If you want to bet on football, then you have plenty of options.
There are not only lots of games you can bet on, there are also
lots of different types of wagers you can place. Point spreads
and totals are the most popular types, by quite a distance, and
many football bettors stick solely to those. This isn’t really the
ideal approach, as some of the other wagers can be very useful
in the right circumstances.

1. What Is A Moneyline Bet In Football Championship

The moneyline is definitely one of those wagers. This is often viewed as an
alternative to the point spread, and in some respects it is, but
that doesn’t mean it should be ignored just because you like betting on the spread. We explain why in this
article, and we also offer some tips for betting football moneylines.

• In sports betting, a moneyline bet is a wager on which team will win a game. Moneylines are the primary wagering option for hockey and baseball, while for basketball and football they are viewed as a secondary alternative to the point spread. Have you ever heard of moneyline betting?
• The term moneylines can have two definitions: a type of bet and also the odds attached to certain bets. Starting with the type of bet, moneyline bets simply focus on the outright winner of a game.

First, though, we’ll explain exactly how moneylines work when betting on football. You can watch this video we have put together or read on for even more information down the page.

How Football Moneylines Work

Betting the moneyline for a football game is simply betting on which team you think is going to win. There is no point spread involved. Whichever team you select has to win outright for a wager to be successful. In the unlikely event of a tie, your stake will be returned.

In most football games there is a favorite and an underdog. Very occasionally there are games where the two team are completely evenly matched, but for the most part one team is favored over the other to win. With point spreads, the idea is to create an even money proposition when betting on the game. So the favorite has to win by at least a certain number of points for a wager on them to be successful, and the underdog has to lose by no more than a certain number of points for a wager on them to be successful. The bigger the gap in quality between the two teams, the bigger the point spread.

Moneyline bets present the most straightforward way to wager on a sports contest. A moneyline wager simply asks the bettor to choose which team will win a game, with no point spread involved. The Moneyline is a wager option where sports bettors are betting on who will win the game, with the favored team seeing reduced odds and the underdog receiving increased odds. When it comes to football, the spread is generally the primary betting option for most sports bettors. It’s a little more straightforward in that your.

Because there’s no point spread involved with moneyline wagers, the odds are adjusted to reflect this. So whereas both sides of a point spread wager both have the same odds, or very close to the same (typically around -110), moneyline odds can be very different. Here’s an example.

For this game, the Cardinals are the clear favorites. The bookmakers consider them very likely to win the game, so the odds are quite low. By contrast, the odds for the Packers are quite high because they’re not considered very likely to win. Here’s how the potential payouts look for the two wagers.

As you can see, you stand to make a much better return when backing the Packers. This is because the risks are higher, due to their chances of winning. The Cardinals are far more likely to win than lose, so a wager on them doesn’t offer a great return.

This highlights a notable advantage of the moneyline wager. You get to control, to some extent, the risk versus reward. For example, you might be quite certain that the Cardinals are going to win this game, but not convinced that they’re going to cover the spread. So a moneyline wager is the safe option. There’s less money to be made, but less chance of losing. On the other hand, you might think that the Packers are going to cause an upset. Rather than betting on them to cover the spread, you can bet on them to win outright. There’s less chance of winning such a wager, but the potential returns are much greater.

We mentioned earlier how point spreads change depending on the gap in quality between the two teams. The same principle applies to moneylines, but it’s the odds that change. So, for example, if two teams are fairly evenly matched then the following odds might be available.

The potential payout for a bet on the underdog here is lower than in the previous match, because they have a better chance of winning. The potential payout for a bet on the favorite is higher because they’re not AS likely to win.

When to Bet Moneylines

We’re often asked a question along the lines of “why would I place moneyline wagers rather than point spread wagers?” There’s no simple answer to this question really, as point spreads and moneylines shouldn’t be viewed as “either/or” options as such. You don’t have to decide that you’re always going to bet on the spread, or that you’re always going to bet moneylines. These are two different wager types that have their own merits, and any bettor should have them both in their arsenal.

We’ve already mentioned how moneyline wagers give you more control over the risk versus reward element of betting. There are also other reasons why you might choose this type of wager over a points spread. If you fully understand how both of these wagers work, you’ll find that there are games when a moneyline wager is the right option, and games when the point spread wager is the right option. There are no definitive rules about which one you should use and when, only a general principle that you should try to follow.

This should hopefully make perfect sense to you. Successful betting, on any sport, is all about finding value, so you should always look to get the best value that you can. If a moneyline wager offers the best value on a football game, then that’s the wager you should be placing. If a point spread seems the best option, then go down that route. There may even be occasions where it’s viable to place both wagers on the same game.

