One of the first type of bets to be introduced was the moneyline bet, and is arguably the most basic of bets available. You are betting on whether certain outcomes would happen or not, like whether Team A or B would win straight-up.
Moneylines are particularly useful for sports where there isn’t a lot of scoring, like baseball, hockey and soccer. Understanding how moneylines work is also essential if you want to figure out point spreads, props and all the other ways you can get your money down at Bovada.
How Do Moneylines Work?
Moneylines are a form of fixed-odds betting, where the odds you get at the time of your wager are the same odds used to calculate your payout when you win.
Opening moneyline odds are posted for an event before it starts, usually well in advance so that people have time to place their wagers.
There numerous factors that can cause the odds to move up or down, such as breaking news or strong action in the betting market. Again, any line moves that happen after you place your bet have no effect on your potential payout.
Once the event in question is about to begin, the moneyline odds are taken off the board, and the betting is closed. Then the event takes place, the results are determined, and the winning bettors receive their payouts from the book.
What Do Moneylines Look Like?
There are three commonly used ways to express moneyline odds: decimal odds, fractional odds, and American odds.
For an example of American odds, here’s a hypothetical matchup between LA Rams and Cincinnati Bengals:
LA Rams –210
Cincinnati Bengals +175
The numbers to the right of the team names are the moneyline odds, with the Rams listed as the –210 favorites and the Bengals as the +175 underdogs.
In almost every moneyline bet, you’ll see one team with a negative sign next to their odds, and one with a positive sign. The negative sign indicates the favorite; here, the Rams were expected to win, and if they did, they would pay out $100 for every $210 wagered (smaller and larger bets are allowed).
The positive sign indicates the underdog, which is Cincinnati in this case. They would pay out $175 for every $100 wagered with an upset win over Los Angeles – except it was the Rams winning 23-20. The Bengals actually beat the spread as 3.5-point underdogs, but the Rams prevailed on the moneyline.
How Do I Bet The Moneyline?
When you log in to your Bovada account and visit the odds page for your chosen sport, you’ll be presented with a list of events you can bet on.
For a sport like football, you’ll be shown each of the three “straight” or “single” bets on the board: Spread, Win, and Total.
The Win option is where the moneylines are. For a sport like boxing or MMA, only the Win option is shown; however, you can tap/click through to see the props and any other bets for these events.
