What does the moneyline mean in sports betting?

While there are many ways to wager, including point spreads, over/under, props, and more, nothing is more straightforward and accessible than a moneyline wager. 

In this guide, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about moneyline betting, including what it is, how to read the odds, how it’s different than the point spread, strategies, and so much more.

Let’s dive in.

As mentioned, the moneyline wager is the most accessible because of what you need to consider before making it. 

To make a moneyline wager, simply pick who you think will win the game. 

Let’s say the Detroit Lions are playing the Green Bay Packers, and you think the Lions will win. In this case, you’d place a moneyline wager on the Lions. 

If the Lions win the game, you win. If they lose, you lose. 

It’s that simple.

The moneyline wager is arguably the most popular because, again, it’s the most straightforward, and you don’t have to consider other betting angles when you make a choice. 

That said, there are odds to consider that could limit the value of a potential pick, which I’ll discuss more in later sections. 

So, if someone asks you what a moneyline bet is, simply say, “It’s the bet you make on what team you think will win the game.” 

To understand how to read moneyline odds, you first need to grasp the concept of the favorite and the underdog. 

For moneyline betting purposes, the names are pretty self-explanatory, but it’s all about how they’re notated in a wager.

The favored team will have a “-” before the odds, whereas the underdog will have a “+.”

Now, what do these symbols mean? 

To explain, let’s consider both winning or wagering $100. Let’s use the Lions and Packers as an example again. 

So remember, “-” odds is how much you must wager to win $100, whereas “+” is how much you’ll win with a successful $100 bet.

The moneyline and point spread are two of the most popular ways to bet on games, but they’re incredibly different types of bets. The point spread is a number that’s designed to make the teams as even as possible. 

In the example above, the Lions were favored at -280. So, for them, they’d also be a favorite on the point spread. 

For this example, let’s say they’re -5.5 points. With this “-,” this means that the Lions are “surrendering” 5.5 points. If the final score was 27-21 in favor of the Lions, you’d subtract the 5.5 points from their final score. Here, it would be 21.5 points, so they’d still win. However, if they won 26-21, it would be 20.5, and they’d lose. 

So, as you can see when you bet on the point spread, the team you bet on can still win the game in “real life,” but in the “betting world,” you’d lose the bet. 

Conversely, underdogs get the same point value but with a “+.” As for the Packers, they’d either need to win the game outright or lose by five points or less to cover the spread. 

So if they lost 24-20, they’d still cover as you’d add the 5.5 points, and they’d be ahead of the Lions 25.5-24. 

As for the betting odds, because the concept of the point spread is to make teams equal, both sides will have odds that are at or close to -110. A $110 wager would pay $100. 

Sometimes you should bet the point spread and the moneyline, but each game has its nuance, and there’s no universal rule. For myself, if the moneyline is too lopsided, like -500, for example, there’s little value as I’d need to wager $500 to win $100. 

Moneyline wagers function exactly the same across all sports—one team is favored, and the other is the underdog to varying degrees. I’ll provide examples below to further understand how this bet type works. 

Note: There are occasions where teams are so evenly matched that they could both have “-” odds on the moneyline. The same rules apply: Bet the amount associated with the odds to win $100. 

I used the Lions and SteePackers as an example above, so let’s look at college football, where the team’s strengths and weaknesses can lead to massive disparity on the moneyline. 

In UFC, moneylines can also get lopsided like college football, but plenty of fights may be more closely matched. 

Baseball is often decided by just one run, making moneylines a bit tighter than you may be used to. 

Like baseball, hockey is a sport in which 1-0 wins are possible, so you could see some close calls on the moneyline. 

When you go to make a moneyline wager, it’s never a bad idea to have some tips and tricks in your back pocket to utilize to set yourself up for the most success. 

Whenever I do moneyline betting, there are three strategies I use every time and I’ll share those with you here.

As shown, moneyline bets can have some lopsided odds, but when you parlay them together, this can help even it up a little bit. 

For example, say the Lions are -550 in a game, and the Packers are -230 in another game. You think they’ll both win, but betting on them individually leaves little value. By combining them together on a parlay, the odds go from -550 and -230 separately, to one betslip with much more manageable -145 odds. 

This goes for all betting markets, but especially for moneylines where, again, odds can get a bit out of hand, so finding value is important. For example, if you’re in a state with three online sportsbooks and one has the Lions at -280, another at -275, and one at -300, you should decide to wager at the second one as it requires the least amount to wager to win that $100, but it also presents the most value per dollar wagered. 

This depends on the sport, but in football, a key number is three points, which is one of the lowest point totals a team can score outside of a safety. So, if you see a game where the point spread is 2.5, betting the moneyline might be the safe option. This is especially true if you think the underdog would win. Say the Eagles are +2.5 against the Baltimore Ravens, and you think they’ll win. On the point spread, their odds are -110, but the moneyline is +135. It’s not too often an NFL game is decided by two points or less, so betting the moneyline offers more value for the money you wagered. 

I used betting or winning $100 as examples above, but there’s an easy formula you can use to calculate all of your moneyline wagers. 

While I’ve covered many topics concerning moneylines, here are some other questions I get asked about the subject. 

Why not just always bet on the moneyline? 

Like most things, there’s always nuance. Sure, you can bet solely on the moneyline, but the value has to enter the equation. For example, say the Lions are playing the Carolina Panthers. Sure, we may all think the Lions will win, but if they’re -1500, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth it to even bother wagering as, really, anything can happen in the NFL and sports as a whole. So, if you wager $1500 to win $100, are you prepared to potentially lose? 

Why do moneyline odds change? 

I see this all the time. “It was -280 yesterday. Why is it -350 today?”

As you know, things in sports change all the time. A key injury could’ve come out, a player could be coming back, and more. On the betting side of things, there could’ve been a massive wager that influenced the sportsbook to change the line. Many elements play into how odds change on a moneyline. 

How do I win a moneyline wager? 

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you any bonafide way to ensure success, but the strategy is quite simple—pick the team that will win. Of course, none of us truly know, but that’s the only way I recommend winning moneyline bets: pick the winner.