With all that being said, there is one situation where we’d suggest the moneyline wager is usually a better option than a point spread wager. This is when you like three point underdogs in an NFL game. Only a small percentage of NFL games are decided by three points or less, so if you think a three point underdog is going to cover then you might as well bet on them to win outright. This will generally give you a much better return.

The Seattle versus Carolina game we showed you earlier is a good example of just that kind of situation. Here’s how the point spread looked for that game.

Seattle are three point underdogs, and a bet on them to cover is available at odds of -110. If you liked that bet, it would actually be much more logical to place a moneyline wager at odds of +130. Let’s look at the potential returns for the two bets.

This is a huge difference. The potential profit on the moneyline wager ($143) is over 40% greater than that of the point spread wager ($100). You’re a little less likely to win, as there is a chance that Seattle would lose by one or two points, but there’s a more than fair chance that if they did cover they would actually win the match. And, of course, if they lost by three or more then you’d have lost either way.

Tips for Betting Football Moneylines

Now that you know how moneylines work, and have some idea of when to use them, you can start to consider how to bet moneylines effectively. The following tips will help you with this.

Work on Your Handicapping Skills

As with any type of football wager, your best hope of making money lies in being able to handicap games effectively. This means analyzing each team’s relative chances of winning, and then comparing those chances to the odds available. That’s a slightly simplified explanation of how handicapping works, but it’s accurate nonetheless.

Actually handicapping games is far from simple though. Or, at least, handicapping them well is. There are all kinds of different factors that can affect the outcome of a game, and you need to take as many of them as possible into account. You also need to assess just how much of an impact those factors will have, and try to accurately evaluate just how likely a team is to win. For more advice on how to do this, please see the following article.

Picks Your Spots

One of the biggest mistakes that bettors make is trying to make a judgement on every single game that’s taking place. This is especially true of those who only focus on the NFL. There aren’t that many games each week, and bettors think they stand the best chance of making money if they can predict the outcomes in all of them. This is not an approach we recommend.

The key to successful betting lies in quality and not quantity. Your overall chances of winning are much greater if you pick your spots carefully, and only bet when you find real value. There isn’t a huge number of NFL games each week, but there’s enough that it’s simply not realistic to think you can handicap them all. And if you’re also betting on college games then this is even more of an issue.

Be patient, be selective, and only bet when you have justified reasons to do so.

Get the Best Odds

This tip applies to placing wager of any type, on any sport. It’s important enough for us to mention it here though. If you only bet with one bookmaker or betting site, then you’re almost certainly hindering your chances of making money. At the very least you will be missing out on getting the best possible value.

This is because different bookmakers and betting sites price up games differently. So the odds they offer are not always the same. Remember the Packers versus Cardinals game we showed earlier as an example? We used the actual odds from a real betting site for that example. The following odds were also available for the same game, from various other sites.

• Packers +252 / Cardinals -285
• Packers +260 / Cardinals -290
• Packers +240 / Cardinals -270
• Packers +245 / Cardinals -280

As you can see, there’s not an insignificant difference in what was available. By shopping around for the best odds you can ensure that your potential payout is always as high as it can be. This is a great benefit over time, and can even be the difference between winning overall or losing overall. Such as the fine margins of betting on football.

Moneylines are a viable alternative to point spreads when betting on football. If you’re one of those bettors who only ever bets on the spread, then you could very well be missing out on some good opportunities to find better value. We don’t recommend that you stop placing point spreads and only place moneyline wagers, but you should definitely consider both when betting on a game of football. Try to decide which one offers the better value, and then go with that option.

It’s also worth backing big favorites on the moneyline if you like a low risk approach. Always take the odds into consideration though. The profit from winning a lot of bets at very low odds can soon be wiped out with just a couple of losing bets.

Moneyline bets present the most straightforward way to wager on a sports contest. A moneyline wager simply asks the bettor to choose which team will win a game, with no point spread involved.

The payout odds on the favorite and underdog can differ significantly on a moneyline bet. Using a moneyline calculator breaks down the math on the odds, which allows bettors to assess the true value on each side.

The following page includes the GamingToday.com MoneyLine Calculator, as well as several valuable tables and graphs designed to help bettors gain an edge with moneyline bets.

Moneyline Calculator

Fill in the dollar amount for your bet and the American Odds (for example -110) and calculate the implied probability and the return on the moneyline.:

What Is A Moneyline Bet?

Legal US sportsbooks generally present several different ways to wager on sports. Moneyline bets represent just one of several different wagering options, which include point spread, totals, parlays, and in-game betting.

Moneyline Bets

A moneyline wager allows the bettor to put a bet on which team or athlete will win a contest, straight up. The moneyline underdog will always pay out at better odds than the favorite.

