What Is The Runline in Sports Betting?

The runline is often similar to the spread, but specifically in baseball, where the games are high-variance and low-scoring. The runline is the way to bet baseball based on the score not being equal, unlike the moneyline, which is just picking which teams will win at given odds.

A runline acts just like a spread in a football game where we see one team given “X” amount of runs and taken “X” runs away from the other team, generally to even out the odds on the game. If a game was evenly matched, that runline may not even out the odds.

For example, if the Reds are listed as a -150 favorite tomorrow, they would also likely be listed as +100 on the runline where the Reds are -1.5 runs. This means that the Reds would have to win by MORE than 1.5 runs. If they do and you bet on them, you would double your money.

You could choose to do this instead of betting on the Reds to win straight up while making only .67 times your money back on that -150 line. This also works as the inverse, where the underdog would have a runline of +1.5, likely with odds of -120 in this case.

This means that the underdog could lose by one, and you would still win the bet at -120. This is instead of betting on the underdog at +130 and winning more money back if they were to win the game outright.

This kind of betting is particularly interesting during a game in live betting. Once the game starts, you will constantly see the runline and the odds associated with it based on the score. If you are paying attention to the games and watching the trends, you can get a good edge once you get the hang of it. One thing to look out for is bullpen usage and the pitchers that could come in with a given game script.

For example, if the Reds are leading a game 6-0 in the second inning with the opposing starter out of the game the day after a double-header, it is different than a tied game in the 7th inning coming off of a day’s rest. If you can track bullpen usage and find an edge within the game based on the pitcher you expect to play, there is a lot of fun in in-game runline betting in MLB games.  

To put shortly and briefly, the runline works like a spread but taylor-made for the sport of baseball. What the run line means is that the team you pick (i.e. the Reds in the above scenario) would have to win by more than 1.5 runs. There's more great articles to help you find your way through this universe of sports betting here .