Sports gamblers everywhere are waiting on the “busy season”. Let’s get something straight right now, it is the busy season! There never is much downtime in sports and most gamblers and sports fans refer to “a busy season” as football season. True; the NFL and the NCAA football seasons are right around the corner and when they both get underway, the season will be “busier” then it is now, however, right now is a very busy time in the world of sports and sports gambling. There are fantastic sporting events going on as we speak. The NBA is closing out the Conference Championships, the NHL is kicking off the Stanley Cup Finals, and MLB is well in the thick of the regular season along with the PGA (U.S. Open less than a month out). Every weekend there is NASCAR, Tennis, Indy Series Racing and so much more. In sports gambling, the busy season is always today!
For many of you, you are not serious gamblers, you like to bet on a great game every now and then or an event such at the upcoming Belmont Stakes which has a possible Triple Crown winner in “Justify”. Sports gambling may not be a passion or way of life for you, but you do enjoy it and you see the potential earnings. You may or may not know all of the fancy gambling terms and for that matter, you may not really know how to gamble. There are a plethora of wagering options available on a daily basis and the online bookies have made this possible, they have set the standard and Vegas has scrambled to keep up the pace. With so many wagering options available, it would be impossible to cover them all, so we want to focus on one: Moneylines. Remember to find more wagering tips in the “How to Bet” section of your friendly online bookie.
What is a moneyline bet, for gambling purposes, what does moneyline mean?
With the “Big Six”, NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball, moneyline wagers work basically under the same blanket or the same concept. Moneyline means that the oddsmakers, wherever they may be, (Las Vegas or Offshore) they set a negative or plus (- +) number on any given sporting event. The oddsmakers set the moneyline according to the strengths of one team against another team and the probabilities of one team beating another. Confusing? Check out the example below:
NBA Basketball—
Dallas Mavericks vs. Phoenix Suns
Dallas + 145 Phoenix –170
Sports Betting What does + 145 and – 170 mean? These may just be numbers on paper if you are not familiar with a moneyline wager:
We have established that the oddsmakers don’t like the Mavericks chances in this game, thus a plus number at + 145 and the Suns a minus number at –170. Anytime you see a minus sign – before a number, this means they are the favorite for the game and a plus number + means, that team is the underdog.
Think of the numbers in terms of money because that’s exactly what it is we are dealing with; money. If you like the Mavericks chances and you disagree with the oddsmakers and choose to bet… for every one dollar that you play ($1.00), you will win $1.45 or for every $100 that you play, you will win $145, plus your $100 back. If you do not like the Mavericks and you want to bet on the Suns… you will need to bet $170 to win $100. This is how extremely confident that the oddsmakers are when it comes to the Suns chances of winning this game.
Moneyline wagering works the same and this concept is carried over to all of the “Big Six” sports, MLB, NFL, NHL, and NCAA Basketball/Football. When you bet the moneyline, you are either taking a risk on the underdog or you are (in the eyes of the oddsmakers) not taking a risk and betting on the favorite. There is no point spread of any kind to cover and for this reason, gamblers love betting the moneyline, it’s win or lose. You simply need the team to come up with a win and you take home the cash.