What Is The Moneyline? How to Place a Moneyline Bet in Minnesota

Best Moneyline Betting Sites in Minnesota

Being one of the most common bet types, nearly every online sportsbook in Minnesota offers moneyline betting options. But some online sportsbooks are better than others. Check out our favorite sportsbooks for betting moneylines in the North Star State.

What is a Moneyline Bet?

A moneyline bet considers the most basic aspect of a sports game: who the winner is. Betting a moneyline means placing your money on who you believe will be the outright winner of a sporting event. It is up to sports bettors to decide which team or athlete they think will emerge victorious before the game begins. Guess correctly, and you'll have a winning bet that earns you money from the wager you placed.

How Does Moneyline Work in Sports Betting?

How a moneyline works is simple. Before a sporting match begins, the online sportsbook will set odds for the two teams or athletes. These odds reflect the probability of either side's winning and which team or player the sportsbook expects will emerge victorious.

Once the odds are set, the sports bettor can place a moneyline wager on the favored team or the underdog to win the game. Once you've placed your bet on who you think will win the game, all you have to do is wait until the end of the match.

If you bet on the correct team to win the game, you'll earn winnings based on the amount you wagered and the odds set by the sportsbook. Bet incorrectly, and unfortunately, you'll lose the wager amount.

Understanding Moneyline Betting

A few key components to moneyline betting are essential for sports bettors to understand before wagering. Betting on the favorite, underdog, or even will determine a bet's odds and potential payout. Let's take a closer look.

The Favorite 

The favorite in the context of a moneyline bet refers to the team perceived to have a higher likelihood of winning a sporting event. If you see a minus sign (-), the team is the favorite, and most people expect this team to win the game.

The Underdog 

You've probably heard the term underdog before. Underdog refers to a team or athlete not generally perceived to be highly likely to win the game. When betting moneylines, underdog odds are displayed with a positive (+) sign.

Even, EV, or Pick ‘Em

In certain cases, a sportsbook might expect that two opposing teams or athletes have an exactly equal chance of winning the game. In this scenario, neither team is the favorite nor the underdog. You'll be able to pick out an even moneyline bet by noticing if both parties have the same odds.

How to Read Moneyline Odds

New sports bettors sometimes get overwhelmed with reading odds and figuring out what it means. Luckily, it turns out that understanding moneyline odds really isn't so hard after all.

The most important thing to keep an eye out for is whether the odds are positive or negative.

Positive Odds (+)

As we saw in the above section, positive odds reflect the underdog in a moneyline bet. This means that the sportsbook perceives this team or athlete to have a lower chance of winning than their opponent.

Moneyline odds change based on several statistics and analyses performed by the online sportsbook relating to each team's performance history and other factors. Positive odds return a higher payout compared to negative odds.

Negative Odds (-) 

If you bet a moneyline on a team or athlete with negative odds, this means you are betting on the favorite. Since the favorite is generally perceived to have a higher chance of winning the game, betting on the favorite tends to be less risky. Reduced risk translates to a smaller potential payout than betting on the underdog.

Even Odds 

An even moneyline bet means that both teams have the same perceived likelihood of winning the sporting event. This is rare and only occurs for select matchups with evenly-matched teams.

Understanding Implied Probability of Moneyline Odds 

Implied probability refers to the perceived likelihood of an outcome occurring, in this case relating to a sporting event as perceived by an online sportsbook.

The betting lines an online sportsbook sets for any sports bet reflect the implied probability. If you see a negative number, indicating the favored team, there is a greater implied probability of this team winning the game. The opposite goes for a negative number, which indicates the underdog.

Furthermore, the lower the number, the higher the implied probability. For example, odds set at +500 reflect a lower implied probability of winning compared to +100, which in turn reflects a lower implied probability of winning compared to -200. This might initially seem a little confusing, but it makes sense once you begin betting.

Potential Outcomes of a Moneyline Bet

There are three potential outcomes of a moneyline bet: a win, a loss, and a push. Now we'll see what these outcomes mean in a little more detail.

Win

Intuitively, bettors win a monyeline when they bet on the right team or athlete to win a game. Winning bets earn you money depending on the amount you wagered and the odds set by the sportsbook.

For example, a winning NFL moneyline would be a scenario where you bet on the football team that scores the most points by the end of the game.

Loss 

A moneyline loss happens when you bet incorrectly, and the team or athlete you put your money on loses the game. No matter how confident you are in your team, the ideal outcome doesn't always come true. If you lose a moneyline, you will not earn back any winnings and will lose the amount you initially wagered.

Don't get discouraged, maybe you'll have better luck next time.

Push or Draw

A push, or draw, is a unique situation when a game ends in a tie. Because a moneyline requires a team to win to determine the winning bet, any match where the final score is tied breaks the system. If this happens, the sportsbook will refund you the amount you initially wagered, and life will go on as if the bet never happened.

What is a 3-Way Moneyline?

A three-way moneyline, as the name suggests, gives bettors three options instead of only betting on which of two teams will win a game. As we saw earlier, any sports game that ends in a tie ultimately voids a traditional moneyline bet. This isn't the case with a three-way moneyline. Instead, bettors can either bet on one team or another to win the game or for the game to end in a draw. Of course, ties are not possible for certain sporting events, so online sportsbooks make three-way moneylines available only for games where a tie is a valid outcome.

