Welcome to the latest article from your team at Whop as we continue our series on online gambling. On the Whop blog, we cover all areas of business, leisure, technology, and more. One of the fastest-growing areas of business worldwide is online gambling, including sports, casinos, and bingo.
Search our articles, and you’ll find useful insights into betting, including how to find the best value or create a parlay. We also review the biggest and most trusted iGaming apps, like BetUS and FanDuel. We cover all bases, ensuring there’s something new to read each time you visit.
In this article, we focus on the most popular type of bet in the sports gambling industry: the moneyline. What is moneyline betting, what does it mean, is it worth following, and how can you make a profit using only the moneyline market? We cover these points and much more.
By the end of this article, you’ll be ready to start making moneyline bets on your favorite sports, including the NFL, English Premier League soccer, horse racing, and other popular events. Moneyline betting is a great way to target a profit from sports betting, and we’ll help bring you up to speed on the matter.
What this article covers
Before jumping into the thick of this article on moneyline betting and how you can use it to earn a sportsbook profit, we want to pause briefly and explain how we arrived at our findings. How did we create this in-depth, impartial, and reliable article? We have done this by using our expert experience, studying the current online gambling market, reading posts from other gamblers, and reviewing the top sportsbooks. We dug deep to ensure our article on moneyline betting was the best you’ll find online today.
What is a Moneyline Bet?
Let’s keep things simple here when explaining the moneyline. You may find some other articles that go in-depth and overcomplicate the issue, but that’s not our approach, as moneyline is as exciting as it is basic.
When making a moneyline bet, you’re wagering on a single team or player to win an event. Let’s say it’s tonight’s live game from the NFL, where the Buffalo Bills are playing the Miami Dolphins. With a moneyline bet, you’re simply picking the team you think will win. It doesn’t matter how they win, who scores the points, the winning margin, handicap, total points, or anything else. That’s all irrelevant to a moneyline bettor.
If you gamble on Miami on the moneyline, you have a one-in-two chance of getting it right and landing a profit. If Miami wins, you land the profit from that bet, but if Buffalo wins, you lose the bet, and the bookie keeps your stake. It’s a straight win-or-lose situation, and its simplicity appeals to sports fans and gamblers, both new and experienced.
The Inside Scoop About Moneyline Bets
When I first started working in the online gambling industry at the head office of a major sportsbook in London, I was given a useful piece of advice: Moneyline betting is the easiest and best way to make a steady profit from sportsbook gambling. I remember it as clear as day and how my colleague proved his point was genius.
He said, “Take a walk around the betting offices in the area and count how many moneyline bets you see advertised in the shop windows or on posters inside the high-street bookies.” The answer, of course, was none.
Major sportsbooks don’t promote moneyline bets as those are the markets that have a negative impact on their bottom line, the profit and loss column. Now visit the same bookies, and you’ll see countless parlays, prop bets, and other specials promoted front and center. That’s because while moneyline bets often see the house lose, specials help the bookmaker make a solid profit week after week.
My advice to you when making moneyline bets is to keep it simple, keep your stakes small, and aim to build your profit margin slowly but surely. It may take longer to get to your desired profit than backing outsiders, but you will get there in the end, and it’ll be a more reliable way to bank a profit. It’s the tortoise and the hare scenario.
Understanding Moneyline Odds
Now we know just how simple moneyline betting is - a straight win or lose gambling situation - let’s now turn our attention to understanding the moneyline betting odds. Again, at first glance, moneyline odds look like a confusing spaghetti of numbers and signs. Why does one team have a positive number attached to its moneyline chances while the other has a negative? Which one should you bet, and will it win?
Just like with moneyline betting, moneyline gambling odds are much more basic than they appear at first glance. For example, you may see a team with a +100 price attached, which means they are the underdog. The positive number is the potential profit of a moneyline bet for $100. Then we have a team with a negative number, like -100, which is how much you must bet to win $100.
These are American betting odds (+ and -), but you may also notice fractional or decimal odds at some betting sites. For example, those might be 3.0 or 2/1, which is the same price. Many online bookies allow customers to change how the odds are displayed to suit their preferences. But once you get the hang of American odds when betting the moneyline, there will be no stopping you.
Remember, a team with a negative number is the favorite to win on the moneyline, while a team with a positive number is the underdog, and their winning would surprise the bookie. How much of a surprise is shown in the size of the number.
