Moneyline Betting For Beginners

Online bookmakers offer a wide range of betting markets. One of the most common options for bets in the UK is Moneyline.

In this guide, we’ll discuss what Moneyline bets are and how to make your first successful Moneyline wager on your preferred sport.

Read on.

What is a Moneyline bet?

A Moneyline bet involves picking one team to win the match. It doesn’t get easier than that!

Bookmakers will present you with the odds for both teams (or players, if you bet on individual sports, such as tennis). Your job is to select the one that you think will win, place a bet, and wait for the outcome.

While they are easy, Moneyline bets still require punters to understand the sport and the teams that they’re betting on if they want to win the bet.

How to bet the Moneyline?

Here’s a simple step-by-step guide about how to make a Moneyline bet.

1. Select an online betting site — First, choose a reliable betting site or a betting exchange that you like and open an account (here are a few recommended ones: Betition and Betfred). You’ll also have to make a deposit using one of their accepted payment methods if you want to place real-money bets. Make sure to check out their welcome bonuses as well.
2. Pick a sport — The majority of reputable online sports betting sites feature a wide array of sports, and all of them come with Moneyline bets (you can also consider betting on Point spreads or Totals). Simply pick a sport you like, and the bookie will display all of the current and upcoming matches.
3. Choose a match — Select one of the available games, and you’ll see all of the available betting markets. Moneyline bets are usually listed first, as they are the most popular option.
4. Pick a side — Select the participant who you think will win. However, first, take a good look at the odds to determine whether they are the favourite.
5. Make a bet — Enter the amount that you’d like to bet on your selection and confirm your bet.
6. Wait for the outcome — Wait for the match to wrap up. If your team wins, you’ll receive a payout.
   

Let’s examine an example from the 10bet sports betting site for one of the upcoming matches in the English Premier League: Tottenham against Liverpool.

Almost all football-facing bookies will offer the English Premier League, so you’re very likely to find this game, regardless of which bookmaker you choose.

Once you find the match and select it, you’ll notice that the first thing you can choose is the winner of the match. According to 10bet sports betting site, Liverpool is a heavy favourite and is most likely to win. The odds of Liverpool winning are set to 1.55, as opposed to 5.50 for Tottenham. 

Therefore, if you bet £100 on Liverpool and win, you’ll win a total of £155 (1.55 multiplier x £100 wager). In other words, you’ll receive £55 on your initial wager. 

While that amount doesn’t seem very high, placing a bet on Liverpool comes with less risk, so the reward is reasonable.

The odds of betting on Tottenham are 5.50, meaning that you’ll receive £550 if you place a £100 bet (5.50 multiplier x £100 wager). This is a very risky wager, as the team from London is not very likely to win in the upcoming match — they are massive underdogs.

A draw is a pretty common outcome in football (Moneyline bets only apply to regular time, unless stated otherwise). Because of this, you can also make a draw bet if you think that there won’t be a winner. 

The odds for that outcome in the match of our choice are 4.25, meaning you’ll get £425 on a £100 wager (4.25 multiplier x £100 wager). Many professional punters would agree that a draw is a brave bet to make in this case, although it’s not impossible. If we were to judge by the odds, it’s certainly more likely than Tottenham winning the game.

So, what’s the wisest bet to make for this match? Well, if you only focus on Moneyline bets, then the only logical thing to do is to bet on Liverpool, however low-paying the result would be. 

By the time that this article is posted, the match will be over, and you’ll know whether the predictions made in this article were correct.

Finding a balance

Betting on the clear favourite may not feel too challenging. On the other hand, predicting that a heavy underdog is going to win also carries considerable risk. What should you do in this case?

This is where your skill and ability to research come into play. Instead of just trying to guess the winner, try putting some time into researching the two competitors. 

If they are teams, you should learn more about the starting players and the tactics they are going to use. Moreover, find out if any of the players are injured or have been performing poorly.

Here is an example from Unibet sports betting site statistics:

If you bet on individual sports, make sure to learn more about the players and their duels in the past. Learn more about their recent performances in a given competition. For example, a top paid athlete such as Nadal, a tennis player, is dominant at Roland Garros tournament and is more likely to win against Djokovic there, but it’s a different story with the Australian Open.

There are many things you can learn before making your final decision.

Your goal is to find a balance of decent odds and decent chances to win a bet. In other words, you should use your skill to decrease the involvement of luck.

Still, sports betting is gambling, so luck will always play an important role and should not be neglected.

Accumulator Moneyline bets

Many punters find that betting on just one match isn’t exciting enough, and that’s why they opt to make double, treble or accumulator bets (acca bets).

Doubles involve betting on two selections, and trebles on three. Acca bets are 4+ bets. Instead of betting on just one, they select several matches and put them onto the same betting slip.

For example, instead of just betting on Liverpool vs Tottenham, football fans would often include other matches that are part of the same competition: Wolves vs Chelsea, Norwich vs Arsenal, and more. 

Here is an example of a trebles (three bets) betting slip:

Your job is to select the matches in which you think you’ll be able to predict the winner and place a bet.

Acca bets multiply the odds of all of your selections to create final odds which indicate how much money you’ll win. The only challenge here is that you have to get all of your choices right to win money like some players.

Conclusion

To sum up, making Moneyline bets is easy, and that’s where every new punter should start. Also, it is the most popular type of bet, as it is present in all sports, unlike other betting markets that are often specific to certain games.

Moneyline wagers do not require an understanding of difficult concepts or performing extensive research before placing them (although that will always improve your chances).

If you want to place a Moneyline bet on a sport you like, all you have to do is select your preferred online bookmaker, open an account, deposit the money, and start your sports betting journey.