The implied probabilities and odds work the same way as before. The online sportsbook will set odds depending on their perceived likelihood of both teams winning and the game ending as a tie. It is important to note that ties are a comparatively rare phenomenon, and betting lines for three-way moneylines reflect this. While there is a lower likelihood and higher risk associated with betting on a tie in most cases, this increased risk also makes for a larger potential payout.

Moneyline vs 3 Way Moneyline

Traditional moneyline wagers only give sports bettors two options. Of two teams or athletes in a sporting event, they must pick one team or athlete that they believe will be the victor. This proves problematic when the event ends in a tie game. For traditional moneylines, the result is a push, where the initial wager is refunded to the bettor.

Three-way moneylines solve this problem by giving sports bettors three betting options. They pick between the two teams or wager on a tie game outcome. Although tie games are rare compared to the likelihood of one team simply winning, many sports bettors enjoy the option to bet on this outcome and the attractive potential payout.

How Moneylines Connect to Other Bet Types

Even though a moneyline is a distinct bet type that focuses on a unique aspect of the game compared to other betting options, this is not to say that moneylines and other bet types are unrelated. In fact, understanding and reading betting lines for multiple bet types can prove very insightful and useful for making better betting decisions.

Moneyline vs Point Spread 

A point spread is a bet type that focuses on the margin of victory for the winning team. Instead of just looking at which team wins, point spread bets force bettors to consider the relative number of points that each team will score by the end of the game. While moneylines and point spreads are different in this sense, they are still closely related to one another. Checking out spread betting lines provides insights into what the sportsbook expects the margin of victory for the favored team, which can provide useful information on how close the game is expected between the favorite and the underdog.

Formula to Convert Point Spread to Moneyline 

Since a point spread bet and moneylines are so closely related, there's actually a formula you can use to convert point spread betting odds to moneyline odds. This conversion is useful for determining the value and implied probability associated with each bet to ensure you make the best betting decision.

Moneyline Parlay Odds Explained 

A parlay is a bet type that combines multiple wagers into a single ticket. For a parlay bet to be successful, each individual leg of the parlay must win. There are many ways to bet parlays, including combining multiple moneyline bets into a single parlay. In this case, you are betting on each team to win the game. Only if all teams you bet on win will the parlay be successful. Parlays are popular because they provide lucrative potential payouts. It's worth noting, however, that this greater payout opportunity is thanks to the fact that betting risk also increases dramatically. Parlay odds are determined by multiplying all the moneyline odds from each wager. The more bets you add together, the lower the implied probabilities of a favorable outcome.

Moneyline vs Over Unders

Similar to how point spread bets are related to moneylines, so are over/unders. An over/under bet, or a total, is a wager on the total points scored in a sporting event. The sportsbook provides a total number that they believe offers a balanced betting opportunity, and it is up to the bettor if they believe the game's final score will be greater or less than this number. The total is a good reflection of whether the sportsbook believes the game will be high-scoring or low-scoring, which can influence how the bettor views each team's offensive or defensive capacities and how the game will ultimately unfold. Unlike point spreads, over/under odds are not so closely related to moneyline odds. Still, it's always a good idea to check out the over/under options before adding a moneyline to your bet slip.

Tips for New Moneyline Bettors

It's impossible to give a single piece of advice to make you a consistently successful moneyline bettor. That being said, some general strategies can drastically improve your betting performance no matter what online sportsbooks you use.

Understand Home-Field Advantage 

Before placing a moneyline wager, one of the first things you should consider is where the game is happening. Indeed, teams playing on their home turf often have a greater chance of winning than they would elsewhere. Being in a familiar setting surrounded by supporters has a powerful impact on team performance. Even if a team is considered the underdog, their chances of winning might be higher if they are playing at home.

Consider the Spread & Total 

Looking at the spread and total betting lines is always a good idea before betting a moneyline. Spreads and totals consider different aspects of the game, namely the margin of victory and the total number of points scored by the two teams respectively. The betting lines associated with these wager types can provide important useful insights into how the sportsbook expects the game to unfold, which can, in turn, influence how you perceive what the most likely outcome of the game will be.

Shop Around 

If you're a smart sports bettor, you'll know that line shopping is crucial to ensuring you get the best odds and, therefore the best value for your wager. Linne shopping refers to checking different betting options across various sportsbooks to find different odds, which in turn influence the total payout of a bet. It is rare for sportsbooks to offer the same odds, which means that checking multiple sites allows you to find the most favorable odds for the bet you wish to place, and in turn, a greater total payout.

Get Started Betting the Moneyline

Moneyline bets are among the most straightforward bet types, making them incredibly popular among novice and veteran sports bettors. No matter which online sportsbook you use, you'll have no problem finding moneyline bets for your favorite sports. Whether you want to bet on college basketball, a certain tennis player, or the Super Bowl, most sportsbooks will almost always have moneyline betting options. Remember to always gamble responsibly, and reach out to someone if you have a gambling problem. Now that you know how moneylines work and important tips to consider before betting, you're all set to begin betting moneylines in Minnesota.