Question: Moneyline Or The Spread - Which Is Your Preference?

Search

Professional At All Times
Joined
Dec 3, 2003
Messages
42,732
Tokens
Thought this subject might start a good discussion. Routinely, betters are conditioned to bet the ML in sports like baseball and hockey, but in football and basketball many, not all, will decide to more often bet against the spread and won't even considered betting a heavy ML favorite in football and basketball, but yet may do so in baseball and hockey. Have often wondered why that is. Any thoughts?
 

New member
Joined
Aug 1, 2005
Messages
1,415
Tokens
Betting against the spread compared to money line keeps your bankroll from going one way or the other too fast. If you bet against the spread, you know you have to hit 53% of your bets and that's that.

When you start thinking of betting the money line, you will probably have to make many more bets for the variance of risk to stay the same - it will fluctuate a lot more back and forth. You take a chalk favorite that loses, it takes quite a few bets to make up for that. You take a few dogs in a row that get blown out, same thing.
 

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
6,480
Tokens
oldmanTED said:
Have often wondered why that is. Any thoughts?

I think the central reason is the higher numbers scored in football and basketball compared with hockey and baseball.

You really don't have spread betting available in baseball or hockey since, with the notable exception of 5 Dimes, the spread is always -1.5.

The low scoring nature of hockey means you can't set a -110/-110 spread. Today for example Rangers is -185/+175 and Rangers -1.5 is +162/-172. However you play this game your winning percentage needs to differ from 52.4%.
 

Cui servire est regnare
Joined
Sep 21, 2004
Messages
11,033
Tokens
All i know is, i took Cal on the ML last night, had i taken them on the spread i would have lost...Spreads of 6 and lower, i rarely take on Spread..
 

New member
Joined
Aug 19, 2005
Messages
7,267
Tokens
Play Mostly dogs on the M/L and Spreads at the same time. Can catch a nice payout when the Doggieeeeeee wins flat. Somtimes push when Doggiee plays within the number, but most times in this spot i show + as haveing more on the spread.
And YES when Doggie gets beat badly in can be BLOODY !
 

New member
Joined
Feb 4, 2003
Messages
3,271
Tokens
the question is...do you think there is a difference?

Are the prices on MLs "off" form the spreads?

Most likely, you are playing into the same advantage/disadvantage
 

Official Rx music critic and beer snob
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Messages
25,128
Tokens
I've been playing around with this. What seems to work for me is if I play a dog, I take my bet size and 75% goes on the line and 25% on the ML. This way, I'm not betting any more than I normally would but get a little bigger bang for the buck. I rarely will play a dog that I don't think has a shot of winning straight-up.
 

Self appointed RX World Champion Handicapper
Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
15,052
Tokens
the reason i like money lines is that i am betting on the same thing hopefully the team i am backing is looking for :

a win
 

Forum statistics

Threads
1,106,770
Messages
13,438,857
Members
99,338
Latest member
chaicoca816
The RX is the sports betting industry's leading information portal for bonuses, picks, and sportsbook reviews. Find the best deals offered by a sportsbook in your state and browse our free picks section.FacebookTwitterInstagramContact Usforum@therx.com