1. How To Bet Moneyline On Draftkings
2. Moneyline Bet Calculator
3. How To Bet The Moneyline In Football
4. How To Bet The Moneyline In Baseball
5. How To Bet The Moneyline In Football

When placing a moneyline wager, you bet on the outright winner of the event without taking the point spread into consideration. There are still favorites and underdogs, but instead of being handicapped. Betting on the moneyline means picking a team (or in other sports, a player) to win, plain and simple. The actual number (+111 and -120 in this case) affects what is paid out, not how the bet is graded.

Moneyline betting is the simplest form of betting on sports. Whether you’re new to gambling or a seasoned bettor, you’ve likely already placed a moneyline bet at some point in your life.

Whilst the spread bet is on a team to win and by how many, the money line is a bet on simply a team to win. Money Line – How it Works. Here is a typical money line for a game in the NFL: Green Bay.

Moneyline bettors don’t care about how many points that games are won by or how many total points are scored. In most sports, one team wins and one team loses. Your job in moneyline betting is to pick the winner of the game, match, race or event. If they win, you win. Pretty simple.

Think of it as the traditional bets you would make with your buddies whether you’re debating team supremacy from the bar, in the office or in the group chat.

For example, an overconfident peer claims their squad is the best in the land. It just so happens that team plays your team this weekend. (If this scenario doesn’t lead to a wager of some sort, you need to find more entertaining people to surround yourself with.) You decide to offer up a bet on the winner of the matchup. Loser has to offer up cash, buy lunch or humiliate themselves in some fashion.

That’s moneyline betting, at its simplest form — picking an outright winner without the point spread involved is moneyline betting.

It’s a little more complicated than that, but not much.

Let’s learn more about it.

How to Identify the Moneyline

Where can you find the moneyline at the sportsbook or online? In most sports, three major categories are listed for you to place a wager on. On the left side, it will typically show the point spread of the game, while the over/under point total resides on the far right.

The moneyline numbers sit in the middle. Usually the team listed with a negative number is the favorite, while the underdog will likely have a positive number. These numbers will likely fluctuate a bit leading up to the start of the event.

Betting the Moneyline Favorite

If you’re new to the growing sports industry, you’re probably thinking this sports betting thing is pretty easy. Just pick a winner and I get paid? Why not bet every favorite, get rich and quit my job?

If only it were that easy.

Put simply, you’re betting a lot to win a little if you decide to go with this strategy. It seems like a sure thing a particular team will win, but upsets happen. That’s why we watch games. It would be boring if the favorites always won.

Is it worth the risk of financial loss when the payout would be so low? That’s the balancing act sports bettors face when considering picking the favorite straight up in a moneyline play.

Betting the Moneyline Underdog

On the other hand, if you decide to bet the underdog, you have a chance to win a lot by betting a little, which makes for a thrilling bet placement.

Is there a big and unexpected outcome you think could shock the sports world? Bet the underdog on the moneyline, win big and brag to your friends.

Or, if you see a slight underdog you feel has a decent shot at not only covering the spread but winning, put some action on the moneyline to increase your payout.

Some bettors will bet the underdog on the moneyline as well as picking the team to cover the spread in an effort to protect themselves in case one bet hits and not the other.

Moneyline Parlays

One sports betting strategy some bettors go with is parlaying moneyline plays. If you are extremely confident in two or more moneyline outcomes, combine them into your wager and cash your ticket with a higher payout if all outcomes go your way. Keep in mind if just one team loses, you lose the bet.

On the flip side, if you start betting multiple underdogs on the moneyline and are successful, the little amount you put on the line could turn into a big-time payday.

Moneyline Examples

Now that you have the basics, let’s dive in to some real-life examples.

How to bet the moneyline in NFL

Example 1

Let’s take the biggest game of last season: Super Bowl 54 between the KansasCityChiefs and the SanFrancisco49ers.

According to the WestGate SuperBook in LasVegas, the Chiefs came into the game as slight favorites and a -130 listing on the moneyline. As small underdogs, the 49ers entered the game with a +110 moneyline.

You can tell sportsbooks anticipated a close game due to both numbers being very close to 100 either way.

To make this easier to calculate in your head, you can think of it this way. If you bet $130 on the favored Chiefs at -130, you will end up with $100. If you bet $100 on the underdog 49ers at +110, you will wind up with $110.

You already know the Chiefs will have a smaller payout than the 49ers, but by how much? Here are the calculations.

• $100 on the Chiefs: $76.92 payout
• $100 on the 49ers: $110 payout

The Chiefs ultimately won the Super Bowl, so their moneyline bettors left the NFL season happy with a decent payout.

Example 2

So we covered the Super Bowl 54, which was expected to be a close game at the end. But what about an expected blowout?

