Moneyline

A moneyline bet is the most straightforward wager in sports betting. Rather than dealing with point spreads or totals, you are simply picking which team or player will win the contest. If your selection wins, your bet pays out. If they lose, you lose your stake. There is no margin of victory to worry about — the final score only matters in determining the winner.

Moneyline odds are expressed differently depending on whether the selection is a favorite or an underdog. In American odds format, a favorite carries a negative number (such as -150), indicating how much you must wager to win $100. An underdog carries a positive number (such as +130), indicating how much profit a $100 bet would return. In decimal and fractional formats, the same relationship holds: lower odds correspond to favorites and higher odds correspond to underdogs.

Example

Suppose the New York Yankees are listed at -160 and the Boston Red Sox at +140 in a baseball game. If you place a $160 moneyline bet on the Yankees and they win, you receive $100 in profit plus your $160 stake back. If instead you bet $100 on the Red Sox at +140 and they pull off the upset, you collect $140 in profit plus your original $100 stake.

The difference in payout between the two sides reflects the bookmaker’s assessment of each team’s likelihood of winning, along with the built-in commission (known as the vig or juice).

Key Points

• Simplicity: Moneyline bets require you only to pick the winner. No spreads, no totals — just the outright result.
• Payouts vary by probability: Favorites pay less relative to the amount wagered because they are more likely to win. Underdogs pay more because they are less likely to win.
• Common in all major sports: Moneyline betting is available across baseball, hockey, soccer, basketball, football, tennis, and virtually every other sport with a definitive winner.
• No ties in most markets: Many moneyline markets exclude the possibility of a draw. In sports where ties can occur (such as soccer), a three-way moneyline is offered that includes the draw as a separate outcome.
• Foundation for parlays: Moneyline selections are frequently combined into parlay bets, where multiple winners must all come through for the wager to pay out.