Strategy: How to Make Money Betting on Baseball Games

I’m ready for baseball season and not only for the cold beers, warm weather and sausage races. I’m also ready to start making some money betting on baseball games. Baseball is a difficult sport to bet on because outcomes of games are so random. Unlike football or basketball, it’s not rare for a vastly inferior team to beat a much better opponent in baseball. In fact, a bad team can go on the road and win 3 out of 4 from a World Series contender. But, in the long run, the top teams end up with the most wins. So how do you bet baseball games and consistently win? Here’s how:

Match-Ups, Match-Ups, Match-Ups

The outcome of baseball games is determined by individual match-ups. Some games, the team with a match-up disadvantage wins. That’s because players and teams don’t play up to their abilities every game. Everyone has occasional off-nights. However, if you expect to win money over the long haul, you’ll need to pay attention to the match-ups on a game-by-game basis.

When I talk about match-ups, I’m not just talking about assessing team batting average versus pitcher ERA, etc. You need to use more advanced stats and splits to handicap the game. There are more factors involved in profiting at the sportsbooks than picking games based on overrated traditional baseball stats. You need to find the answers to these questions before betting on a game:

-How well does (team name) perform offensively on the road/at home?

-How well does (pitcher name) perform on the road/at home?

After that, you also need to determine how well you expect each pitcher to perform against that type of lineup. For example, if a power pitcher is facing a free swinging, high strikeout lineup, that’s a big edge to the pitcher. So even if this pitcher has a high ERA and the lineup produces a lot of runs, I would handicap this game as an edge to the pitcher. Make sense? You can find any stat you need over at Baseball-Reference.com. You can get information about every play and team on that site. I use it to handicap games.

Never Bet Too Much on Any Game

Baseball isn’t a sport you should wager too many units on any one game. There are no guarantees in baseball. You could find a game with a dominating starter up against a hapless lineup with the opposing pitcher posting a 5+ ERA against the best lineup in baseball, and that doesn’t mean anything. You just never know when a mediocre lineup will string together a bunch of bloop singles or a great lineup will have an off day.

You should place consistent wagers on baseball games. Any team can win on any given day against any team. I don’t care if the Cardinals are facing the Astros and the ‘Stros are sending their #5 starter out to the mound against the Cards ace. That’s not a guarantee the Cardinals are going to win. Wager 1-2 units on each game throughout the season. Let’s say you bet 15 units on one game you’re just certain you know which team is going to win.

What if that team loses? Now you have to make those losses up by going on a hot streak. Don’t put yourself in that position. Bet smart and consistent. Pay close attention to the match-ups. 2014 is going to be a great baseball season. I’m ready to win some big bucks this year at the sportsbooks. Now that you’ve read this article, you can too.