Major League Baseball is the oldest of North America’s four major sports. It was born in 1876 when the National League first organized, while the American League came to life in 1900. By contrast, the NHL didn’t launch until 1917, the NFL came to be in 1920 and it wasn’t until 1946 that the NBA was born. The first World Series was held in 1903, with Pittsburgh representing the NL and Boston the AL. That was more than 60 years prior to the initial Super Bowl game between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs.
Thanks to the Toronto Blue Jays, World Series champions in 1992 and 1993, Major League Baseball is the only one of three U.S.-born major North American sports to be international in flavour in terms of teams that have won a title.
From 1903-53, just 16 teams – eight in the American League and eight in the National League – populated the Major Leagues, and these teams were housed in only 10 cities, with no teams further west than St. Louis.
In 1953, the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee and in 1964, the St. Louis Browns relocated to Baltimore and became the Orioles. Significant change was just ahead, and in 1957 the Brooklyn Dodgers left for Los Angeles and the New York Giants moved to San Francisco. Major League Baseball was truly a coast-to-coast entity for the first time. Today there are 30 teams in Major League baseball’s six divisions, 15 clubs in each league.
Best MLB Betting Lines
No sport offers up the smorgasbord of betting opportunities that Major League Baseball does. The chance to bet on games is seemingly endless. There are 30 big-league teams – 15 each in the American and National Leagues – and they each play 162 regular-season games between late March and early October. Do the math and that works out to 2,430 games per season, and we haven’t even taken into account postseason play.
That means oodles of betting action every day. There are no lazy, hazy days of summer for the baseball bettor, just a never-ending forecast featuring opportunities to cash in a winning wager. Professional bettors view baseball as the sport that offers the greatest opportunity to turn a profit, because with so many games in play each day, the smart bettor that does their homework is bound to unearth a gem of a wager most every day.
Another beautiful asset to betting on baseball is that it is the sport that provides the most in-depth statisical information. Baseball was into analytics long before the other sports had ever heard of the word. Stay ahead of the betting game by referencing the up-to-date MLB game odds on a regular basis. We can guarantee it will help your overall betting returns.
More sub competitions
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How To Bet On AL Central -
How To Bet On AL East
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How To Bet On AL West
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How To Bet On MLB Postseason
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How To Bet On MLB World Series
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How To Bet On National League
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How To Bet On National League Central
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How To Bet On National League East
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How To Bet On National League West
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How To Bet On The American League
What Are The MLB standings
Here is where you will find the Major League Baseball standings and they are a wealth of information to the baseball bettor. You can instantly figure out which teams are enjoying homestands and which teams are enduring road trips. The data provided will tell the teams that are homers, meaning they are dominantly successful in their own ballpark, and which teams are capable of taking their show on the road and maintaining their winning ways.
Study the standings with a fine-toothed comb and you will unearth data that will reveal to you where the smart-money wagers are located. At MLB.com, some of the added statistical columns at your disposal include runs for and against, so you can see which teams are productive and which keep the opponents from piling up the runs. Check a team’s record against lefty and righty starting pitchers, and then correlate the info with that day’s pitching matchups.
An interesting nugget to devour is the X-W/L column. This calculates what a team’s won-loss record should be based on their runs for and aganist. This data enables you to determine the teams that are underachieving and the teams that are playing above their heads. Each team’s record against teams with records above .500 are also calculated.
Online Tips For MLB Bettors
Here are some things to look out for when betting on the MLB:
Seek out teams playing day games after night games, or perhaps playing a doubleheader to make up for a rained out game. Often during these scenarios, a team may recall a pitcher from the minor leagues to start one game of the twinbill so as not to disrupt to the routine of the club's regular five starters. This can be a chance to capitalize in terms of a wager.
Another factor to keep in mind is where the game is being played. Unlike the other North American big-league sports with their cookie-cutter stadiums and arenas, MLB ballparks are rife with quirks and idiosyncracies that can help one team and hinder another.
Boston's Fenway Park, with its famous Green Monster in left field, is a prime example of this. Detroit's Comerica Park, with its cavernous center field, is a pitcher's best friend, but the mile high altitude of Colorado's Coors Field enables balls to sail out of the park with regularity.
Lefty-righty match-ups are another scenario where you can locate a winning opportunity. Is a team's ace southpaw about to go head to head with an opponent featuring a lefty-loaded batting order? The analytics of that situation suggest that the odds will be in his favour.
Check for the best odds to bet on baseball at any of our partner sportsbooks listed below:
MLB Bet Types
There are a number of ways to bet on Major League Baseball. The moneyline is the easiest one, a straight bet on the outcome. Moneylines are established based on what a $100 bet would pay. Say, for example, the Chicago Cubs are playing the New York Mets.
If the Cubs were listed at +115, that would mean they were favoured and you'd be required to wager $115 to win $100. On the other hand, let's say the Mets are listed at -105. That means they are the underdog and you'd win $105 for every $100 you wagered.
You can also play a parlay, a wager on a number of games. Naturally, since you'd need to win more than one game, the odds of success will be longer, but when it cashes it will pay off handsomely. Total wagering is also popular. Each MLB game is assigned a number, which is the projection of total runs to be scored in that game. You bet on whether the teams will go over or under that total.
The run line is another type of baseball bet. In almost all cases, the run line on an MLB game will be 1.5, although on rare occasions it will jump to 2.5. Here's how run line wagering works:
Say the Cincinnati Reds are listed at +1.5, playing the St. Louis Cardinals at -1.5. If you bet Cinci, you are getting 1.5 runs, so even if the Reds lose by a run, youl still cash a winning ticket. But if you bet the Cardinals, they must win by more than 1.5 runs in order for you to also be a winner.