Sports betting comes with a lot of terms and pieces of jargon that can be hard to understand. For a newcomer, getting your head around what these words like “Money Line” mean is going to be useful in the future. In this article, we are going to look at the negative money line which is a term usually seen in American sports betting. If you have never heard of the negative money line before, then we will tell you everything that you need to know about it – so read on!
What is a Money Line?
For absolute beginners, we have to open up right at the start. The money line is a term used in sports betting in the United States, as well as some other countries around the world. What the money line refers to merely is which team or player is going to win a particular match. In the US, there is usually a point spread, which is effectively a handicap. Let’s say you are looking at the money line for a Premier League game between Manchester United and Liverpool. United are playing at home, and they are the favorites in the sports betting odds for this match. On the money line, this means that United might be at around -250 and Liverpool +200.
In this example, you need to place a bet of $250 to win $100 on United. Money line bets are useful, but those who like to back favorites will find that they have to use large stakes if they want to be able to make a decent profit.
How Is A Negative Money Line Different?
It is easy to spot the negative money line in sports betting. In the above example of a game between United and Liverpool, the ‘-‘ sign shows the negative money line. Backing United in that example would be taking a bet from the negative money line. If you are wondering why the money line never seems to add up, there is a simple reason why this is the case. Bookmakers who run sports betting operations retain a house edge, which is usually at around the five percent mark.
What this does is helps to protect their profits and ensures that they are not going to lose a lot of cash on a market. Negative money line bets can be handy for those who do not like to take a lot of risks when they are betting on their favorite sports. The benefit is that the favorite usually wins, but as all sports fans know, this is not always the case. One of the reasons why sports betting is so popular around the world is that it is almost impossible to predict the outcome of a particular match accurately.
Ideal For Beginners
Those who are relatively new to sports betting are recommended to get up and running on the negative money line. While backing favorites is less risky, it does also mean it is harder to make a lot of profit out of betting on the sport. More experienced players who bet on sports will usually find better opportunities to make their money.
But for those who are nervous about getting started, sticking to the negative money line can prove to be a good idea. It is also easy to work out potential profits on the negative money line. The figure shown is how much you need to stake if you want to receive 100 of your chosen currency back. It is that simple!
