Whether you’re gambling online or off, a betting line (also referred to as a money line) bet is a bet on which team is going to win the game.  Betting lines are established by sports books and bookmakers in order to set odds for each game.

The simplest way to think about a betting line / money line is to consider a base bet of $100. A betting line / money line is a number larger than 100, and it is either positive or negative. A line with a positive number means that the team is the underdog, and the larger the positive number, the bigger the underdog.  You generally win more than you bet if you pick the underdog. When it’s a negative number, it means that the team is a favorite and again, the larger the negative number, the more that team is favored.   You win a smaller amount than you bet if you happen to pick the favorite.

When a betting line is a positive number, then the odds are  the amount you would win if you were to bet $100 and were correct.

For example, a money line of +200 would mean that you would make a profit of $200 if you bet $100 and won.  Fractionally, this would be represented as 2/1 odds.

A negative money line represents the amount of money that you would have to bet in order to win $100 provided you were correct. For example, a -200 money line means you would win $100 if you bet $200 and were to win.  This is equivalent to fractional odds of 1/2.

Let’s take the Colts vs. the Raiders to illustrate this:

The money line might look a little something like Indianapolis (-185) vs. Oakland (+200).  That means that if you wager on the Colts, you would have to bet $185 in order to make a profit of $100.  If you thought the Raiders would upset the Colts, then you would bet $100 to make a profit of $200 if you were right.


Reasons to bet on a favorite on the betting line:

Betting lines, especially when betting on the NBA, have a clear advantage.  There is no point spread for you to win your game.  If ever your handicapping leads you to believe that one team is likely to win, but you’re not certain that they will be by as much as the point spread, then you should consider the money line.  It’s true that you are sacrificing some potential return because the moneyline doesn’t pay as much for the favorite as the point spread would, but obviously, it’s better to make a nominal profit than it is to lose the bet altogether.

Reasons to bet an underdog on a betting line:

In two words, bigger returns.  On a point spread bet, you would usually have to spend $105 or $110 to win $100. However, if you bet on the money line, you may instead only have to spend $50, or even less, to win $100.  It’s true that you won’t win as often, because the underdog not only has to cover the spread, but it also has to win the game outright.

There’s one other reason to bet the dogs on the money line as well. If your handicapping has made you feel strongly that a poor team is due for a big win, then the money line allows you to profit more from your conclusion than a point spread bet would.

Know that bookmakers balance their risk by setting different prices on each team.  They do it because they’re attempting to balance out the money being laid on either side. If bettors favor one team too much, the line is moved to attract support to the other team.  Tracking betting line moves is an important key to successful sports betting, and most major sports betting online portals have a live odds screen in order to monitor line fluctuations.