MLB Live Betting Explained
Live betting is a betting market at online sportsbooks that allows you to make bets as games are actively in progress.
MLB live betting odds will appear for various bet types and you’ll decide what you want to wager on and when. Most sites will have a dedicated page for live betting, which can sometimes include a feature that shows live updates happening within the game.
Below, we’ll dive more into how the odds work, how to read the odds, terms to know, strategies, and more.
How does MLB Live Betting Work?
When you’re in the midst of reading live baseball betting odds, the odds will shift and change as the game progresses, as they reflect what’s going on in real-time. So, you’ll need to make decisions fairly quickly. Otherwise, if you don’t and a play like a home run or inning-ending strikeout happens, this could alter the odds negatively for you.
How To Read Odds for Baseball Betting Live
Understanding how to read baseball betting odds and lines, whether pregame or live, is crucial to ensure you’re making sound wagers. Below, we’ll look at some scenarios and how you’d interpret them.
| Example | What It Means |
| Colorado Rockies -1.5 | In this example, the run line is -1.5. This shows that the Rockies need to win by two runs or more to cover their run line. |
| Colorado Rockies -1.5 (-106) | Looking at that same bet, you’ll see odds associated with it. In this case, it’s -106. This shows you’ll need to wager $106 to win $100. |
| San Diego Padres +1.5 | With a run line of +1.5, the Padres can cover by winning the game outright or losing by just one run. |
| San Diego Padres +192 | With “+” odds, you’ll win an amount of money equal to the number next to the odds when you bet $100. In this case, if you bet $100 and won, you’d get $192. This is an example of a live betting moneyline wager. |
| Colorado Rockies -260 | For another live betting moneyline wager, you’ll need to bet $260 to win $100. |
Baseball Betting Live: Terms to Know
- Juice/Vig: Juice/vig is a term that you can use somewhat synonymous with a commission charged by the online sportsbook for accepting the bet. For “-” odds, the number beyond -100 is considered the juice.
- Legs: If you make a live parlay wager, each game or contest you add the betslip is known as a leg. If you’re doing a live Same Game Parlay and add the totals, moneyline, and prop, this would be a “three-leg Same Game Parlay.”
- Hook: Whether it’s the run line or totals, the additional 0.5 is known as the “hook.” You’ll never have a bet that ends in a push when betting this.
- Push: Speaking of a push, let’s cover that next. In betting, “push” is a word used to describe a tie. If the totals line is right runs and the game ends with a score of 5-3, eight runs were scored; therefore, you’d tie or push. When this happens, you’ll receive your original wager back.
- Cover: To cover a bet means to adequately meet its requirements of it. In the context of the run line, if a team is -1.5 and they win by two runs, they will have met the requirement of the bet by exceeding 1.5 runs.
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MLB Live Betting Strategy Options
Be sure to click on the tabs below to learn more about the different betting strategies available for live betting on the MLB.
One of the best ways to leverage live betting is by hedging your pregame wagers. Hedging is a term used in betting to describe a strategy where you either limit your losses or bet in a way that’ll still provide winnings but less than the original and standalone wager would’ve offered. For example, if you bet $170 on the Padres moneyline at -170 and they’re losing in the sixth inning, you could then decide to bet on their opponent, the Rockies, at -145. In this example, if you bet $159.80, you’d have a total bet amount of nearly $330, but you will lose around $60 instead of $170.
Monitor In-Game Injury Reports
Players leave games injured all the time. Throughout the game, there will be updates on a player's status to return. Depending on the player, this could impact the live betting odds moving forward, depending on the context of the game.
This may seem like a rather silly tip, but watching the game is advantageous with live betting. Instead of watching stats, you can watch the game and see how a pitcher is doing, whether they look like they’re getting tired, dealing with a nagging injury, and so on. Having eyes on the game can help make bets much easier.
Bet During Innings Changes/Commercial Breaks
While baseball may be one of the slower sports, Major League Baseball has added things such as the pitch clock to move the game along. With live betting odds, they’ll shift and change as the game progresses, so if you bet during a commercial break or in between innings, this is when you’ll have stable odds for a longer period.
Monitor Promotions at Online Sportsbook
A popular promotion for existing players can involve live betting. Be sure to check around the sites in your state to see if any are offered before wagering to see if you can get some additional bonuses like profit boosts, insurance, and more.
Bet Against Hitters to Get A Hit
A micro-betting option that you’ll have available to you when live betting is whether or not the next batter will get a hit. As you may know, if a player has a batting average of .300, he gets a hit in 30% of his at-bats. Thus, the likelihood of not getting a hit may lean in your favor.
Getting Started On Live Betting MLB
- Read our online sportsbook reviews to see which site you’d like to play at.
- Visit the site's desktop webpage or download the mobile app.
- Create an account.
- Make a deposit.
- Wait for an MLB game to start.
- Go to its live betting page.
- Wait for a bet you want to make, add it to your betslip, and wait for the results.
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Conclusion on Live Betting Odds MLB
As you now know, live betting is not only a fantastic way to bet on MLB games if you have forgotten to lodge pre-game bets, but it can also be used as a great tool for hedging pre-game wagers.
After reading this page, we’re confident that you’ll be able to dive into MLB live betting with ease, but when you open up that live betting page, be sure to have this page open in another tab to refer back to it until you feel comfortable with live betting on your favorite teams.
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