In the MLB betting industry, run lines are becoming more and more popular as people begin to familiarize themselves with the concept. The most common way to bet on games is with the money line, however, fairly recently sportsbooks started offering something they call the run line to their customers.

If you bet on football or basketball, the run line is most easily understood as a point spread for baseball games. The biggest difference being that the run line is always set with the favorite at -1.5 runs and the underdog set at +1.5 runs.

First it is important to understand that with MLB Run Line Betting you will be choosing sides or teams like you do with money line betting. Run Line Betting in baseball almost mimics NFL Spread Betting exactly, which is the most popular type of football betting. The line for baseball run lines is 1.5. With a 1.5 run line you will be able to place a wager on the favored team to win.

MLB Run Lines for the Favorites

The runline is basically a form of spread betting designed specifically for baseball. It differs from spread betting in NBA and NFL in that it isn’t meant to equally handicap the game. Because baseball is a low scoring game, even adding a single run to a game tips the balance significantly. For those who are unfamiliar, the “run line” is similar to the spread in sports like football or basketball. Instead of betting that a team will win the game straight up (money line betting), you instead bet with a run line of 1.5. A favorite would be listed at -1.5, meaning that they would need to win by at least two runs to cover the spread.

Bettors normally look to run lines when they are faced with taking a huge favorites. Your average bettor simply doesn’t want to lay -200 or -300 on a favorite because the risk is so large, so they lay the extra -1.5, which gives them better odds in terms of how much they have to risk, but also lowers their chances of winning. It’s all a matter of perception. At first look, how much better does the run line look to you based on these hypothetical MLB lines:

• New York Yankees -1.5 (-135)
• New York Yankees -250

Obviously, the -1.5 (-135) is more attractive to your average bettor, after all, if the Yankees are so heavily favored, they should win by at least 2 runs, right? Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case because a significant amount of Major League Baseball games are decided by just one run. In fact, over the past several years, one-run games have occurred in about 27% of all baseball games, and the team winning by one run isn’t always going to be the favorite!

Another thing to consider when betting on the run line is that the home team is most often going to be the heavy favorite in these matchups. This can hurt bettors because, if up by just one run, the home team won’t bat in the bottom of the 9th inning, giving you one less half-inning for them to score runs. Not only that, but if the home team comes from behind in the bottom of the 9th or extra innings, they are almost always going to win by just the one run, leaving run line bettors out in the cold.

MLB Run Lines for the Underdogs

You can also take the run line on the underdog at +1.5 in MLB games, but you will pay a pretty steep price for it. Here is an example of what the odds would look like for an underdog at +1.5:

• Detroit Tigers +1.5 (-190)
• Detroit Tigers +115

As you can see, you pay a hefty price for the extra 1.5 runs. There are plenty of handicappers that will take these types of run lines on occasion, but it is definitely not a regular bet.

Check MLB Totals and MLB Over Under

Always remember to check the total (over/under) before taking a team on the run line. Just think about it, if a total is set for just 7 runs, the sportsbook is expecting a low-scoring game, which is not a good situation for taking a favorite on the run line. On the flip side, if you see at total at 11.5, and have a good read on a heavily favored team, you might be wise to take them on the run line at the discounted price.

A lot of baseball bettors don’t like to lay the huge juice on the favorites, and instead will play the run line. It’s easy to see why so many players get attracted to the -1.5 run line. A favorite who is -150 on the money line could very well be +150 on the run line. The problem with this bet is if the favorite only wins by one run, you end up going home empty-handed.

While you don’t lose any juice by playing the run line, it still stings when you just miss out on what would have been a winner if you had played the money line. That is why I want to share with you how you can turn the -1.5 standard run line in all MLB games into a -1 run line.

Changing MLB Run Lines from -1.5 to -1

The way to turn the -1.5 run line into a -1 run line is to make two separate bets; one on the money line and one on the run line. This doesn’t require you to bet any more than what you were originally betting.

In order to make this work, you simply split up your original bet to where you cover your losses if a favorite only wins by one run. The key part of this whole deal is making sure that your winnings from your money line bet will cancel out your losses from your run line bet. Now, if the favorite wins by just one run, you end up pushing.

Here is an example to help you understand how it works. Say you have New York Yankees -150 on the money line and +145 on the run line. If you were to bet $100 on the Yankees -150, you would win $66.67. Like we mentioned earlier, you want to use that potential profit as your run line wager. That means you would also have a $66.67 bet on the Yankees -1.5 (+145). This wager would bring you a $96.67 profit. All in all you would be wagering $166.67 to win $163.34. If you were to bet $166.67 on the money line alone, you would only win $111.11!

• New York Yankees money line: (-150)
• New York Yankees -1.5 run line: (+145)
• Risk $100 on Yankees -150 to win $66.67
• Risk $66.67 on Yankees -1.5 to win $96.67
• Yankees win by 2 runs = $163.34 profit
• Yankees win by 1 run = Push

While you won’t get the same returns as you would if you were to simply put all your money on the run line, you have essentially turned a -150 favorite into -103 favorite. You still need the favorite to win by two runs, but now you can still walk away unharmed if it ends up in a one run win instead of coming out empty-handed.

Wondering how you figure out how much your money line winnings will be in order to know how much to bet on the run line? Many online sportsbooks will have a feature where you can simply click on the bet you want to make and type in how much you want to wager and it will tell you the expected winnings.

If you have a specific amount you want to bet on the game, these calculators will be very useful. For the calculator at Online Gambling, you would first put in the odds listed on the money line, and then in the bet amount you would put in a number roughly around 60% of your set bet amount. For example, if you only had $100 to bet total on the Yankees -150 and -1.5 (+145). you would bet $60 on the money line and $40 on the run line.

How To Bet On Football Games

$100 on Yankees -1

Run Line Bet Football Game

• Risk $60 on money line (-150) to win $40
• Risk $40 on -1.5 run line (+145) to win $58
• Total risk $100 to win $98