Let’s take a look at week 2 in the 2019 NFL season in a matchup between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins. The Patriots had Super Bowl aspirations, while the Dolphins had No. 1 overall draft pick aspirations.

Both plans ultimately fell flat, but the opposing directions of the franchises made for a lopsided expectation from oddsmakers.

According to DraftKings Sports Betting, the Patriots were listed at -2000 on the moneyline with the Dolphins at +1200. See how far away from 100 both these numbers are? A sign that a blowout is highly expected.

This is an extreme example as it’s fairly rare to have these types of numbers in an NFL game, but here’s what the payouts were for bettors:

• $100 on the Patriots: $5 payout
• $100 on the Dolphins: $1,200 payout

Yes, if you would’ve bet $100 on the Patriots to beat the Dolphins in this game last season, you’re walking away with five bucks. Is that worth the risk of a potential upset? That’s up to the bettor.

For what it’s worth, the Patriots won this game, 43-0.

How to Bet the Moneyline on College Basketball

Most college basketball betting scenarios would fit in the description above with the NFL, but what about this scenario? Let’s use a fictitious example. We’re getting ready for the national title game between, oh, let’s say Gonzaga and Kansas.

This would be a great game and who knows who would’ve been favored. However, for the purpose of this post, let’s say the two were so evenly matched the oddsmakers had no idea who’s going to win and it could go either way.

Here’s what the moneyline numbers could look like:

• Gonzaga -110
• Kansas -110

This doesn’t happen often, but occasionally teams are so close together and evenly matched that both teams feature identical negative moneyline numbers.

Either winner in this scenario would lead to a $90.91 payout on a $100 moneyline bet.

How to Bet the Moneyline on UFC Events

An individual sport like UFC is made for moneyline betting. While traditional team sports will show several categories to potentially bet on with different options, UFC betting is mainly focused on the moneyline.

Who do you think will win the fight? If you are confident about it, bet on that fighter.

UFC betting offers additional betting options, but moneyline wagers are far and away the focal point.

Let’s go to UFC 249 in Jacksonville for our example with a fight between TonyFerguson, whose moneyline odds were listed at -200 according to DraftKings, and JustinGaethje and his +168 moneyline odds as the underdog.

Here’s how the payouts would’ve gone had you bet on either fighter.

• $100 on Tony Ferguson: $50 payout
• $100 on Justin Gaethje: $168 payout

As the underdog, Gaethje won the fight, so his bettors had a fun start to the return of live sports.

How to Bet the Moneyline on Soccer

The previous sports are easier to understand and fairly straight forward in regards to the moneyline, but soccer is a little bit different.

Most sports list the moneyline with two options. One team wins or the other team wins. However, in soccer there are three options to choose from on the moneyline because of the amount of draws that occur.

For our example, let’s go back to the 2018 World Cup between France and Croatia.

France entered the match as the favorite with a -110 moneyline number, while Croatia entered as the underdog with a +350 moneyline.

Bettors could decide a winner that way, but the third option of a draw at the end of regulation was listed at +230. Instead of picking a team, bettors could opt to bet on a draw if they believed the teams are that evenly matched.

Here’s a calculation of the 2018 World Cup payouts:

• $100 on France: $90.91 payout
• $100 on Croatia: $350 payout
• $100 on a draw: $230 payout

France wound up with a 4-2 victory as the favorite.

How to Bet Guides

Key Takeaways on the Moneyline

So what did we learn today?

• Moneyline bets consist of picking the team you think will win.
• Betting the moneyline favorite has a lesser payout.
• Betting the moneyline underdog has a larger payout.
• Soccer has three moneyline options to choose from.

Moneyline bets present the most straightforward way to wager on a sports contest. A moneyline wager simply asks the bettor to choose which team will win a game, with no point spread involved.

The payout odds on the favorite and underdog can differ significantly on a moneyline bet. Using a moneyline calculator breaks down the math on the odds, which allows bettors to assess the true value on each side.

The following page includes the GamingToday.com MoneyLine Calculator, as well as several valuable tables and graphs designed to help bettors gain an edge with moneyline bets.

Moneyline Calculator

Fill in the dollar amount for your bet and the American Odds (for example -110) and calculate the implied probability and the return on the moneyline.:

What Is A Moneyline Bet?

Legal US sportsbooks generally present several different ways to wager on sports. Moneyline bets represent just one of several different wagering options, which include point spread, totals, parlays, and in-game betting.

Moneyline Bets

A moneyline wager allows the bettor to put a bet on which team or athlete will win a contest, straight up. The moneyline underdog will always pay out at better odds than the favorite.

Skilled bettors look for value on moneyline bets by evaluating teams that have a better chance of winning than the implied probability of the odds might dictate.

