The Key to Finding the Best Baseball Betting Sites

While baseball may be seen as a predominantly North American sport, it actually has its roots in 18th century England. Over in the UK, cricket eventually took over, and the Americans really grasped the concept to produce the best baseball league and the biggest players.

In the modern day, the game is still played all over the world but Major League Baseball, (MLB), in the US, remains the pinnacle. The sport is a big draw for the gambling industry too, and in this guide, we will tell you all about the markets you can get involved with, along with some tips on finding the popular baseball betting sites from the many that are available online.

The Big League

Major League Baseball was set up back, and in the modern day, it is the most prestigious division by some distance. There are other leagues around the world, but for the purposes of this guide, we will focus on MLB betting sites, and the games will be used as examples to describe the markets.

So, let’s get straight on and outline all of the options in terms of baseball online betting.

Start at the Beginning

When you’re staking on any sport for the first time, it pays to start with the most logical betting option – the match result. In baseball, things are kept really simple because there are only two possible outcomes with a win for either side. The draw doesn’t come into it here because at the end of the game, one side has to emerge as the winner.

In the MLB, games come thick and fast, so there are a lot of opportunities to study head to head games. Form is very immediate in baseball as teams are constantly active during the season so, as with all sports, you should study this as your first option.

Outright Options

The MLB season is a long one, but before a pitch is even thrown, there will be markets available on the series winner. Outright markets are a big part of baseball online betting, and with most bookmakers, they should be open as soon as the previous season comes to an end.

Options for this bet will include a punt on the American League winner and the overall National League winner. The best MLB betting sites will be the quickest to declare and will also have better prices, but there will be outright betting options for all of the big professional leagues across the world. Those markets do come up before the first pitch, and they will remain open once the action starts – all the way up to the point when a winner is finally crowned.

A Little Something on the Side

Baseball is a very simple sport to follow, and unlike many others, there isn’t a huge choice when it comes to side bets. In any game, there are mainly just three possible options – money line, run line and total runs.

A money line bet is simply another term for the straight result. All MLB betting sites will have these and we have dealt with the process extensively in the previous section. We’ll, therefore, move on to total runs and this should also be self-explanatory. Here, we are simply betting on the total amount of runs scored between the two sides during the game.

The options here will vary depending on which bookmaker you play with, but typically there will be three lines set at 6.5, 7.5 and 8.5. From there, simply pick a line and back over or under it.

The last of our three side bets is run line, and this is similar to the winning margin or handicap option that you may have seen with other sports. With this bet, a line may be set at 1.5, and when that appears, you bet on the favourites to win by two runs or more or the outsiders to lose by a single run. Take your pick, and if either of those options drops in, you win the bet.

That essentially concludes what is a small set of side markets for baseball online betting, but aside from the conventional ante-post method of placing a bet, there are other ways to get involved with this great sport.

When the Action Starts

Baseball is a very methodical sport, and its long duration makes it a perfect option for those who want to get involved in MLB live betting. One of the ways in which you can identify the best baseball betting sites is to see how many live markets a bookmaker lists and even if this is not important to you, this extended choice is the mark of a good bookie.

Most of the regular ante-post options are available if we switch to MLB live betting, starting with the result. Use your best analytical skills to identify how the game is progressing and decide on which of the two teams is most likely to win.

Live betting can also be used on either of the two main side bets that we’ve mentioned above – total runs and run line. Check that the sportsbook in question offers these before you sign up if these are going to be important to you.

• As with any live betting strategy, be sure you have the right equipment in place before starting.
• If betting on the go, download the bookmaker’s app to your mobile device and make certain you have the latest software in place to support it.
• At home, your internet connection should be fast because delays in transmission could mean that you miss out on the best in-play prices as they come in.
• Take care of these background points, and you will set yourself up for successful live betting.

Spreading It Around

As we’ve seen, there isn’t a wide set of side bets for this sport, but for those who want to take their baseball online betting to a more advanced level, there is an active following of spread bettors. For those who want to look at MLB against the spread options, it’s important to know that this isn’t for the novice because the exposure here is higher and losses can be greater than your initial stake.

However, profits can be much higher too, so this is a good option for the experts and here is how spread betting works in the baseball markets. In a sense, this is the same as the handicap bet so; if a team is listed at +120 using American odds, this is how much you will win for every £100.00 that you stake. This is a sport where many US-based bookmakers can be used, and that’s why plenty of this type of examples are given using American odds.

As you move through your betting journey, you may want to stick with a sportsbook that quotes fractional or decimal odds if you are more familiar with them but please don’t dismiss those US operators as they can have high welcome bonuses backed up by competitive odds.