A Money Line is used to equal out the favorite and underdog attractiveness of a sport for a person who will be placing a bet. Money lines are different from point spreads because they are often used in individual sports like boxing and auto racing where there is no way to measure a player’s wins and losses. The money line is often set so the most money is risked on the favorite or the person expected to win and risk less money on the underdog player.

A money line reading: Player A -400 / Player B +360. What this means is that Player A has won more matches than Player B. Therefore, if you bet five hundred on Player A and they win you receive your five hundred back plus one hundred dollars for winning the bet. However, if Player B manages to win and you have bet a hundred dollars on the underdog then you receive three hundred and sixty dollars plus the return of your hundred dollars.

The spread between the lay price for a favorite player and the payoff for an underdog player will often increase depending on how many games the favorite has won. Bookmakers are out to make a profit and they can only do this if the underdog wins. Consider the above example of the two players. If Player B managed to win then the bookmaker would pay each person three hundred and sixty, but at the same time, they would make four hundred from the other people. Therefore, gaining a profit of forty dollars per bet. If Player A wins then the bookmaker would make a hundred and pay a hundred, thereby making zero commission on the bet.

Betting lines are important to understand since they are used in several sports including football, basketball, baseball as well as all the individual sports such as golf, tennis and auto racing.

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