Moneyline favorites are listed with “-” odds, and the underdog is listed at “+” odds.

For example, here’s a look at a line offered by PointsBet on Game 1 of the 2020 World Series:

American Odds

PointsBet sets the Los Angeles Dodgers as the favorite in the game, with -165 moneyline odds. To calculate “-” odds, divide 100 by the odds, then multiply that quotient by the amount you bet.

For example, suppose you want to calculate how much profit a $50 bet on the Dodgers would yield. First divide 100 by 165 (without the “-”), which yields 60.6. Then multiply that number by your $50 bet to arrive at the profit (60.6*$50=$30.30).

A $50 bet on the Dodgers at -165 odds would yield $30.30 in profit. The $50 wager would return $80.30 to the bettor ($30.30 profit plus the original $50 bet).

To calculate “+” odds, divide the odds by 100 and multiply that product by the amount of the wager.

A $50 bet on the Tampa Bay Rays, for instance, would calculate as 140/100 (which yields 1.4), multiplied by $50 (1.4*$50=$70). A winning $50 moneyline bet on the Rays returns $120 total to the bettor ($70 profit plus the original $50 bet.)

Decimal Odds

Decimal odds can be used to make a simple calculation of odds multiplied by wager amount to arrive at the total amount returned to the bettor.

The -165 odds on Los Angeles, for example, convert to 1.6061 decimal odds using the Gaming Today moneyline calculator. Multiplying that by a $50 bet yields $80.30, and subtracting the original bet amount yields the profit earned ($80.30-$50=$30.30).

What Is A Moneyline Calculator?

The Gaming Today Moneyline Calculator allows for quick calculations for any wager amount and payout odds. Using American, decimal, fractional, Hong Kong, Indonesian, or Malay Odds, you can input the odds and the amount of a wager and see the payout that would come if the bet is a win.

While it’s valuable to understand and be able to calculate favorite and underdog Moneyline odds for all of the different odds notations, the moneyline calculator can save a significant amount of time and energy.

One of the most important features of the Gaming Today Moneyline Calculator is the Implied Probability feature.

For any favorite or underdog input, the calculator produces the implied probability of that team winning. Astute bettors can use the calculator to find teams that have a higher actual win probability than the implied probability dictated by the odds.

The “To Win” window displays the amount of profit yielded by any combination of odds and wager amount. To calculate the return to the bettor, add the “To Win” number to the original amount of the wager.

How To Use The Moneyline Calculator To Place A Sports Bet

Suppose you wanted to put the Gaming Today Moneyline Calculator to work to decide how you wanted to bet on Game 1 of the 2020 World Series. Here’s another look at the lines offered on that game by PointsBet:

To calculate a $50 moneyline wager on the Tampa Bay Rays, input $50 in the “Bet Amount” window and put “+140” in the “American Odds” window. Hit enter or click on the “Convert Odds” button and see how the moneyline calculator converts that information into several different useful categories.

The calculator converts the “+140” odds into all of the different notations you might see used by a sportsbook.

The +140 American odds convert to 2.40 decimal odds, 7/5 fractional odds, 1.40 for Indonesian/Hong Kong odds, and -0.7143 Malay Odds. A tool like our moneyline calculator can be a crucial component of a betting strategy when evaluating odds at sportsbooks that use different notations.

The “Implied Probability” output tells you that at +140 odds, the Rays have a 41.67% implied probability of winning. A skilled bettor will take that bet if they think Tampa Bay’s actual chance of winning the game is higher than that.

The “To Win” output yields the profit produced if the Rays win. A $50 winning bet on the Rays yields $70 in profit and a $120 total return to the bettor ($70 profit plus the $50 original bet).

Looking for other calculators to use when sports betting? Check out:

Calculating Positive And Negative Moneyline Odds

The math used in calculating the payout on a moneyline is pretty simple. It is one of the most important first steps to understanding sports betting and is crucial to success. Below is a graph of profit won on $100 bets for negative odds. Note that it is a curve that approaches, but will never get to $0. Even -1,000,000 odds still yields some profit from a win:

And here is a graph of profit for positive numbers. The really important difference is that the line is linear. as the odds increase, so does the profit. That goes on forever.

Looking at the odds offered by the sportsbook, note whether they are negative odds (for example -110) or positive odds (for example +120). The calculation changes based on if it is a positive or negative odd. Below we work through an example of a bet of $100 at -110 moneyline odds. It is important to notice that multiplying by -1 is required to give us the positive payout:

PAYOUT = BET AMOUNT / (-1 *MONEYLINE ODDS / 100)

So that looks like:

$90.91 = $100 / (-1 * -110/100)

That also means that you will be returned that amount AND your original bet, meaning you now have $190.91. Let’s work another negative example of a $100 bet at -150:

$100 / (-1 * -150 / 100) = $66.67

Now let’s work through a positive money example. Let’s say you bet $100 at +120

PAYOUT = BET AMOUNT * ODDS / 100

How To Bet Moneyline On Draftkings

That looks like:

$120 = $100 * 120 / 100

In that case, you are returned your original bet plus profit, so you now have $220.

