fun way to start because these events get lots of press. However, one reason a lot of new sports bettors lose a lot of money at the start is that they end up betting a lot on events that they do not know much about. For example, if you have read that 12-seeds often upset 5-seeds in the men’s basketball tournament, and you try to be trendy by betting on all four of the 12-seeds without reviewing all four matchups carefully, you will just be handing money to the bookmaker.

So if you are wondering “How does sports betting work?” at this point, pick just one sport and focus on that. Narrowing your focus will allow you to develop a research base that will help you select winners. If you find that researching college football takes too much effort (and there are a lot of teams to learn about), just select one conference. You might think about picking a mid-major conference instead of one of the Power 5, because there is some room for error in the sportsbooks the further you get down the college football hierarchy.

Tip #3: Put your bets on the moneyline

The majority of sporting events have a minimum of two different lines. One will go against the spread. The other is a moneyline. In this sort of wager, you pick which team will win the game. When you bet against a point spread, you usually spend $110 to win $100 on either side of that spread, although moneylines can be adjusted from that point if action comes in too hot on one side of the point spread. In a moneyline wager, the various figures show the disparity. An example might feature Ohio State playing Indiana in football. If the moneyline is Ohio State -180 / Indiana +220, you would have to bet $180 to win $100 on Ohio State, but if you bet on Indiana, and you put down $100, you would win $220.

It is often much easier to decide which team is going to win a game outright than to pick against a point spread. If you have an eye on an underdog that has a solid chance at winning, that can make a smart wager. If you win on underdogs, you do not have to place as many bets to make a profit.

This is just the beginning when it comes to tips for the novice bettor. You are far from alone if you find yourself wondering, “How does sports betting work?” However, this is a topic that can help you turn your cash into profits while doing something you love – watching and staying engaged with sporting events.

AcePerHead.com is a platform that offers sports betting options to hundreds of agents. Each sportsbook has a separate owner, who is responsible for setting odds, choosing events, establishing props, and signing up betting clients. You can often find some fairly wide variance among the different sportsbooks on Ace Per Head, as they try to establish a competitive advantage based on information (or intuition) about events that they believe will help them beat the odds that most of the larger sportsbooks have set. If you start betting with a sportsbook that uses the Ace Per Head platform, you have peace of mind thanks to the encrypted third-party payment system that we use to move money from betting clients to sportsbook owners. You can use bitcoins, Gift cards, and other payment portals to send and receive funds. Obviously, you’ll hope to be pulling in more money than you send out – that’s the dream of every sports bettor. Hopefully, this advice will get you on your way.

Moneylines are one of the most common types of bets in sports betting. Few, if any, sportsbooks do not offer moneyline wagers to their customers.

Since sports betting is new in Colorado, it’s important that Coloradans understand this common betting type. So, here is a handy guide on moneylines, complete with numerous examples to show how they work.

How the moneyline works

First and foremost, let’s define what a moneyline bet is. Simply put, a moneyline bet is a wager on which team will win the game or match.

Unlike other types of wagers, it does not matter what the margin of victory is or how many points the teams score. All that matters is which team or competitors emerge as victorious.

Moneyline bets are denoted on a sportsbook’s display by three-digit numbers that are next to each team’s name. In each contest, one of these numbers will be positive, and the other one will be negative.

Sports Betting Money Line Explained

One advantage of betting on the moneyline is that the sportsbook’s profit is baked into the line itself. So, unlike point spreads or totals bets, there is no need to pay any vig on top of your wager.

What the numbers mean

The team with the positive number next to it is the underdog, or the team expected to lose. The team with the negative number is the favorite, and is most likely to prevail.

The numbers let bettors know the payouts associated with betting each side of the game. The positive number is the payout amount that a winning bet will receive on a $100 wager. The negative number is the amount that a bettor must wager in order to win $100.

Of course, these payouts are not hard-and-fast amounts. Rather, they are expressions of the proportions that the sportsbook is using for that particular game.

In fact, positive moneylines are convertible into straight odds for those who wish to do a few calculations. One rule of thumb is that every 100 that the positive moneyline increases corresponds with another whole number of odds.

So, for instance, a +100 moneyline is a 1:1 odds bet, while a +200 moneyline is a 2:1 odds bet. A +300 moneyline is 3:1, and so on.

If that’s confusing, don’t worry. It’s a lot easier to understand with some practical examples.

Moneyline betting examples

The following examples should help illustrate how moneyline bets work. All of these entries are actual bets that were featured on DraftKings Sportsbook.

Bear in mind that a payout is simply the profit you can expect to realize on the bet. So, if you win, you will receive the payout plus your original bet back.

NFL: Super Bowl LIV

Chiefs: -122
49ers: +108

Explanation: So, in this scenario, the Kansas City Chiefs were the favorite to win Super Bowl LIV. However, given how close each number is to 100, the sportsbook clearly believed that it would be a tight ballgame.

