Well, it’s the beginning of April and for sports fans that can only mean one thing: the boys of summer are back and America’s favorite pastime is just getting started. This is the time of year that the marathon known as the Major League Baseball season begins until a World Series winner is crowned in late October or early November.
Not only exciting for fans cheering on their favorite teams, but also for sports betting professionals, the start of baseball season offers another profitable opportunity for sports betting. Although baseball doesn’t get as much action as, say, the more popular sports like football or basketball, it can still be the most profitable and one that shouldn’t be overlooked if you want to make money from sports betting.
Although I mention that betting on baseball can be profitable, you still need to proceed with caution. There are still plenty of people who lose a lot of money season after season betting on baseball, but it is largely due to the fact that they don’t know what they are doing.
So why are they losing?
There are probably several reasons, but in my opinion it is because they are making the wrong bets. When it comes to betting on traditional sports like soccer or basketball, you are betting against the spread. So it doesn’t really matter if you bet on favorite or underdog, the price you pay is typically -110 and your team only needs to cover the point spread. With spread bets, you must win more than 52.7% and you will be in profit.
When betting on baseball, there is no point spread, so a money line is used instead. While it’s easier to pick the winners, sometimes the favorites of the uprising can cost you a small fortune when they lose, and they will lose from time to time. Let’s take a closer look at how these numbers work.
If you only bet on the big favorites this season with average odds of -200, then your breakeven point would be 66.7%. Sure you’d probably end up winning more games than you lost, but even if you won 2/3 of your games, you’ll show a loss on the season.
On the other side of the coin, if you were to find something valuable under the dogs at +200 average odds, you would only need to win a little over 1/3 of your games to still show some late-season gains. Just remember that good teams lose and bad teams win. Good luck!
