After all, oddsmakers are pretty good at setting lines that will result in their own profit over a long period of time. Should You Bet the Run Line or Moneyline?Īs you might expect, there isn't an obvious answer to this question. Giants bettors, meanwhile, would be able to win their bet on a one-run loss while still being paid out at a plus-money price. Here, a confident Dodgers bettor would be able to take a much more reasonable -150 price by going with the run line instead of laying -280. They believe it's not a matter of if the Dodgers win, it's by how much, so they're fine laying -1.5 runs for a better price. Most bettors find the run line appealing useful in these games, where one team is a big favorite. Now let's look at the moneylines and run lines for a game in which one team is a big favorite. In this case, if you want to bet the Yankees to win the game, you'd be laying a -130 - so a $130 wager would return a win of $100.īut, if you're willing to bet that the Yankees will win by more than a run, you could wager $100 and win $150. The run line is baseball's version of point spread betting, and allows a bettor to wager on whether the favorite will beat the underdog by more than a run or whether the underdog will keep the game within a run. What Is the Run Line in Baseball Betting?