To that end, a $100 wager on this game would only pay out $108. Expressed as straight odds, the 49ers were only a 1.08:1 underdog.

Sample payouts (assuming that the bet were to win)

• $100 on the Chiefs – $81.97 profit, $181.97 total
• $100 on the 49ers – $108 profit, $208 total
• $122 on the Chiefs – $100 profit, $222 total
• $122 on the 49ers – $131.76 profit, $253.76 total
• $50 on the Chiefs – $40.98 profit, $90.98 total
• $50 on the 49ers – $54 profit, $104 total
• $5 on the Chiefs – $4.10 profit, $9.10 total
• $5 on the 49ers – $5.40 profit, $10.40 total

NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers (CLE) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC)

CLE: +650
OKC: -910

Explanation: The larger numbers indicate that DraftKings did not expect the final result to be close. At the time, Oklahoma City’s record stood 10 games over .500, while Cleveland had lost 25 more games than it had won.

So, since the sportsbook felt that a certain outcome was particularly likely, bettors who took that side stood to profit very little. On the other hand, if Cleveland did manage to pull off the upset, then a bet would pay off quite handsomely.

Sample payouts

• $100 on CLE – $650 profit, $750 total
• $100 on OKC – $10.99 profit, $110.99 total
• $910 on CLE – $5915 profit, $6925 total
• $910 on OKC – $100 profit, $1010 total
• $50 on CLE – $325 profit, $375 total
• $50 on OKC – $5.49 profit, $55.49 total
• $5 on CLE – $32.50 profit, $37.50 total
• $5 on OKC – $0.55 profit, $5.55 total

How Does The Moneyline Work In Sports Betting Strategy

NCAAB: McNeese State (MNS) vs. Texas A&M – CC (TACC)

MNS: -110
TACC: -110

Explanation: Occasionally, two teams are so evenly matched that they both feature negative moneylines. In this case, the sportsbook simply does not feel comfortable about predicting the outcome to the point that it will pay extra if the underdog wins.

How Does The Moneyline Work In Sports Betting Stocks

One thing to bear in mind about moneylines is that point spreads for the same match can reveal further information about the rationale behind where the line is. In this case, DraftKings has set McNeese State as a mere 0.5-point favorite, so the game really could go in either direction.

Sample Payouts

How Does The Moneyline Work In Sports Betting For Beginners

In this case, since both lines are the same, the payouts will be the same, too.

• $100 on either – $90.91 profit, $190.91 total
• $110 on either – $100 profit, $210 total
• $50 on either – $45.45 profit, $95.45 total
• $5 on either – $4.55 profit, $9.55 total

Other uses for moneylines

Although moneylines are a betting type in their own right, the moneyline format appears in a few other places throughout most sportsbooks. For instance, books use a similar three-digit number to add in their vig to point spread and totals bets.

Though they don’t mean quite the same thing, they serve to inform bettors about how much they’ll have to lay to win $100 on a particular spread or over/under. The same rule about betting favorites on the moneyline – the negative number is how much to wager to win $100 – applies here.

However, moneylines also show up as a format to declare straight odds on various wagers. Notably, futures bets are often expressed in terms of moneylines.

Most recent betting guides

Example: NBA team futures

Futures bets are wagers on cumulative long-term events. A futures bet might pertain to a season award or an eventual champion.

In that vein, DraftKings has established a futures section for betting on the eventual NBA champion for the 2019-2020 season. Each team in the league appears on a list with a positive moneyline next to it.

Here are the listings for the top 11 teams:

• Los Angeles Clippers: +300
• Los Angeles Lakers: +300
• Milwaukee Bucks: +320
• Philadelphia 76ers: +1200
• Houston Rockets: +1500
• Boston Celtics: +2000
• Denver Nuggets: +2000
• Utah Jazz: +2000
• Dallas Mavericks: +3000
• Miami Heat: +3000
• Toronto Raptors: +3000

The first thing that sticks out about this list is that there are no teams listed as favorites (negative moneylines). Quite simply, it is difficult to forecast into the future with any great certainty. Even the favorites to win it all (the two Los Angeles teams) are still underdogs against the field.

How Does The Moneyline Work In Sports Betting Terms

The other thing to notice is that dividing each moneyline by 100 quickly reveals the straight odds associated with each bet. To put it another way, here are those same bets, converted into straight odds:

• Los Angeles Clippers: 3/1
• Los Angeles Lakers: 3/1
• Milwaukee Bucks: 16/5 or 3.2/1
• Philadelphia 76ers: 12/1
• Houston Rockets: 15/1
• Boston Celtics: 20/1
• Denver Nuggets: 20/1
• Utah Jazz: 20/1
• Dallas Mavericks: 30/1
• Miami Heat: 30/1
• Toronto Raptors: 30/1

How To Read A Moneyline

So, needless to say, these are long odds, no matter who you choose. Hopefully, however, if you choose to make a futures bet, you will at least be able to read the odds as they appear now.