Money Line explained, Money Line meaning 

There are no sports bettors that didn’t hear of Money Line betting market. This is the first betting market that was available to the sports bettors worldwide and it is the most simple betting market. When you bet on the money line, you merely predict what player or which team will win the game or the match.

Money Line – What does it mean?

Money Line Definition: Money Line market is the default market that you will see at most sportsbooks when you enter their respected websites. In this beginner’s guide, we will explain to you how this market works and how to make money using the money line market. That way you will be able to understand this basic market, skip the usual mistakes and prepare yourself for more advanced markets like the Asian Handicap betting market and others.

Early days of Money Line betting market

Before the 1940s, there was only one betting market, and that was the money line. Every single bookmaker in the world offered this type of market, and there were only two possible outcomes: favorite win or underdog win. After 1940s point spread betting was invented, but nevertheless, the money line is a prevalent type of market even today when we have several dozens of betting markets in every event.

Types of Money Line bets

In modern sports betting there are two types of Money Line bets.

2-way money line bets – popular in North America, but also popular among in sports like tennis, and other individual sports where you have to choose the winner of the match, and there is no chance for a draw.

3-way money line bets – popular in football where you have the draw option.

As we said, in Money Line betting there are two sides (favorite and underdog):

FAVORITE is the team or a player that is expected to win the game or the match. Odds on favorite are always lower than 2.00. Those odds on favorites can go as low as 1.01.

UNDERDOG (DOG) is the team or a player that is expected to lose the game or the match. Bookies rate them as underdogs and give odds higher than 2.00 on their win.

Here are some examples of 2-way and 3-way money line bets with moderate and heavy favorites.

In the tennis match between Novak Djokovic and Marin Cilic, Serbian player is a heavy favorite and bookies have set the 1.16 odds on his win, while the odds on Marin Cilic win are 5.44. So if you bet 100 Euro on the favorite, you will win 16 Euro, and if you bet 100 Euro on the underdog, you will win 444 Euro of pure profit.

In the basketball game between Reggiana and Avellino, the home team is a slight favorite and bookies have set the 1.85 odds on their win, while Avellino win is priced with 1.93 odds. So here we have two similar odds where the home team is a slight favorite to win the game.

Those are perfect examples of 2-way Money Line betting market.

In the football game between Manchester United and Crystal Palace, the home team is a heavy favorite, and they are priced with 1.36 odds to win the game, while the draw is priced with 5.00 odds and away win with 7.50 odds. In this case, we have three possible outcomes, and that’s why this Money Line market is called 3-way Money Line.

As we said Money Line betting is possible on almost every sport on the planet, and it is easy to understand how it works.

Conclusion

Yes, Money Line betting seems like rather straightforward and easy betting market, but it is pretty challenging market too. It is not profitable to chase only heavy favorites and to bet on underdogs might be a bit frustrating. Best way to bet on this market is to find the right, value odds and to choose your bets wisely. Also, it is important to learn all the types of odds in order to bet correctly.

We at BettingZebra will cover all the essential subjects about sports betting industry, but if you have any questions or suggestions about future articles, please feel free to contact us and to give us your opinions. We are all here with the same purpose, to make a profit out of sports betting and to beat the bookies.