Beginner’s Guide to Baseball Pro Bets

Baseball is known as the “American Pastime,” and while there are plenty of other major sports, it earned that title through a long and illustrious history. Baseball was first organized in the 1840s, and professional “major league” baseball began in 1869. Other sports may be more popular in terms of spectators these days, but baseball remains extremely popular. In particular, baseball is incredibly popular with bettors. 

The reasons for the sport’s enduring popularity with bettorsare two-fold. To begin with, the MLB season consists of 162 games for each of the thirty teams in the league. This comes to a total of more than two thousand games, which means a huge number of opportunities to find good value in the odds and make money. That’s just in the MLB. Many sportsbooks will also take bets on baseball games in central America and all over the world. 

Aside from offering a wider range of games than a lot of other sports like football, baseball also features a greater reliance on statistics and data than most games. Teams have been using data, sometimes known as sabermetrics, to evaluate players and the likely outcomes of games for many years. Fans have greater access to data than ever before, and in the right hands, this can be very useful. 

If you’d like to start betting on baseball, you can find a good online sportsbook at PlayOhio.com. You can also read through this guide to help you get started making pro baseball bets. 

Types of Baseball Bets

There are a few main types of bets in baseball, which are fairly similar to what you’ll find in other sports. However, there are some differences.

• Moneyline – The moneyline bet is a bet on the final outcome of the game. You can pick the home side or the away side, and the team that wins will determine the outcome of your bet. This is the simplest betting choice, although it’s usually not the best value. 

• Run line – The run line is known as the point spread in other sports. While betting on the run line can be more rewarding, it is less recommended in baseball. This is due to the fact that home-field advantage isn’t as important as it is in other sports, and pitchers typically influence the outcome, making it unpredictable.

• Totals – Totals is a bet on the total number of runs scored in the game. You choose whether you want to bet over or under a certain number and will win the bet depending on how many runs are scored. This is one of the best options for baseball betting, although you’ll have to pay close attention to the stats. 

• Props – Aside from betting on the outcome of a match, you can also bet on individual outcomes. Prop bets are bets such as a certain player scoring a home run and are an interesting alternative to traditional bets. There is often a lot of value to find here, provided you evaluate each situation carefully.

Important Factors You Need to Consider

Before placing your first bet, it’s always important to do the right amount of research and consider different factors that can affect the game. These include:

• Injuries – Always check the injury reports before the game to see if any players are missing due to injury or if anyone is just coming back. 

• Ballpark – The ballpark that’s hosting the game can have a big impact on how the game is played. Some ballparks are better for high-run-scoring games than others.

• Weather – The weather will always affect play, with colder weather typically meaning fewer runs are scored.