How To Bet Baseball: Easy, Profitable Tips For 2023 MLB

The game of baseball generates a large portion of the betting handle at American sportsbooks. The wide variety of wagering options available on baseball can be overwhelming at first, but this guide will simplify the process.

With a basic understanding of the Major League Baseball wagering landscape, bettors can apply the knowledge to any of the roughly 2,400 MLB games played each season.

Can I Bet Baseball Online for Real Money?

Yes, but it depends on where you are located.

Betting on baseball may be legal in your state, depending on existing law. Legal and regulated sports betting is becoming increasingly common in the United States, with more than 30 sports betting states as of 2023.

All legal and regulated online sportsbooks offer wagers on Major League Baseball. As the summer is a relatively slow period for the sports world, baseball is an important offering for the industry during these months.

And, of course, baseball is still an American pasttime.

MLB Futures

The MLB futures market is a simple alternative to betting on a single game.

In most cases, new MLB futures odds will be released following the conclusion of each World Series. Due to free agency, trades, and other breaking news, these odds will change dramatically until the next World Series is played in October of the following year.

We recommend a MLB futures bet if you want some “skin in the game” and are content with waiting potentially months before knowing whether your bet will win or lose. These are great bets to place on your favorite team or player, giving you even more to root for.

Team Futures

MLB futures betting is most commonly done with team futures due to the wide range of markets available. Here are some of the most popular forms of team futures:

• League Winner: Betting on a team to win either the American League or National League pennant
• Division Winner: Betting on a team to win their division
• Regular Season Wins: Placing action on the over/under for a team’s wins projection line
• Best Record: Betting on a team to have the best regular season win-loss record
• To Make the Playoffs: Betting on a team to make the playoffs
• Division Straight Forecast: Betting on two or more teams within the same division to finish in an exact order in the standings
• Regular Season Win Streak: Wagering who will have the longest win streak during the regular season
• Winning State: Placing action on one of an entire state’s MLB teams to win the World Series

Player Awards

Since player awards futures are individualistic, they differ from team awards futures. The high-variance nature of MLB makes award winners far more difficult to predict.

The three major types of player awards futures found at sportsbooks:

• MVP: Betting on a player to win the league’s Most Valuable Player Award, usually coming with long odds and broken down into American League and National League
• Cy Young: Betting on a pitcher to win the Cy Young Award that is given to the top pitcher in both the American League and the National League
• Rookie of the Year: Betting on a player to be the best rookie-eligible player in their respective league

Baseball Moneyline

Bets on MLB are most commonly made on the moneyline. While there will always be true underdogs and powerhouse franchises in the league, the beauty of baseball is that anyone can win on any given night because of an extensive level of parity.

As a result, underdogs tend to perform well in MLB moneyline betting. Betting exclusively on favorites may seem attractive on paper, but it’s often a losing strategy and a common mistake made by novice bettors.

It is also essential to know which players will be playing when betting on baseball moneylines. This sounds simple enough, but it can be complex.

It is common for starting pitchers to change, and understanding platooning can also give you an advantage. When betting on moneylines, baseball offers a wealth of public data to be utilized. There is no such thing as negligible information when it comes to betting moneylines in baseball.

Betting the Runline

The runline is another popular wager on baseball games. Runlines are baseball’s version of a point spread. Because baseball observes far lower scoring compared to other sports, the runline is typically a mere 1.5-run handicap.

For example, if the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees matched up with the Dodgers carrying a -130 moneyline, they would have a runline in the neighborhood of -1.5 runs at +190 odds. In more lopsided matches, the runline can be as high as 2.5.

Sometimes bad teams can be great bets because they keep games close.

The 2022 Baltimore Orioles were 37-44 halfway through the regular season but an impressive 52-30 against the runline. The Orioles were a bad team in the middle of the 2022 season, but they were often a good team to bet on. The team ended up finishing above .500, so they eventually started more winning games.

Over/Under Betting in Baseball

Betting on totals in baseball requires different information than is required to bet on moneylines and spreads.

Totals betting, also called over/under betting, is a market where bettors don’t place action on the final outcome of a game in terms of winning and losing. Instead, they bet on the final score of a game and whether it will end up higher or lower than the betting total.

Many factors contribute to over/under betting, with starting pitching matchups, platoon advantages, and weather playing particularly profound roles. For example, at a ballpark like Coors Field in Denver that is set in a high-elevation environment, the run-scoring is typically at a higher rate than average.

Some ballparks are smaller than others, like Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The closer the fences are, the higher the likelihood of a home run.

First-Inning Result

A form of baseball betting that has become popularized in recent years is on first-inning results.

Often called YRFIs and NRFIs, standing for “Yes/No Run First Inning,” bettors place action on whether or not they believe a run will be scored in the first inning of a game.

This is a riskier wager. We recommend this bet if you are simply looking for a quick result and/or you might not stay tuned into the game until the end. This kind of wager might feel more like flipping a coin.

First Five Innings Betting

Also instead of betting on full-game moneylines, spreads, and totals, bettors also have the option of first five innings betting markets. Some bettors prefer this method of betting as bullpens typically have less impact on the outcome of the first five innings of a game, unlike they would in a full game.

