Essentially, a moneyline bet is a wager on a team to win the game. If you bet on Team A and Team A wins, you win the bet. It is that easy. Moneyline bets get more convoluted when factoring in the vig associated with each play.
In the example below, the Washington Redskins are playing the Philadelphia Eagles. According to the spread, the Eagles are 8.5 points better than the Redskins, which implies the Eagles would win this matchup at a higher percentage than their opponent. Because of this, there is additional vigorish on Eagles moneyline bet. In essence, you would need to bet $4 to win $1. If you think the Redskins will win the game, you could bet $1 and win $3.10 if Washington prevails.
It is important to note the difference between these two moneyline plays. If you subtract the Eagles moneyline by the Redskins moneyline (310 - 400 = 90) you get the moneyline vig. 90 cents is a significant disparity between the 20 cent straddle in the spread. The sportsbook limits its liability by hiding extra vigorish in moneyline bets. With that being said, there is different straddles between games and sportsbooks, which makes shopping the moneyline bet at different books extremely important. You will be far more successful in sports gambling and moneyline betting if you have multiple outs.
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