Walk into the sportsbook in any given Las Vegas hotel and one of the first betting lines that you will see for any upcoming sports match or game is the moneyline. For the novice player, the moneyline figures may look very confusing, because they may appear to be more difficult to understand than the popular point spread betting system. Mathematics and calculation aside, moneyline betting is actually the simplest form of betting and that’s why it is still the most popular way to bet on baseball and hockey games, as well as several other sports like boxing and tennis. This is because you don’t have to worry about the overall score when it comes to understanding moneyline betting; you just have to pick the team (or player, in the case of one-on-one sports) that you think will win.

Who is the Favorite? Who is the Underdog?

In understanding moneyline betting, the first thing that you’ll need to determine is which team is the favorite and which team is the underdog. Let’s take a look at an example moneyline: Baltimore Ravens -160 vs. Seattle Seahawks +130.  The team designated with a negative number (Ravens) is regarded as the favorite in the contest, whereas the team designated with a positive number (Seahawks) is regarded as the underdog for the contest. The absolute value of both numbers will always be over 100, meaning that a favorite will be assigned a number of less than -100 and the underdog will be assigned a number of more than +100. If a favored team has a moneyline of -200, it is perceived as a bigger favorite in its game than a favored team with a moneyline of -150. Similarly, if the underdog has a moneyline of +130, it is more of an underdog than a team with a money line of +120. In games where the two teams are perceived to be very evenly matched, you may not get a distinct favorite and a distinct underdog. Instead, both teams may be assigned a moneyline of -110. Regardless of whether you choose to bet on the favorite or the underdog, the goal of moneyline betting is simply to have your chosen team win the game. It doesn’t matter if they win by one point or 50 points: a win is a win.

Calculating the Favorite Payout

But what do all these numbers mean? Going back to our example of the NFL game between Baltimore and Seattle, we see that Baltimore is the favorite. You’ll also see that the moneyline for the Ravens is -160. This means that you need to wager $160 in order to win $100. You will also receive your original bet back should the Ravens win the game. As mentioned earlier, larger negative numbers indicate bigger favorites. If the Ravens have a moneyline on the game of -250, it would mean that you’d need to wager $250 for the chance to win $100. They’re likely to win, based on these numbers, but the payout relative to your wager is smaller.

Calculating the Underdog Payout

Again using our example of the Ravens and Seahawks, we see that Seattle is the underdog with a moneyline of +130. The calculation of the payout for betting on the underdog is a little different from the calculation of the payout for betting on the favorite. With a moneyline of +130, a successful bet of $100 receives a payout of $130 (in addition to the return of the original $100 wager). Continuing with this math, it would mean that a wager of $200 would return $260 and a wager of $10 would return $13. The payout is better than 1-to-1 and this is meant to compensate for the added risk of betting on the underdog, which is the team that is more likely to lose the game.