The markets that exist are typically exactly the same as they would be for full-game betting, but with different odds and totals. We recommend this baseball wager if you don’t want to worry about a bullpen screwing up your wager.

As far as value, this isn’t any better or worse than a first-inning or a full-game bet.

Baseball Parlays

Crafting parlay bets in baseball is one of the most popular forms of gambling on the sport given the extensive options available for parlay legs.

On any given day during the season, there can be as many as 15 games with hundreds of markets in total available. The options are virtually limitless.

As with other sports, parlays are broken down into multi-game and same-game parlays.

Multi-Game Parlays

The more traditional style of parlay wagering on baseball is with multi-game parlays. Parlays of this nature combine bets across different games into one bet that carries exponentially longer odds with every selection that is added to it.

We recommend this baseball parlay if you can pay attention to multiple games at a time and are looking for more of a lottery-style betting experience. Sportsbooks have a higher hold percentage on parlay bets compared to straight bets, so, in the long run, parlays aren’t a good strategy if you are trying to build a sports betting bankroll.

Same-Game Parlays

Same-game parlays are similar to multi-game parlays, but they differ in that all the individual legs of the bet are from the same game as opposed to different games across the slate.

While most sportsbooks offer extensive same-game parlay options, some do not.

We recommend a same-game parlay for baseball if you prefer a lottery-style betting experience and just want to pay attention to a single game.

Baseball Prop Bets

Baseball arguably has the most extensive prop betting catalog of any major U.S. sport. These prop betting markets include statistical production from both hitters and pitchers, scoring props for the games themselves, and different types of daily props.

Batter Props

Most of the batter props that are typically offered by major sports betting operators are based on statistics. These include whether or not a player will have a certain amount of hits, home runs, or RBIs.

The list of stat totals that can be bet on extends much further as well, including stolen bases, runs scored, and combined runs scored plus runs batted in props.

Pitcher Props

Pitcher props are less extensive given the lack of counting stats attached to the position. The most common prop bet on pitchers is over/under betting on strikeouts.

Another popular pitching prop bet that has gained significant traction in recent years has been to place action on the over/under on a pitcher’s total outs recorded for a game. Hits, walks, and earned runs allowed are also common markets.

Game Props

There are plenty of game props available at most operators as well. These include betting the over/under on the team total for one or both of the sides in a game.

Additionally, there are more intricate props like betting on how many runs will score on the first scoring play, the inning of the game’s first, and last score and final winning margin.

Correct Score

Correct score bets offer some of the longest odds of any bet in baseball. It is extremely difficult to predict the final score of any game and with the wide range of outcomes in baseball in particular, it is a tall task to succeed in this form of betting. It’s virtually impossible to win in the long run betting on the correct score.

This betting type is available before a game begins, but can also be found in live betting on most occasions. We recommend this bet for entertainment purposes only.

Daily Props

Daily props are a less popular market than any of the others outlined above, but there is still value to be found here. Daily props typically account for the entire league’s day of games as opposed to one individual game.

This makes it much more difficult to succeed as bettors will have to get a grasp for every game to make educated bets as opposed to only having to handicap a handful of games.

• Will there be a no-hitter: Betting on whether or not the league will have a no-hitter on a given slate of games
• Daily total runs: Betting the over/under for how many runs are scored in the entire league on a give day
• Highest scoring game: Betting on the highest-scoring game of the day’s slate
• Highest scoring team: Betting on the highest-scoring team of the day’s slate
• Any team over X+ runs: Betting on the highest score produced by any team on a slate

Live In-Game Wagering

Live betting has become an excellent alternative for the bettors who miss action on the pregame markets. There are often alternative wagers that cannot be found before games begin and depending on the flow of the first few innings, live lines can dramatically shift.

Live betting options are just as extensive as pregame options and provide even more value for sharp bettors who understand the odds shifts and what they mean.

How to Bet on the World Series

The World Series is the pinnacle of baseball in the U.S. each year and creates a substantial handle for sportsbooks in October. All of the options for wagering outlined above are available during the World Series, in addition to series pricing.

Throughout the regular season, there are also futures bets that can be made on the eventual pennant and World Series winners. All regulated sportsbooks offer some form of World Series betting market with unique prop bets introduced every year.

MLB Draft

The MLB Draft is a highly-anticipated event that occurs in the middle of the MLB season each year, and there is no shortage of bets that can be made on it.

The draft carries prop bets almost exclusively as bettors can wager on who they believe the first, second, and third overall picks will be, for example. Some operators also offer wagering options that pit two draft prospects against one another with odds for each player on who will be the first one drafted between the pair.

College Baseball Betting

In recent years, college baseball betting has become somewhat popular as an alternative to MLB betting.

Because of the large number of Division I college baseball teams, there are many games each year that can be wagered on.

The same principles and wager types can be found in college baseball betting as they are in MLB in most cases. If bettors have a full grasp of MLB betting, they are incentivized to try their hand at college baseball betting as well.