Anyone can very easily and simply, through a few steps, learn how to bet, but only a few manage to make a profit from sports betting.
Betting is even a profession for some people and, in order for you to make earning from sports betting, you need to know many things. For a start, the most important thing is to master the basic betting concepts. After that, it is necessary to master how online bookmakers work, how to distribute the payment, when to play system betting and when to make a combo bet, and many other things. That is why we have prepared this betting article for you so that you can learn many useful things that you can turn into profit later.
What’s a Moneyline Bet?
Moneyline is one of the basic and most popular types of sports betting available on the betting offer. It is important to understand how moneyline betting works and to know how to make a profit from it.
Moneyline betting is actually the first betting market ever to be available to bettors. It is a basic market where the bettor puts in money on the prediction of the winner of a particular sporting event. There can be no simpler betting than moneyline betting. In fact, each of us places this kind of bet on a daily basis without even knowing we have bet on that type of betting.
Moneyline betting is the simplest way to bet. You place a bet and, if you put money on the winning side, the online bookmaker will pay you your winnings. On the other hand, if you choose the losing side, you will not make any profit and will remain without money.
When you start betting on sports, moneyline markets are actually the first markets you see at any online bookmaker. These are, actually, markets that for most online bookmakers are the basic betting games, while for other markets, you have to put more effort into finding them. The situation is the same with live betting – moneyline betting is at all online bookmakers on the home page with live betting by default and is the most common form in which bettors place payments. By the end of the article, you will learn and understand how to make more profit on this type of betting and avoid many mistakes that beginners make, throwing their money in vain.
Moneyline Betting History
Prior to the introduction of betting on total goals/points, handicaps, individual team bets (corner kicks, goals per halftime, corners…), and other additional markets, bettors had only one aspect on which to place their bets. That type of placing bets was moneyline betting, so we conclude that this is the first, i.e. the oldest form of betting, on sporting events no matter what sport it is. Each bookmaker initially offered only two possible outcomes: betting on the favorite or betting on the underdog.
The change of this (or innovation, if you wish) in the world of sports betting came in the 1940s when the betting offer was expanded by betting on total goals/points and handicaps. However, although various additional markets have been introduced in the world of modern sports betting, such as e-sports betting today, moneyline betting is still the most popular form of betting in the world of sports. The reasons for this are probably that it is the most interesting type of betting as well as its simplicity and inability of losing a bet due to the fact that a team leads or loses by a big difference, eliminating the imperative of a team to score more goals, points, and the like.
Types of Moneyline Bets
There are two options of moneyline bets on best online bookmakers presented at bookmaker-expert.com/bookmakers/. These are the so-called two-way bets and the three-way bets. These bets are essentially bets where there are two possible outcomes and bets with three possible outcomes. Bets with two possible outcomes are most popular in North America and, when it comes to sports, in betting on tennis and basketball, while bets with three possible outcomes are most popular in Europe and in soccer. The reason for this is probably the difference in the popularity of different sports across certain continents.
Two-way bets are bets where there are two possible outcomes: the victory of team one and the victory of team two, and you can win or lose on them. Three-way bets are popular when betting on soccer matches where there is an additional option of a draw. With three-way moneyline betting, if you bet on winning and the outcome of the match is a draw, logically, you lose your money.
There are two types of teams/players in moneyline betting:
- Favorite – the team/player that is expected to win the match. The favorites always have lower odds compared to the underdogs, meaning that, according to the odds setter, that team should win. Of course, a lower odd brings with it a lower profit, i.e. to make money by betting on the favorite, it is necessary to hit a much higher percentage of bets than by betting on the underdog.
- Underdog – A team/player that is an outsider in a certain game, i.e. a team/player that is not expected to win. The underdog always has higher odds, mostly above 2.00, which means bookmakers do not give them much chance of winning. The profit by betting on an underdog is much higher, and sometimes it is enough to hit only 40 % of the predictions to get a high profit.
Moneyline Betting on Specific Sports
In basketball games, moneyline betting is not so popular. Most often, total points, player points, or handicaps are played. However, moneyline betting in basketball games can be very profitable given that teams often rest some of their main players (e.g. NBA teams, due to the tight schedule, sometimes save the biggest stars for upcoming, more important matches).
Example of moneyline betting in basketball games:
- Golden State Warriors (favorites) – 1.35 odds
- Sacramento Kings (underdogs) – 3.25 odds
In this example, the Warriors are set as the favorites, and the odds on their win are 1.35. This means that, if you place a bet on them to win with $ 100 stakes, you will profit $ 35. All you need now is that the match ends with their victory, which is expected according to the bookmakers. The Sacramento Kings are set as the underdogs and the odds on their win are 3.25. If you decide to place a $ 100 bet on them, you will make a profit of $ 225, if they win.
The difference in odds is very large, as well as the required percentage of hit predictions to make a profit, and therefore bettors who live from betting often place bets on the underdog team/player. As for bets on favorites, regardless of the odds, predictions (which have a higher chance of winning than what is paid out by the odds) that possess value are played, but betting on odds above 1.50 is preferred.
As for other sports, moneyline betting is very popular in handball, tennis, and ice hockey, while in soccer, this is arguably the most popular betting market. The reason for this is that, in soccer, many teams try to save the result after they obtained an advantage or some teams keep the ball in their possession as long as possible after making a 2-goal difference so as not to jeopardize the victory. This is why the moneyline bet is much more popular in soccer than betting on the total goals. Moneyline soccer betting is also the most popular form of sports betting in Europe.
Conclusion
Although the moneyline bet is the simplest and most entertaining form of betting, it is still very challenging in any sport when it comes to making a profit. The only strategy with this type of betting is to decide whether to play on the favorite and look for a small profit (which is also more common) or to play on an underdog that brings profit a little less often, but a much larger amount.
There is a multitude of bettors who have made a fortune by moneyline betting. It is clear that they beat the bookmakers with their discipline and knowledge of sports as well as with the betting system itself. Knowing how to distribute stakes, long-term research, and placing bets on matches that have great value are their biggest trump cards from which they have made big profits. These are the basic things you need to know to make money in the long run.