Moneyline betting explained in simple terms
- Moneyline betting basically means betting on the match winner
- The moneyline in betting refers to either a positive or negative amount
- A moneyline bet can be on team or player
- No spread involved in moneyline sports betting
- Moneyline bet examples found in football, basketball, hockey etc…
Understanding moneyline betting
Moneyline betting is simply everywhere. In fact, you probably put down moneyline bets without realizing it. Whether it’s predicting who will win the next Super Bowl or which team will triumph in that local hockey game, everybody knows how to make a moneyline bet.
The trick is to be able to get consistent wins with your moneyline bets. Plus you’ll want to make sure that you get the best possible returns when you try moneyline betting. So let’s take a closer look at this hugely popular bet.
A closer look at our money line betting definition
A moneyline bet means that you’ll bet on which team or player will win a sports event. This kind of bet will be represented at sportsbooks either as the term ‘moneyline’ or simply ‘ML’.
The key thing to remember is that a moneyline bet can come in two forms. These can represent the moneyline betting meaning as either positive or negative values.
Positive moneyline bets – Betting on the underdog
This is where you see the plus sign in front of a number, such as +100 or +275. This number represents how much money you’d win in comparison to every $100 that you’d bet. The higher the number, the more that you’d win. So if you bet $100 on a +275 moneyline and the bet won, you’d win back $275.
These positive moneyline bets refer to those teams and players who are thought to be unlikely to win the sporting event. Once again, the higher the number, the less likely they would be to win. For example, a +950 money line for New York Jets to win the Super Bowl shows that the team is less likely to win compared to a +450 money line for Cincinnati Bengals.
Negative moneyline bets – Betting on the favourite
Here you’d see a minus sign in front of a number such as -50 or -300. This refers to how much you’d have to bet to win back $100. So if you saw a -300 moneyline, it means that you’d have to bet $300 in order to win $100.
This kind of moneyline bet refers to the favourite in a sporting encounter. A clear favourite would have a low number such as -500. This is often known as the ‘chalk’ pick. An example would be the chances of Kansas City Chiefs winning their next game against New York Jets. However a negative moneyline of -25 would be less likely to win, but you’d have to bet less in order to win back $100.
How moneyline betting works for different sports
If a sporting event can have a winner or a loser, then it will have a moneyline. This makes moneyline betting common in all sporting encounters. You can try moneyline betting in football, hockey and baseball. Similarly, the money line bet basketball meaning is just that you predict which team will win the game.
Moneyline bets also apply to all global team sports from rugby to soccer. However, it’s important to note that in those low scoring sports like soccer, you’ll only win your bet if the team wins. This means that you’d lose your money if there was a draw.
Moneyline bets will be on offer for single-player sports like tennis and boxing. Plus you’ll find moneyline bets on all recent sporting innovations ranging from esports to MMA fighting.
You can bet on the moneyline for racing events everywhere from the Kentucky Derby to Formula 1 motor racing. Plus you could even try money line bets on anything from a political election to the winner of that big TV talent show. Simply put, the moneyline bet definition is that if there’s a winner involved, you can put a money line bet on it.
If you want a simple way to understand a moneyline bet, football offers plenty of great examples.
Let’s go back in time to Super Bowl LV. Here Kansas City Chiefs were the favourites to win and had been given negative moneyline odds of -120. This means that you would have to bet $120 on the Chiefs to win in order to win back $100.
If you’d fancied Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win, then you’d have been looking at positive moneyline odds of +100. This is because the Buccaneers were the underdogs to win Super Bowl LV. So if you’d bet $100 on the +100 moneyline odds, you’d hope to win $100.
Three advantages of moneyline betting
The above moneyline bet example shows just how common this kind of sports bet is. Here are the three main reasons why you should try a moneyline bet.
Easy to understand
The beauty of moneyline bets are their simplicity. Just bet on the winner. If the team or player wins the event, you win your bet. It doesn’t get any more simple than that.
Popular at all sports betting sites
All sportsbooks will have moneyline odds. This means that you have much more choice to shop around and make sure that you’re getting the best odds.
Great for low scoring sports
Moneyline bets work best for those sports that feature low scores such as soccer and hockey.
Three disadvantages of moneyline betting
While moneyline bets are hugely popular, they’re not always the best option for betting on sport. Here are three reasons why you might want to try alternative kinds of sports bets.
Not much value for betting on the favourite
If it’s a game between a clear favourite and real no hoper, a standard money line bet might not offer you much value. Try a spread bet or a handicap bet instead.
Tough if you want to bet on a real underdog
Sometimes we just want to bet on our favourite teams. But if your chosen team is a rank outsider, then you might not get too much joy by sticking with moneyline bets.
Other bets more suitable to high scoring sports
Many sports fans have realised that high scoring sports like football and basketball work better with spread bets. This is because spread bets can give you better returns than moneyline bets.
Taking your moneyline bets up a level – Parlay moneyline betting
By now you should realise that moneyline betting is very simple and fun. However, this hasn’t stopped many sports fans from adding an extra level of difficulty to these sports bets. This is because parlay moneyline betting is big news at the moment.
A parlay moneyline bet means that you’d have to bet on the winner of two or more sporting events. Each prediction would have to win for you to win your parlay bet.
For example, let’s imagine that you’d bet on Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks all to win their next NHL games. Both the Maple Leafs and Canucks won, but the Canadiens lost their game. This means that you’d lose your parlay moneyline bet.
This shows that parlay moneyline betting is difficult. But the reason why so many people try this bet is because it can work wonders if you get lucky. This is because the odds will combine together to give you the chance of getting a big return from your bet. If each of your selections is on a favourite (with narrow negative moneyline odds), then you’d stand to have a much better chance of your parlay bet succeeding.
Beyond Moneyline Sports Betting
Now that you’ve got a basic understanding of the moneyline in betting it’s worth taking a look at other betting options. We’ve got a fantastic resource that explains all of the most common bets like spread betting. Plus we can even reveal how no risk matched betting works too. Everything you need to enjoy plenty of flexibility with your sports bets.
Final Thoughts On The Moneyline In Betting
Once you know what the moneyline in betting refers to, you’ll see that this kind of bet is everywhere. It’s the most common bet that you’re going to use in all sports ranging from football to basketball and beyond. Despite this, you shouldn’t let your guard down when trying this kind
