How to Bet on the Moneyline

To begin with let’s quickly explain the difference between the moneyline and the points spread. While in both types of wager you are betting on which team to win, the moneyline offers no points spread at all meaning that you are backing a team or an individual to win a sporting contest outright. Moneylines, on first glance can seem a lot more complicated than they actually are, with odds that appear a little nonsensical, however they are in fact pretty easy to understand.

Looking at a typical example of a moneyline you will see something like this...

New York Giants +120
Dallas Cowboys -130

The team that are favorites to win will always be that team with the minus number, so in the above example this would be the Cowboys, with this making the Giants the underdog and having the + sign. This means that should you wish to win $100 on the Cowboys you need to wager $130, and should you bet $100 on the Giants you would win $120. At this point it is worth pointing out that you do not have to either wager, or wish to win $100 and no matter what the size of your wager the odds are the same, i.e should you bet $10 on the Giants, you would win $12. Most US online sportsbooks will tell you exactly how much you are risking and how much you stand to win before you confirm your bet, and this is where you should double check your bet before placing it.

Moneylines are Everywhere

You will see moneyline wagering options on all sports and while in sports such as Football and Basketball you will also see the points spread, some sports, where the scores are low you may only have the moneyline option meaning that you’ll see a whole lot of the moneyline. Remember also that when using the moneyline in Football and Basketball that the odds are very different than when using the points spread, in fact what you are doing when placing a moneyline bet is exchanging the points for the different odds. When thinking of a moneyline in this way it is sometimes worth looking at the points spread and the moneyline and if you’re being offered a much better price on the moneyline than you are getting for a small advantage on the spread, then the moneyline is a bet worth thinking about.