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4 Best Baseball Betting Tips to Boost Your MLB Wagers

Robert Duff

By Robert Duff

Updated:


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Baseball is America’s pastime. The boys of summer. Peanuts. Cracker Jack. And with endless chances to place a wager, it pays to pick up a few baseball betting tips.

If you’re new to wagering on sporting events, Major League Baseball (MLB) is the land of opportunity. There are over a dozen regular season baseball games in play virtually every day from April to October.

Just as baseball teams pre-scout their upcoming opponent to learn traits and tendencies, the wise bettor learns all they can about the sport they intend to put their money on prior to laying that first wager.

We’re here to help boost your baseball betting strategy with our handy how-to guide with MLB betting tips. Before wagering on the latest MLB odds, here are four easy baseball betting tips to get you started.

More on How to Bet on Baseball:

Best Baseball Betting Tips You Need to Know

When it comes to finding the best baseball betting tips, we’ve got you covered. A lot of times, people will simply bet on baseball because they love a certain team like the Boston Rex Sox or New York Yankees. As an educated baseball bettor, it’s your job to take emotion out of the equation so you can win some real money.

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Are you picking the New York Yankees to beat the Boston Red Sox because you genuinely think they’re the better team or are you just a huge fan of the Yankees? These are the types of questions you should be asking yourself before betting on any regular baseball season, MLB playoff, or World Series games. The more work you put into actually understanding how two teams matchup, it will help you get a better overall picture of where your bets should be directed.

To help, we’ve compiled some helpful baseball betting tips that will get you in the right zone to win your bet.

Find an MLB Betting Site For You

Finding the right baseball betting sites is all about determining which one is the best fit for you.  Just because a sportsbook has a big brand name behind them doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be chomping at the bit to bet with them. That’s why it’s important to take a look at each of these betting sites and see what they have to offer. Only then can you make an informed decision about which oddsmaker you want to use.

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Once you’ve decided on your ideal baseball betting site, it’s time to roll with the tipsters to get your next big payout.

1. Pitching Is Vital to Baseball Success
Real estate agents will advise that the key to selling home is location, location, location. When it comes to baseball betting, the key to success is pitching, pitching and more pitching. Our first baseball betting tip is to pay close attention to who’s pitching.

The search for the best MLB games to place a wager on always begins with the day’s list of probable pitchers. In football, the quarterback is the key player. But unless there’s an injury, this player remains the same every game. In baseball, the starting pitcher changes every game.

Baseball Is An Arms Race

Teams go with five-man starting rotations. On opening day, expect that staff aces will clash. But moving forward, pitching rotations get juggled as injuries, weather, and the quirks of the schedule impact a season.

Look for games where one team’s ace catches a matchup with the opposition’s #5 starter when. Keep an eye out for doubleheaders for betting baseball tips, when a team might be forced to call up a minor leaguer for a spot start.

One of the newest trends in baseball is the bullpen start. In this instance, a team utilizes several pitchers, each for one or two innings of work. Pitting such a mish-mash against a top starter can lead to an easy payday for those backing the star.

That said, don’t limit your pitching research to starters. Understanding the capabilities of a team’s bullpen is equally essential to predicting their potential success. A brilliant effort from a starter can implode in a matter of moments if the ball is handed off to an erratic relief corps.

Check out a team’s bullpen ERA. Know their recent history. Are they on a roll, or struggling and overtaxed? If you like the day’s starter but are sour on the bullpen, consider a first five innings baseball bet, where your ticket cashes out after the conclusion of the fifth inning.

2. Home Underdogs Are Easy Money

Major league baseball plays a 162-game season. That’s 81 games for every home team. The average home record during the 2019 MLB season was 42-38. Most teams win at home more often than not. Of the 30 MLB ballclubs, 18 posted winning home records during the 2019 season.

Our next baseball betting tip?

Finding an underdog playing in their own ballpark is always a good thing. This especially holds true in quirky places like Boston’s Fenway Park, or in the mile-high altitude at Colorado’s Coors Field. During the 2019 season, 13 teams played .500 baseball or better as a home underdog.

Even really bad teams like the Baltimore Orioles (20 wins) and Miami Marlins (28 wins) enjoyed significant success when getting odds at home.

The beauty of betting underdogs is that you don’t need to win as often to turn a profit, since you are getting positive odds from the moneyline with each wager.

3. No Rest Is Wicked Hard

When waging the battle of a 162-game campaign, rest is a treasured entity that can play into your MLB bet tips. Not surprisingly, teams with a rest advantage are generally successful when they return to action against an opponent who’s taking the diamond after playing the day before.

In fact, 19 of 30 teams posted .500 or better records during the 2019 MLB season in games when they held a rest advantage over their opponent. It probably won’t come as a surprise that top teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers (6-2), Houston Astros (5-2) and Tampa Bay Rays (5-2) were all very successful in this scenario.

But the value of the rest advantage is emphasized when you know that the 108-loss Baltimore Orioles were 6-4 when owning a rest edge, and the 95-loss Toronto Blue Jays were 5-2. Despite their struggles, the Blue Jays are a promising team, and fans will soon be able to wager when Canada sports betting launches.

Even the woeful Detroit Tigers, who lost an MLB-high 114 games, went 2-1 with a rest advantage.

4. Divisional Dogs Are A Tasty Treat

Every MLB team plays each of their divisional opponents 19 times during the course of the season. That’s an awful lot of chances for the underdog to come up big and post a victory. Our final baseball betting tip for beginners is to pay close attention to divisional matchups when looking for underdogs.

During the 2019 campaign, every MLB team won at last 22 games against divisional opponents. The Tigers won 22 of their 47 games against American League Central Division opponents. That’s 46.8 percent of their victories. The Blue Jays captured 33 of 67 victories (49.2 percent) at the expense of AL East clubs.

You know in the majority of those games, each of those teams were the underdogs in the opening betting lines. Seeing so much of each other over the course of a season breeds familiarity, and makes upsets in divisional matchups more likely.

Remember that you may not cash as many winners betting the underdog, but by taking the positive odds, your return on investment will likely be higher over the long run.

Baseball Betting Tips Made Easy

So there you have it with our baseball betting tips and tricks. As with any sports wagering, do your homework and stay on top of which direction both individual players and teams are trending. Focus on these four easy tips and profitable baseball bets should be soon coming your way.

For advice on how to bet on other sports, don’t forget to check out our informative sports betting how-to guides.

What are some basic tips for betting on baseball?

Some basic tips for betting on baseball include avoiding big favorites, paying attention to the weather, follow divisional underdogs, and doing your research on rested pitchers. Always wager responsibly when betting on baseball.

How important are pitching matchups in baseball betting?

Pitching matchups are of the utmost importance when it comes to betting on baseball successfully. Having a strong five-man pitching rotation sets the best baseball teams apart from the others, and knowing each team's roster is crucial to MLB betting.

How can you find value in baseball betting?

There are a few ways you can find value in baseball betting. Make sure you do your research, understand that home underdogs are easy money, and complete thorough line shopping to find good value in baseball betting.

Robert Duff
Robert Duff

Sports Writer

An industry veteran, Bob literally taught the course on the history of sports at Elder College. He has worked as a Sports Columnist for Postmedia, appeared as a guest on several radio stations, was the Vice President of the Society For International Hockey Research in Ontario, and written 25 books.

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