MLB Odds: How To Read and Bet MLB Odds

Major League Baseball is one of the most popular sports to bet on in the US. For that reason, all online sportsbooks worth their salt offer a variety of betting markets covering almost all aspects of the sport. Whether you want to predict the winning team, the winning margin, or the total number of runs that will be scored, there are MLB odds available that will allow you to do exactly that.

On this page, you can view MLB live odds for all of the games coming up. You can also learn how each of the main betting markets works so that you know how to make the most of them.

MLB Moneyline Odds

The moneyline betting market is one of the easiest to understand because it simply requires you to predict which team will win a particular game. MLB odds will be given for each of the two teams in the game, and those odds will be prefixed by either a plus sign (+) or a minus sign (-). Consider the following example:

Here, the odds for the Yankees are prefixed with a plus sign. That means you would need to bet $100 to make a profit equal to the odds offered if they win. The stated odds are +130, so if you were to wager $100 you would win $130. You would also get your $100 stake back.

The odds for the Dodgers are prefixed with a minus sign. That is because they are the favorites for the game. When betting on odds with a minus sign, you would need to bet the stated figure in dollars in order to make a profit of $100 if they win. The stated odds here are -130, so you would need to wager $130 to make a profit of $100. Again, you would also get your $130 stake back.

MLB Run Line Odds

You will often hear bettors talk about the 'point spread' betting market. In Major League Baseball, the same market is referred to as the run line. Here the sportsbook tries to offer similar MLB odds about each team by giving the underdog a theoretical advantage and giving the favorite a theoretical disadvantage of equal size. Consider the following:

We have already established that the Yankees are the underdogs in this game. It is for that reason that the sportsbook has given the team a theoretical +1.5 run advantage. At the same time, the Dodgers, who are the favorites, have been given a -1.5 run handicap.

You can bet on either team in exactly the same way as in the moneyline market. However, before your bet is settled the advantage or handicap will be applied to the final score.

Bet on the Yankees and their score will be theoretically increased by 1.5 runs. They would therefore need to win the game or lose by no more than one run in order for your bet to succeed.

Similarly, bet on the Dodgers and their score will be decreased by 1.5 runs. That means they would need to win by at least two runs for your bet to succeed.

MLB Totals Odds

While the moneyline and run line markets require you to side with one team or the other, the totals betting market only requires you to make a prediction about the total number of runs that will be scored. The sportsbook will publish its own prediction, and your job is to bet on whether the total number of runs will be Over or Under that prediction. That's why this market is also known as the Over/Under.

Here you can see that the sportsbook is offering MLB odds on Over or Under 7.5 runs. If you think that the combined number of runs achieved by both teams will be 8 or more, you would bet Over. If you think that the total number of runs will be 7 or less, you would bet Under. As you'd expect, if your prediction is correct, your bet wins.

MLB Futures

Futures bets are ones made about events that will be determined in the medium to long term. For example, you will see MLB odds being offered for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the season or who will be named MLB Rookie of the Year. 

These future betting markets are quite volatile, and the odds will change as the season unfolds to reflect the performance of the teams concerned. As you would expect, correctly predicting outcomes so far in advance is a lot more challenging than picking the winner of a game this week, but the odds offered about them tend to reflect that.

MLB Parlays and Props

Another two popular bets in Major League Baseball are parlays and propositional bets. These bets are also somewhat tricky to land, but for their own reasons.

Parlay Bets

Parlay bets involve making a series of unrelated predictions and betting that they will all be correct. For example, you might make a parlay bet comprising three different moneyline predictions. Or you might combine a moneyline prediction, a totals prediction, and a run line prediction in a single parlay.

The payouts for successful parlays are great, but all of your predictions have to be correct for your bet to win. Even one incorrect prediction will cause the whole parlay bet to lose.

Prop Bets

Prop bets tend to be riskier than the others that we have discussed. They tend to focus on outcomes that are unrelated to the overall result of a game. For example, some prop bets you could see are:

• The score at the end of the first inning.
• Over/under total strikeouts by a pitcher.
• Whether or not a certain player will hit a home run.
• The score after the first five innings.
• Over/under on runs, hits, or errors in the first inning.

There is a wide variety of prop bets that can be made, and many are offered by sportsbooks just for the fun of it. However, because of the greater risk they involve, they are not something that most bettors take particularly seriously. When prop bets are made by serious bettors, only modest stakes tend to be used.