Online Sports Gambling - How to play the Money Line

Sports gambling money lines are very common in baseball and in hockey. You will also find them in both football and basketball listed in addition to the normal point spreads. I will give examples of the various types of money line wagers you will see for your sports gambling odds.

The main difference between a sports gambling money line and a sports gambling point spreads is that there are no points involved. If you team wins, you collect. You also don't have to bet an amount that is equal to the money line. You bet whatever amount you want and the payoff is according to the money line odds that are set. Here is an example from the NFL in addition to the normal point spread.

New England -240
San Francisco +200
If you like the Patriots you would risk $240 dollars for every $100 you wanted to win. Conversely, if you liked the 49ers you would be getting $200 back for every $100 you wagered. The 40-dollar difference is the vigorish and is what keeps sportsbooks in business.
Here is an example from the NBA:

Boston +180
New Jersey -220

In this case if you liked the Nets you would be risking $220 for every $100 you wanted to win. If you liked the Celtics you would get back $180 for every $100 wagered if Boston won.

Baseball and hockey are similar. Baseball is strictly a money line sports gambling situation, while hockey is either straight money line or puck and money line. Here are some examples.

New York Yankees -180
Boston Red Sox +160

This is similar to the above football and basketball examples. You are just gambling on a team to win the game, no point spread involved. Hockey would look the same on the straight money line. A puck money line might look like this:

Detroit -.5 -130
Chicago +.5 +110

In this case you would be laying a half a goal and -130 for every 100 you wanted to win on Detroit and getting a half a goal and $110 for every $100 you wagered on Chicago.

These are the basics for sports gambling money lines. In other articles I go more in depth for an explanation of the odds for each individual sport, but this should get you started.