How to Place a Moneyline Bet
One commonly asked question is 'is it difficult to place a moneyline bet?' Well, if you’ve been paying attention to our article so far, you’ll already know moneyline betting is all about simplicity. The bookies want customers to quickly, easily, and securely wager on sports.
You can gamble on the moneyline market of any sport or competition in seconds using your laptop or smartphone. Let’s now look at some easy-to-follow moneyline betting examples from different sports.
Moneyline Bet Examples
We’ll begin our examples by looking at a moneyline bet on NBA basketball. The prices are just examples of what you might find when using a major online sportsbook.
- New York Yankees: -150
- Boston Red Sox: +130
What does that all mean? Well, if you place a $150 bet on the Yankees to win and they live up to expectations, your wager would yield $100 in profit. What about the flip side? A $100 bet on the Red Sox would yield $130 in profit if they win.
Now, let's move to another sport to show that the same rules apply regardless of the ball's shape, the teams involved, or the athletes.
- Los Angeles Lakers: -200
- Brooklyn Nets: +180
- You'd need to bet $200 on the Lakers to win $100 in profit.
- A $100 wager on the Nets would yield $180 in profit if they win.
Just to hammer home the message, let’s investigate one more example. We’re sure you have the hang of it by now.
- Real Madrid: +110
- Barcelona: -130
- A $100 bet on Real Madrid would yield $110 in profit if they win.
- To make $100 in profit on Barcelona, you'd need to bet $130.
Moneyline Betting tips
OK, so moneyline betting is simple, and moneyline betting odds aren’t much more complicated once you know how they work. But we must point out that bagging a winning moneyline bet certainly isn’t easy.
It’s easier than picking the first scorer or the exact number of points in a game, for example, but readers must understand that moneyline betting isn’t a strategy or guaranteed way to beat the bookies. Do you know why? Because there are no guaranteed ways to beat bookies every time, and anyone who says or writes differently shouldn’t be trusted.
Moneyline does give the bettor a good chance at landing a profit by selecting the favorite to win or the underdog to spring a surprise. Here are some things to consider before making predictions that could greatly enhance your chances of profiting from your bets.
- Study the stats of both teams, including the head-to-head scores and form.
- Get the best odds each time you place a moneyline bet.
- Never gamble in anger or frustration, and don’t chase losses.
- Keep a tally of your profit and loss to identify your strongest sports.
- Create a staking plan, and never wager more than you can afford to lose.
Can You Add Moneyline Bets to a Parlay?
Simple answer: yes, you can.
You can bet moneyline as a single, such as Manchester City to beat Newcastle United in an English Premier League game broadcast live on television. As this type of bet is simple, it doesn’t always have the greatest odds, especially if you’re backing the favorite.
However, you can increase your possible returns by adding a few moneyline picks to create a parlay. With a parlay bet, all selections must win for your wager to settle for a profit. If you create a five-team moneyline parlay and four teams win but one loses, your bet is dead and buried. But parlays are attractive because they involve one bet and one stake, making them an affordable way to target a sizeable return.
To create a moneyline parlay, register with an online bookmaker or log in to your account. Click the sport(s) and fixtures you wish to bet on, then select the odds of each moneyline you wish to add to your bet slip. When you’re ready, input the stake into the parlay field, check everything is as it should be, and confirm. Your moneyline parlay will instantly become live, and a cash-out amount will appear.
Learn Moneyline Betting From the Pros With Whop
There you have it. If you were feeling confused about moneyline betting, we trust you’re now on the ball and raring to go. What should you do with your newfound expertise? We suggest studying the stats of an upcoming sports fixture that catches your eye and placing a moneyline bet. Keep your stakes low while building your experience, and have fun trying new teams, games, and sports.
Want to elevate your predictions? Sports pick communities are great for bettors eager to improve their gambling knowledge. You’ll find many Telegram channels and Discord groups run by industry experts who share their experiences, advice, and betting suggestions. Follow these groups for picks and a greater understanding of the gambling industry.
Whop is home to the best sports pick communities on the internet. Knowledge is power, so why not learn from the cappers and place educated sportsbook bets? To join one of these groups, check out this guide to the 13 best sports betting Discord servers or explore the Whop marketplace to find a group for you.
