Caesars Sportsbook, a popular online sportsbook, defines making a money line wager as a 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 or assisted by head starts, the competitors are given odds to win the game or event.
You are most likely looking at a money line bet if you see positive and negative numbers.
When betting on a money line, if the team you want to bet on has a negative number, it means they are the favorite to win.
For example, let’s say the Mavericks are playing the Magic. For this example, let’s set the money line as the following:
- Dallas Mavericks -305
- Orlando Magic: +240
With this money line, the Mavs are favored to win. The numbers also show the bettor how much money they will need to wager to win a certain amount. In this example, if you bet Dallas to win, you would have to bet $305 to win $100. If you bet on Orlando, you would win $240 for every $100 wagered.
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