What is a Moneyline Bet? | Moneyline Betting

It is by far one of the easiest sports betting options available, where your only job is to select a winner of the game. You can pick team one or team two, fighter one or fighter two, player one or player two. It’s as easy as that.

Unless otherwise specified in the book's terms and conditions, moneyline bets "push" if the game ends in a tie, but most games in popular North American sports don’t result in a tie. If you bet on an outcome, it includes overtimes and shootouts, so you won’t have to worry about your bet pushing from regulation ties. Soccer offers a three-way money line bet that will allow you to pick the tie option if you feel drawn to do so.

Moneyline betting is the most common type for new betting site users. It’s a great starting point if you aren’t generally familiar with betting. However, you likely have been unknowingly making small unofficial moneyline bets with friends over the years by picking which team you think will win the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup.

You need to look at the odds when placing a moneyline bet. Moneyline betting odds will show you which team which team is favored and how likely that team is to win. The larger the number, the bigger the underdog or favorite.

They can also show you how much you need to wager to win $100 or how much you might win off of a $100 bet.

Moneyline odds can be displayed in a few different odds formats. American odds tend to be the most commonly viewed odds format in North America.

There are also Decimal and Fractional odds that you may find easier to understand.

I'll include examples of what each odds display looks like.

American odds will be displayed in the hundreds or thousands with a plus or minus sign. That sign will show you how big of an underdog a team is or how favored a team is.

American odds in moneyline betting will show you a quick way to calculate your winnings on a $100 wager. With the favored team, you will need to bet the odds amount to win $100. If the favored team’s negative odds are set at -225, you have identified that the team is the favorite because of the negative symbol. Now you can see that you will need to wager $225 to win $100. 

You can obviously bet any amount, but this shows that you will need to wager quite a lot to win any substantial amount.

If you want to bet on an underdog that has odds of +400, you will have identified the underdog by the plus sign. These moneyline odds will show you that you will need to wager $100 to win $400 on this team, as they are less likely to win, so you’re taking a risk for a potentially big reward.

Again, you can bet any amount; this is just an easy way to examine positive odds and determine how much you'd win on a $100 wager.

Another popular moneyline odds format in which you can view your wagers is the decimal odds format. Decimal moneyline odds are popular in European countries and have been commonplace for decades. The decimal number will essentially show you how much you would win for each dollar you bet. All you have to do is deduct the dollar from the decimal amount.

If you are looking to bet on a baseball game, and the odds look like this...

Washington Nationals (2.85) vs. Philadelphia Phillies (1.47)

...this means that the Phillies are favored to win this game, and the Nationals are the underdog. By looking at these odds, you can determine how much you would potentially win by looking at the decimal odds.

For each dollar bet on the Nationals, you would win $1.85 (don’t forget to deduct your dollar; it will be returned to you with your winnings though). On a $10 wager, your total payout would be $28.50.

For each dollar bet on the Phillies, you would win $0.47. If you bet $10, you would return $14.70.

Favorites are not as clear-cut and easy to spot as they are in American odds because the plus and minus symbols are easy to read. In this case, you actually have to look at the numbers. The higher the number, the bigger the underdog and eventual payout.

Fractional odds are most commonly used in the United States and Canada to look at horse betting sites. However, you can use this format for any type of sport. These odds are displayed as a fraction and require some math skills to determine how much you’d win.

The numerator is the top or left number, and the denominator is the bottom or right number. You will have to multiply your stake by the numerator and then divide that result by the denominator.

Let’s look at an example: New York Yankees 7/6 vs. Tampa Bay Rays 11/14

The Tampa Bay Rays are the favorite in this game, but only slightly. If you were to bet $20 on them, the calculation would look like this: $20 x 11 = 220.

Then you would divide by the denominator amount = 220 / 14 = $15.71

Your total winning bet would equal $35.71.

A bet on the Yankees (the underdogs) would pay out a little more.

$20 x 7 = 140

140 / 6 =$23.33

Your total winnings would equal $43.33.

If you see odds like -110, this is essentially what the sportsbook needs to charge not to lose money on the wager. You would bet $110 to win $100, giving the sportsbook their small cut and nearly doubling your money.

This amount is standard across many different betting options and is close to being even odds; it just allows the oddsmaker to not cut a loss on that wager.

Now that we understand the different odds formats for moneyline betting, we can examine how moneyline odds function for different sports. I'll also provide some tips and strategies for moneyline betting on each of the major leagues below.

Now that you understand how moneyline odds work, you can start picking winners. Your first step will be to find the best sportsbooks for your moneyline bets. Luckily, we have plenty of sportsbook reviews for you as a bettor to browse.

We identify essential criteria that we ourselves look for in an excellent sportsbook, so you don’t have to. These sportsbook reviews are subjective and outline deposit options, bonuses, security, and customer service, to name a few.

All sportsbooks offer moneyline odds, but we want to ensure that you have the best online sports betting experience possible, so we recommend using our Gambling.com reviews to help to choose.