What Is Line Movement?

Sportsbooks make money by setting lines that bring in an appropriate amount of wagers on both sides of a bet. The house offers odds that factor in a cut of overall wagers, known as vig, that goes to the sportsbook.

In the World Series Game 1 example from above, if 90% of bets come in on the Dodgers, the sportsbook stands to lose big money if Los Angeles wins. A Tampa Bay win in that situation is even more disastrous for the sportsbook.

If the bets coming in on a game are too one-sided, the line on the game will start to move to try to prompt more bets for the other side. It’s important to remember that sports betting isn’t a zero-sum game, and you’ll be losing in the long run even if you win 50% of the time.

Legal Online Sports Betting In The US

A federal mandate known as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was overturned in May 2018, giving US states the legal clearance to offer state-regulated sports betting. Several states now offer both retail and online sports betting, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado, and several others.

The top online sport betting brands in the US include the following:

DraftKings Sportsbook

Moneyline Bet Calculator

One of the biggest brands to emerge in the booming online sports betting industry, DraftKings Sportsbook offers mobile sports wagering in eight states. The sportsbook offers every imaginable kind of wager across multiple sports.

That betting menu includes daily moneyline opportunities on all major US sports leagues, as well as numerous international leagues. A tool like the Moneyline Calculator can be an indispensable tool to use for evaluating the odds and implied win probabilities at DraftKings Sportsbook.

FanDuel Sportsbook

Another huge player in the legal sports betting market, FanDuel Sportsbook offers mobile sports wagering in seven states. Along with DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbooks stands as one of the top two mobile sports betting brands in the US.

FanDuel Sportsbook’s vast selection of moneyline wagering options becomes a potentially profitable market for bettors using a moneyline calculator. Such a tool allows sharp players to compare odds across multiple sportsbooks and only place the most favorable bets.

FOX Bet

A collaboration between FOX Sports and The Stars Group, the FOX Bet brand operates online sportsbooks in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.

The moneyline odds at FOX Bet can vary greatly versus some of its competitors, and bettors using a moneyline calculator tool gain a significant edge versus players that don’t.

Moneyline Calculator FAQs

Yes. More than a dozen states either currently offer online sports betting or have a launch of mobile sports betting products pending.

New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania represent the three biggest online sports betting markets in the US. Other states with legal online sports wagering include Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, West Virginia, and a few others.

The Gaming Today Moneyline Calculator can be used as a valuable resource on any moneyline bet. It’s especially useful for evaluating the implied probability of winning and payout odds.

The moneyline bet calculator’s ability to display odds across multiple notation formats (American, Decimal, Fractional, Indonesian/Hong Kong, and Malay odds) allows bettors to compare lines across sportsbooks that use different notations.

Even if you’re a veteran sports bettor, running every bet you’re considering through the calculator provides significant benefit.

Yes. Nothing in the terms and conditions of any US legal online sportsbooks prohibits the use of a moneyline calculator.

The calculator provides computations that any person could produce with pen and paper but in a much faster and more efficient manner.

For “+” American odds, divide the odds by 100 and convert that quotient into a fraction. To convert +160 into fractional odds, for example, divide 160 by 100 (160/100) and reduce that fraction to the lowest whole number denominator. American odds of +160 would convert to 8/5 fractional odds.

How To Bet The Moneyline In Football

For “-” American odds, divide 100 by the odds and convert to the simplest form fraction. For -160 odds, for example, the calculation looks like 100/160, which reduces to 5/8 fractional odds.

To convert “+” American odds to implied winning probability, the formula looks like this:

100 / (“+” American odds + 100)*100 = implied probability

For example, +160 odds would be calculated as 100/(160+100)*100. This converts to 100/260*100, which ends up yielding a 38.46% implied probability.

To convert “-” odds, the formula looks like this:

“-” odds / (“-” odds + 100)*100 = implied probability

How To Bet The Moneyline In Baseball

For instance, -160 odds would translate to 160/(160+100)*100, converting to 160/260*100, which yields a product of 61.54. The implied probability of -160 odds is a 61.54% chance of winning.

How To Bet The Moneyline In Football

Several online sportsbooks offer comprehensive coverage of sports and ways to bet. Some of the best choices for online sports betting in the US include DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, PointsBet, FOX Bet, and BetMGM.