Major League Baseball is the highest professional level of baseball you can find worldwide. The season is a long hard fought battle for one of the few playoff spots that allow a team to play for the World Series in the fall. The season contains so many games that there are seemingly endless opportunities to bet on MLB baseball from April right through until October.
Online sportsbooks are the best place to bet on the MLB because they offer the most competitive lines, widest variety of betting options, biggest bonuses and overall best MLB betting experience. The three sportsbooks I have outlined below are each extremely good choices for MLB bettors and like all sportsbooks recommended here at BetOnIt.org they are trustworthy and have a strong reputation in the industry.
Best Sportsbooks for Betting On MLB
- Built for American bettors
- Wide variety of competitive betting lines
- Easy to navigate betting platform
- Accepts players worldwide
- Competitive betting lines
- Fast & easy deposits and withdrawals (including Bitcoin)
How To Bet On Major League Baseball Online
Betting on MLB baseball is simple and straight forward, but to make it even easier to get started check out the step by step guide below:
Bet On MLB – Step By Step Guide
1. Register for an Online Sports Betting Account – Visit one of our three recommended MLB sportsbooks listed above and open a new account. This will only take a minute and you will only have to provide basic information such as your name and email address.
2. Fund Your Account – After you have created your account you will need to add some money in order to start betting on baseball. There are many deposit methods to choose from. Credit card deposits are generally the most popular, but there are also a wide variety of cryptocurrency, e-wallet and bank transfer options if you aren’t willing to use your credit card online. If you run into any troubles depositing contact customer support and they will be quick to help.
3. Place Your MLB Bets – Now head over to the MLB betting section of the sportsbook, select the bet you want to make, enter your wager amount on the Bet Slip, and click ‘Place Bet’ to lock in your wager. It’s that easy.
Types of MLB Bets
Run line and money line bets are the two most common forms of baseball wagers.
With run line bets the underdog is given a handicap (usually 1.5 runs) to even out the playing field. A run line bet on the underdog then wins if the underdog either wins the game outright or loses by fewer runs than the run line, while a run line bet on the favorite wins if they cover the spread.
Money line bets involve betting on which team will win the game outright. The odds for each team determine the payout.
Here is a an example with both the run line and money line odds:
In this example the New York Yankees are big favorites. Their money line odds are -292, which means a bet of $292 on the Yankees would win $100 if they won the game. Their run line odds are -140, but for a run line bet on the Yankees to win they would have to win the game by 2 or more runs. If this did happen then a $140 wager on the Yankees (-1.5) would win $100.
The Orioles are +259 underdogs, so a $100 bet on the Orioles would win $259 (payout $359) if they pulled off the upset. You could also bet the Orioles run line bet at odds of +120. That bet would win $120 for every $100 wagered if the Orioles either won the game or lost by 1 run.
Total runs is another popular betting options where you wager on how many total runs will be scored in the game. The sportsbook sets a number and you wager on whether there will be more or fewer than that number of runs scored. In the above example the over/under on the runs was set at 8.
MLB Betting Tips
Here are a few tips to help you win money right out of the gate betting on MLB baseball.
- Compare Odds – You will see this tip on a lot of pages here at BetOnIt.org, but it is especially true with baseball. There are so many games throughout the season that it becomes that much more important to always bet at the best line available. A 10 cent difference on 200 games throughout the season will add up fast.
- Do Research – Baseball is something of a chess match when it comes to pitching and hitting. You should always be aware of who the starting pitcher is for each team and how they match up against the hitters they will be facing. The more knowledge you have the better your chances are of beating the bookies.
You can also check out our sports betting tips page for more general tips that can also be applied to MLB betting.
To keep up to date on scores, injuries and more I suggest visiting the official MLB website.