Money line bets can seem a little confusing at first, especially for the bettor who has traditionally wagered their money on the point spread. The money line is actually the most straightforward bet you can have on any sport. Whilst the spread bet is on a team to win and by how many, the money line is a bet on simply a team to win. Money Line – How it Works. Here is a typical money line for a game in the NFL: Green Bay.

The Three-Way Moneyline in Soccer Wagers in soccer are decided after full-time, which refers to the full 90 minutes on the clock, plus any additional time that is added by the referee for injuries, stoppages, or any other reason. Money line bets are possibly the simplest form of sports betting. Money line bets do not use point spreads like straight bets do. Instead, your job is to pick the winning team with no concern to the score. Since one team may be heavily favored over their opponent, odds for each team are different.

Money line bets are possibly the simplest form of sports betting. Money line bets do not use point spreads like straight bets do. Instead, your job is to pick the winning team with no concern to the score. Since one team may be heavily favored over their opponent, odds for each team are different. It may seem confusing at first, but money line bets are very easy to understand.

Except in situations where opponents are considered an even matchup, the favorite will have a negative (-) money line and the underdog will have a positive (+) money line. Negative money lines indicate the amount of money needed to wager to win $100 in profit. Positive money lines indicate the amount of money that can be won from a $100 wager.

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Example:

Colorado Rockies -160

Arizona Diamondbacks +140

In this case, the Colorado Rockies are the favorite, and bettors need to wager $160 to win $100 in profit, for a total payout of $260.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are the underdog, and a wager of $100 will produce a profit of $140, for a total payout of $240.

Always think of money line bets based on $100 figures. Negative (-) means how much is needed to wager in order to win $100, and positive (+) means how much can be won on a $100 wager.

Occasionally, two teams or competitors that are very evenly matched may produce two negative money lines.

Betting

Example:

New York Yankees -115

Boston Red Sox -105

In this case, the Yankees are considered a very slight favorite. It would require a $115 bet on the Yankees to produce a $100 profit ($215 total return). The Red Sox would require a $105 bet to produce a $100 profit ($205 total return).

Money Line Vigorish

The term vigorish means ‘house take’, also called vig or juice. This is the money the sportsbook or bookie makes for taking the wager. Let’s use the Yankees/Red Sox example from above for this explanation.

If a sportsbook takes 1000, $100 bets on the Yankees and the Yankees win, the sportsbook would pay out $87 profit to each bettor (100/115 odds = .87%. $100 X .87% = $87). So a Yankees win would result in a total pay out of $87,000 in player profits.

From 1000 Red Sox bettors who also placed $100 average bets, the sportsbook would collect $100,000. $100,000 collected minus $87,000 paid out = $13,000 profit.

Now, let’s turn this into a Red Sox win instead. 1000 bets of $100 on the Red Sox would pay out $95 profit per bettor (100/105 odds = .95%. $100 X .95% = $95). In this case the sportsbook would pay out a total of $95,000.

What Does A Money Line Mean In Betting

From the Yankees bettors, 1000 bets averaging $100 each would result in a $100,000 collection. $100,000 collected minus $95,000 paid out = $5000 profit for the sportsbook.

In each case, the sportsbook made money. Since a sportsbooks goal is to make money on every bet, they’re trying to create bets that will split the bettors down the middle. When that happens, they guarantee themselves a profit. If they come up with odds that cause a higher % of bettors to bet on one team, the book opens themselves up to potential losses.

What Does A Money Line Mean

Popular Sports for Money Line Bets

Sports like auto racing, horse racing, MMA and boxing do not use points. Without points a point spread can’t be created, so money line bets are the most popular way to bet on these types of sports. While tennis is scored with points, results are determined by sets won, not a point total. This means that tennis must also use money lines.

Money lines are also the most popular way to bet on low scoring sports like baseball, soccer and hockey. The reason is because with low scoring sports it’s difficult to predict a result. One run or one goal can easily be the difference between a win or loss, so betting on a point spread doesn’t make sense.

While straight bets using a point spread are most popular for high scoring sports like football and basketball, money line bets are available as well. Straight bets are used to even out the odds, offering 11/10 odds on any team you choose. With money line bets, there is no point spread and your goal is to simply pick the winning team. Since one team may be heavily favored against their opponent, the money lines offer a much wider range of odds.

Example:

Philadelphia Eagles -170

San Fransisco 49ers +150

What Does Money Line Mean On Bet365

In this game, a $170 bet is required to win $100 on the Eagles ($270 total return). A bet of $100 on the 49ers would result in a $150 profit ($250 total return).

As you can see, betting on the favorite requires a much larger bet for a smaller win. The underdog requires a smaller bet for a larger win. It makes perfect sense since the underdog is not expected to win.

What is a Money Line or Straight Up Wager?

A Money Line or straight up wager is a bet on the outright winner of the game or event, without any point spread odds. A Money Line better doesn't have to worry about a team winning or losing by a certain number of points.

What Does A Negative Moneyline Mean

Oddsmakers still determine a favorite and an underdog by the overall strength of the competitor, but the odds given are based on the amount of money that needs to be put up in order to place the bet.

Example:

Moneyline Betting Calculator

The bettor will receive odds that resemble these:

Colts –140

Bears +120

The (-) symbolizes which team is the favorite and the (+) indicates which team is the underdog. So in the above example, the Colts are the favorite and the Bears are the underdog. All the bettor is wagering on is who he or she thinks will win the game.

If one were to bet on the Colts, he or she would have to risk $140 to win $100 (or $105 to win $75; $70 to win $50, etc). If one were to bet on the Bears, he or she would only have to risk $83.33 to win $100 (or $62.50 to win $75; $41.67 to win $50, etc).

What Does A Money Line Means

So while the Colts are the favorite to win the game, one would have to risk more money if they wanted to bet on them.