Skilled bettors look for value on moneyline bets by evaluating teams that have a better chance of winning than the implied probability of the odds might dictate.

Moneyline favorites are listed with “-” odds, and the underdog is listed at “+” odds.

For example, here’s a look at a line offered by PointsBet on Game 1 of the 2020 World Series:

American Odds

PointsBet sets the Los Angeles Dodgers as the favorite in the game, with -165 moneyline odds. To calculate “-” odds, divide 100 by the odds, then multiply that quotient by the amount you bet.

For example, suppose you want to calculate how much profit a $50 bet on the Dodgers would yield. First divide 100 by 165 (without the “-”), which yields 60.6. Then multiply that number by your $50 bet to arrive at the profit (60.6*$50=$30.30).

A $50 bet on the Dodgers at -165 odds would yield $30.30 in profit. The $50 wager would return $80.30 to the bettor ($30.30 profit plus the original $50 bet).

To calculate “+” odds, divide the odds by 100 and multiply that product by the amount of the wager.

A $50 bet on the Tampa Bay Rays, for instance, would calculate as 140/100 (which yields 1.4), multiplied by $50 (1.4*$50=$70). A winning $50 moneyline bet on the Rays returns $120 total to the bettor ($70 profit plus the original $50 bet.)

Decimal Odds

Decimal odds can be used to make a simple calculation of odds multiplied by wager amount to arrive at the total amount returned to the bettor.

The -165 odds on Los Angeles, for example, convert to 1.6061 decimal odds using the Gaming Today moneyline calculator. Multiplying that by a $50 bet yields $80.30, and subtracting the original bet amount yields the profit earned ($80.30-$50=$30.30).

What Is A Moneyline Calculator?

The Gaming Today Moneyline Calculator allows for quick calculations for any wager amount and payout odds. Using American, decimal, fractional, Hong Kong, Indonesian, or Malay Odds, you can input the odds and the amount of a wager and see the payout that would come if the bet is a win.

While it’s valuable to understand and be able to calculate favorite and underdog Moneyline odds for all of the different odds notations, the moneyline calculator can save a significant amount of time and energy.

One of the most important features of the Gaming Today Moneyline Calculator is the Implied Probability feature.

For any favorite or underdog input, the calculator produces the implied probability of that team winning. Astute bettors can use the calculator to find teams that have a higher actual win probability than the implied probability dictated by the odds.

The “To Win” window displays the amount of profit yielded by any combination of odds and wager amount. To calculate the return to the bettor, add the “To Win” number to the original amount of the wager.

How To Use The Moneyline Calculator To Place A Sports Bet

Suppose you wanted to put the Gaming Today Moneyline Calculator to work to decide how you wanted to bet on Game 1 of the 2020 World Series. Here’s another look at the lines offered on that game by PointsBet:

To calculate a $50 moneyline wager on the Tampa Bay Rays, input $50 in the “Bet Amount” window and put “+140” in the “American Odds” window. Hit enter or click on the “Convert Odds” button and see how the moneyline calculator converts that information into several different useful categories.

The calculator converts the “+140” odds into all of the different notations you might see used by a sportsbook.

The +140 American odds convert to 2.40 decimal odds, 7/5 fractional odds, 1.40 for Indonesian/Hong Kong odds, and -0.7143 Malay Odds. A tool like our moneyline calculator can be a crucial component of a betting strategy when evaluating odds at sportsbooks that use different notations.

The “Implied Probability” output tells you that at +140 odds, the Rays have a 41.67% implied probability of winning. A skilled bettor will take that bet if they think Tampa Bay’s actual chance of winning the game is higher than that.

The “To Win” output yields the profit produced if the Rays win. A $50 winning bet on the Rays yields $70 in profit and a $120 total return to the bettor ($70 profit plus the $50 original bet).

Looking for other calculators to use when sports betting? Check out:

Calculating Positive And Negative Moneyline Odds

The math used in calculating the payout on a moneyline is pretty simple. It is one of the most important first steps to understanding sports betting and is crucial to success. Below is a graph of profit won on $100 bets for negative odds. Note that it is a curve that approaches, but will never get to $0. Even -1,000,000 odds still yields some profit from a win:

And here is a graph of profit for positive numbers. The really important difference is that the line is linear. as the odds increase, so does the profit. That goes on forever.

