Similar to any athletic competition, betting on sports is most enjoyable when you win. After all, as Red Sanders said, “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”. Fans of wagering on multiple sports know that each league has its own quirks. Some consider basketball to be the most predictable sport overall because of the outsized impact that a single superstar – like LeBron James or Stephen Curry – creates on the outcome of each game.
To a lesser extent, the same can be said for goaltenders, quarterbacks, and pitchers, all of whom dominate the daily scoresheet. None of the major pro sports play as many regular season games as baseball, which features 30 teams and 2,430 total matches to bet on. The importance of pitching and a large volume of games makes baseball betting a relatively easy endeavor, as long as you practice smart wagering.
Baseball betting in volume
No matter how hard they try, oddsmakers will always miss on some of their projections, miscalculating the outcome of a game. In some cases, an extreme upset occurs, while in others, the moneylines issued by sportsbooks provide a payout that’s a bit more valuable than the odds imply. Huge upsets that pay 10-1 on your wager tend to be extremely rare, while smaller windfalls happen with greater frequency.
Since baseball features a long regular season schedule of 162 games, advantageous volume scenarios increase relative to other major North American sports leagues. Major League Baseball lends itself to long-term wagering strategies simply because of the abundance of games played.
Even better, baseball has been obsessed with statistics for decades, providing a large amount of data for analysts, betting experts, and enthusiasts. This leads to the development of betting systems and best practices which benefit baseball bettors of all stripes. When playing long term, an increase of a few percentage points in winning percentage and payouts make the difference between a losing season and steady winnings.
It’s (mostly) about pitching
Regardless of whether you’re playing moneylines, point spreads, or over/unders, the pitching staff determines most of the outcome for baseball matchups. Keeping tabs on individual pitchers and team trends can inform the majority of your wagering strategies.
Obviously you should know what’s going on with the rest of the lineup. If you’re still wondering about the importance of pitching, ask yourself who you would be more likely to bet against: Chris Sale, or the Boston Red Sox?
Some concentrate on staff aces, in particular those who pitch well but have an unlucky game. If the next line the pitcher plays offers a solid payout, you might want to bet on a solid starting performance without the prospect of bad luck striking twice. Since divisional rivals play against each other more often, familiarity grows their contempt for one another, with both teams playing intense baseball driven by competitive hate. In these cases, you may find that underdogs win more often than expected, simply because of their enmity towards a divisional enemy.
Other types of betting “systems” exist, but narrowing your focus on pitching distills the most vital data. Build on a solid pitching foundation, then expand to more complex analysis. Systematically wagering on pitching in baseball can be one of the most fun and profitable ways to build wagering capital during the summer season, before football and basketball swing into action.
Even better, baseball has been obsessed with statistics for decades, providing a large amount of data for analysts, betting experts, and enthusiasts. This leads to the development of betting systems and best practices which benefit baseball bettors of all stripes. When playing long term, an increase of a few percentage points in winning percentage and payouts make the difference between a losing season and steady winnings.