The moneyline is a great bet in basketball betting, as long as you don’t get too carried away betting favorites. It’s a SUPER play when betting short (small) underdogs.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with what a moneyline bet is, let us explain:
A moneyline is just a fancy way for saying that we’re eliminating the point spread and making it so your team only has to win by one point.
Since that gives too much value to the favored team in the bet and is not fair to the underdog, we compensate for each by creating an odds to win style bet.
The favorite bet then becomes a bet more to win less proposition.
Conversely, the underdog becomes a bet x amount to profit more proposition.
Here’s an odds conversion chart so you can get a look at what a point spread converts to when changed to a moneyline bet:
| Point Spread | Money Line |
| -2 | -130/+110 |
| -2.5 | -140/+120 |
| -3 | -155/+135 |
| -3.5 | -175/+155 |
| -4 | -200/+170 |
| -4.5 | -220/+180 |
| -5/-5.5 | -240/+190 |
| -6 | -270/+210 |
| -6.5 | -300/+220 |
| -7 | -330/+250 |
| -7.5/-8/-8.5 | -360/+280 |
| -9/-9.5 | -400/+300 |
| -10 | -450/+325 |
As you can see, if you take a basketball game with a favorite of -7 and change it to a moneyline bet, you are not risking $330 to win $100. (You could also look at it as risking $3.30 for every $1.00 you want to win.)
On the flip side, if you want to take a hoops underdog that would have been getting +7 points on the spread, this bet now pays +250 which means you bet $100 to PROFIT $250 (or profit $2.50 for ever $1.00 you risk). It can also be viewed as 2.5/1 odds.
The reason that the favorite pays less with more risk is because the outcome is more likely to happen. Underdogs are less likely to happen, hence why their compensated at such a high rate.
As some advice from somebody who has been there, don’t even for a second think that taking a -10 favorite and turning it into a -450 moneyline play is a solid bet. While its very likely to cash, IF IT DOESN’T, you are screwed and in a hole BIGTIME.
Losing one -450 play means you have to win 4.5 bets in a row just to break even and that is not easy in sports betting! In fact, it’s against the odds.
A great place to install a moneyline bet is when an NBA team is a short underdog, say +3 or less. There’s a good chance that if the underdog is going to cover the +3 that they’ll also win the game straight up. This isn’t always the case, but is often the case.
So with a dog of +3, you would play the moneyline at +135 which would mean your bet would be risking $100 to profit $135 instead of taking it on the spread at +3 which would be risking $110 (more) to win $100 (less.)
Before we go, may we recommend you check out the best places to bet on basketball on the web?
Good luck in your action!