The basics of betting baseball - A beginner's guide

Major League Baseball is back. With legalized sports betting available in 27 states (and Washington), America's pastime may induce more bettors than ever before. And with a full 162-game season on tap, there are plenty of betting opportunities.

Football and basketball make life easy for bettors, as a point spread is the great equalizer and fairly easy to follow. If you bet on a team that is a five-point favorite, that team must win by at least six points for you to win the bet. A bet on the underdog necessitates that team to win the game or lose by four points or less. If the favorite wins by exactly five points, bets placed on either side are refunded. Baseball betting requires a little more math but it is less confusing and intimidating than many realize.

Here are the basics for betting baseball:

Baseball betting primarily revolves around the odds for a team to win, also known as a money line. Everything is in relation to $100.

So if the New York Yankees are playing the Detroit Tigers, the Yanks might be -250 favorites. The minus sign denotes the favored team, much like we see with a point spread, and means that you must risk $250 for every $100 you want to win. That's because the Yankees are considered to have a better starting pitcher and/or lineup, among other reasons. In this example, the Tigers are +200 underdogs, which means that if you risk $100 on Detroit, you win $200 if it upsets New York.

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Baseball also incorporates a point spread, and it is commonly known as a run line. Using the