Overview
Baseball is commonly known as America’s pastime. While baseball isn’t nearly as popular around the world as some other sports, it still remains one of the top three sports in the United States, with Americans tuning in or attending games every spring and summer to watch their favorite team.
Brief History
MLB began in 1903 after the National League and American League merged. Theleagues were independent of one another prior to the merge, with the NL formed in 1876 and the AL established in 1901.
Before the merger, the American League was based in the Midwest, however it moved its teams to the East, where the National League was prominent, to try to take star players from the NL to the AL, therefore igniting a ‘baseball war.’
In 1902, the leagues and the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues signed a National Agreement that stopped teams from poaching players and created the World Series, first played in 1903, where the winners of each league faced off to decide a national champion.
There are 15 teams in the National League and 15 teams in the American League and teams compete in a 162-game regular season to determine who will make it to the playoffs.
Within each league, there are three divisions, the East, West and Central, with five teams in each division. Teams with the best record in each division make the playoffs, with three additional teams in each league also making the playoffs due to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
In the playoffs, the top two teams in each league will receive a bye, while the remaining teams will face each other in a best-of-three Wild-Card series. Those winners will advance to the Division Series, with teams competing in a best-of-five series to advance to the League Championship Series.
In the LCS, the remaining teams in each league compete in a best-of-seven series, with the winner going to the World Series, where a champion is crowned after another best-of-seven series.
How MLB Regular Season Odds Work
There are many ways people can bet on the MLB regular season. The three main ways are moneyline, run spreads and run total.
The moneyline is fairly easy to understand, as it is similar to other sports and has fans betting on who will win. If a team is favored to win, they will have negative odds, while the underdog gets positive odds.
The run spread, or runline, is similar to point spreads in football or basketball. The runline is a bet that means a team must win by or lose by less than a certain number of runs.
If a team is favored, they must win by more than the runline for the bet to cash out, while if the team is the underdog, they must win or lose by less than the run spread for the bet to win.
Fans can also bet the over/under on the run total, which is pretty straightforward. Odds are based on the total number of runs scored in the game between both teams.
If gamblers think the total number of runs will be more than the number given, they bet the over, while if they believe the runs scored will be less, they take the under.
BetUS Offer
BetUS offers all MLB games for wagering and offers a one-time deposit bonus for new customers.
BetUS offers a one-time re-up bonus for customers who use cryptocurrency to deposit into their accounts for current customers, so whether you want to use cryptocurrency or cash, BetUS has you covered.
Betting Strategy
When betting on baseball, fans should know a few different things about the team and game in order to be successful.
Bettors should take into account who is pitching for each team and how they have done recently, especially when betting the over/under and runline, as a relief pitcher could be known for giving up lots of runs at the end of the game and adding to the total.
The weather can also play an important role in baseball, as a windy or rainy day can affect how well hitters perform.
Schedule can also play a factor in betting, as the baseball season is long and tiring. A team coming off a rest day or in the middle of a homestand is expected to perform better than a team who is at the end of a road trip, as they are likely to be tired from travel.
Overall, when betting on baseball, gamblers should track how hitters and pitchers have been playing recently and the lineup, what the weather is like and how the team’s schedule looks.
Prop Bets
Fans can also bet on props in the MLB. There are many different player props people can bet on, such as how many strikeouts a pitcher will notch or how many hits they will allow, how many runs or hits/total bases a certain player will have and if a player will hit a home run.
There are also game prop bets to bet on. Things like which team will be the first to score a certain number of runs, who will win the first inning, the last team to score and whether the team who scores first will win are all bets a gambler can take to win more money.