Looking at the odds offered by the sportsbook, note whether they are negative odds (for example -110) or positive odds (for example +120). The calculation changes based on if it is a positive or negative odd. Below we work through an example of a bet of $100 at -110 moneyline odds. It is important to notice that multiplying by -1 is required to give us the positive payout:

PAYOUT = BET AMOUNT / (-1 *MONEYLINE ODDS / 100)

So that looks like:

$90.91 = $100 / (-1 * -110/100)

That also means that you will be returned that amount AND your original bet, meaning you now have $190.91. Let’s work another negative example of a $100 bet at -150:

$100 / (-1 * -150 / 100) = $66.67

Now let’s work through a positive money example. Let’s say you bet $100 at +120

PAYOUT = BET AMOUNT * ODDS / 100

That looks like:

$120 = $100 * 120 / 100

In that case, you are returned your original bet plus profit, so you now have $220.

What Is Line Movement?

Sportsbooks make money by setting lines that bring in an appropriate amount of wagers on both sides of a bet. The house offers odds that factor in a cut of overall wagers, known as vig, that goes to the sportsbook.

In the World Series Game 1 example from above, if 90% of bets come in on the Dodgers, the sportsbook stands to lose big money if Los Angeles wins. A Tampa Bay win in that situation is even more disastrous for the sportsbook.

If the bets coming in on a game are too one-sided, the line on the game will start to move to try to prompt more bets for the other side. It’s important to remember that sports betting isn’t a zero-sum game, and you’ll be losing in the long run even if you win 50% of the time.

Legal Online Sports Betting In The US

A federal mandate known as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was overturned in May 2018, giving US states the legal clearance to offer state-regulated sports betting. Several states now offer both retail and online sports betting, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado, and several others.

The top online sport betting brands in the US include the following:

DraftKings Sportsbook

One of the biggest brands to emerge in the booming online sports betting industry, DraftKings Sportsbook offers mobile sports wagering in eight states. The sportsbook offers every imaginable kind of wager across multiple sports.

That betting menu includes daily moneyline opportunities on all major US sports leagues, as well as numerous international leagues. A tool like the Moneyline Calculator can be an indispensable tool to use for evaluating the odds and implied win probabilities at DraftKings Sportsbook.

FanDuel Sportsbook

Another huge player in the legal sports betting market, FanDuel Sportsbook offers mobile sports wagering in seven states. Along with DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbooks stands as one of the top two mobile sports betting brands in the US.

FanDuel Sportsbook’s vast selection of moneyline wagering options becomes a potentially profitable market for bettors using a moneyline calculator. Such a tool allows sharp players to compare odds across multiple sportsbooks and only place the most favorable bets.

FOX Bet

A collaboration between FOX Sports and The Stars Group, the FOX Bet brand operates online sportsbooks in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.

The moneyline odds at FOX Bet can vary greatly versus some of its competitors, and bettors using a moneyline calculator tool gain a significant edge versus players that don’t.

Moneyline Calculator FAQs

Yes. More than a dozen states either currently offer online sports betting or have a launch of mobile sports betting products pending.

New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania represent the three biggest online sports betting markets in the US. Other states with legal online sports wagering include Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, West Virginia, and a few others.

The Gaming Today Moneyline Calculator can be used as a valuable resource on any moneyline bet. It’s especially useful for evaluating the implied probability of winning and payout odds.

The moneyline bet calculator’s ability to display odds across multiple notation formats (American, Decimal, Fractional, Indonesian/Hong Kong, and Malay odds) allows bettors to compare lines across sportsbooks that use different notations.

Even if you’re a veteran sports bettor, running every bet you’re considering through the calculator provides significant benefit.

Yes. Nothing in the terms and conditions of any US legal online sportsbooks prohibits the use of a moneyline calculator.

The calculator provides computations that any person could produce with pen and paper but in a much faster and more efficient manner.

For “+” American odds, divide the odds by 100 and convert that quotient into a fraction. To convert +160 into fractional odds, for example, divide 160 by 100 (160/100) and reduce that fraction to the lowest whole number denominator. American odds of +160 would convert to 8/5 fractional odds.

For “-” American odds, divide 100 by the odds and convert to the simplest form fraction. For -160 odds, for example, the calculation looks like 100/160, which reduces to 5/8 fractional odds.

To convert “+” American odds to implied winning probability, the formula looks like this:

100 / (“+” American odds + 100)*100 = implied probability

For example, +160 odds would be calculated as 100/(160+100)*100. This converts to 100/260*100, which ends up yielding a 38.46% implied probability.

To convert “-” odds, the formula looks like this:

“-” odds / (“-” odds + 100)*100 = implied probability

For instance, -160 odds would translate to 160/(160+100)*100, converting to 160/260*100, which yields a product of 61.54. The implied probability of -160 odds is a 61.54% chance of winning.

What Is A Moneyline Bet In Football Championship

Several online sportsbooks offer comprehensive coverage of sports and ways to bet. Some of the best choices for online sports betting in the US include DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, PointsBet, FOX Bet, and BetMGM.