Run Line Betting – It’s Time

After last night’s thrilling college basketball national title game, the sports betting world’s focus will shift. The NBA is in the last week of its regular season. Soon, it will be NBA playoff time. It’s also the first full month of the 2024 MLB season and that means it’s time to dive into run line betting.

If you’re not familiar with MLB run line betting, pay attention. Today, Sports Hub provides you with a crash course. Armed with your new information, you’ll be ready to try your hand at betting the run line in baseball. Once you get comfortable betting the run line, you’ll watch your run line grow. As always, Sports Hub’s baseball handicappers will be here to assist.

What Is the Run Line

The run line in baseball is the equivalent of the point spread in football and basketball. There isn’t as much scoring in baseball as in sports like basketball. NBA scores seem to always be in the hundreds. Games end with totals like 129-115, and 111-107. 

Even the NFL and college football see scores like 27-24 and 48-41. Oddsmakers will set point spreads for football and basketball games that look like this: -3.5, -7, and -9.5. In MLB games, the most common final scores are 4-3 and 3-2. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for a large point spread.

That’s where the run line comes in. The run line is almost always set at 1.5 for a MLB game. On very rare occasions, a run line might be 0.5 or 2.5. Bettors may also find 0.5 or 2.5 offered as an alternate run line.

Run Line Examples

With the run line set at 1.5, bettors can now wager on any MLB game. The favorite’s run line is -1.5 and the underdog’s run line is +1.5. A typical MLB run line bet would look like this:

• Detroit Tigers +1.5 (-192)
• Pittsburgh Pirates -1.5 (+158)

In the example, the Tigers are the underdog and the Pirates are the favorite. In order for Detroit to cover, the Tigers must lose by one run or win the game outright. In order for the Pirates to cover, they must win by two or more runs.

The corresponding odds should make sense. Even though Pittsburgh is the favorite, they are given plus-money odds to win by two runs. That’s because it’s hard to win MLB games by more than one run. Almost one-third of all MLB games are decided by one run. That can make run line betting a challenge.

One way to use run line betting is in the case of large MLB moneyline favorites. Smart MLB bettors know that they cannot simply continue to bet on big MLB favorites at prices like -250 and -275. However, if teams are heavy favorites, it’s likely that they may win by more than two runs. Bettors will get better pricing on the run line in those situations.

Cappers Winning Run Line Bets

Sports Hub’s expert handicappers had themselves a day yesterday. Knup Sports held down the top spot with a stellar day of MLB run line betting. Knup went 11-3 overall and hit 10 of 11 MLB bets, a handful of those on the run line.

SWJ Sports and Sas Insider also got in on the action and the majority of their bets were also on MLB games. 

Let’s take a look at how it all played out.

• Baseball be very good to me: Knup Sports put in 14 picks yesterday and, as mentioned, they went 11-3 overall. Knup went 10-1 on MLB picks and took home profits of $1084. That gives Knup Sports total baseball winnings of $1787 over the last seven days. That’s No. 2 on the MLB leaderboard.
• I like baseball too: SWJ Sports went 7-2 yesteday and won $560. Scott at SWJ Sports went 7-1 on MLB picks, preferring the moneyline to the run line. SWJ Sports is actually No. 2 on our 7-day NHL leaderboard with $405 in winnings.

• Still killing it: Sas Insider is now up $2167 over the last seven days in MLB. That’s after going 5-3 on eight MLB picks last night. Sas Insider had some big wins and ended up $437 to the good. He’s also at the top of most every leaderboard we have and is up $3050 for the last 30 days.
• Big Tonny: Tonny Ricci went 3-1 yesterday and earned $325.
• Boss Ross: Ross Walker went 3-0 and won $300 yesterday to round out our Top 5 cappers on the leaderboard. 

UConn Goes Back-to-Back

It’s official. The UConn Huskies have won a second consecutive national championship. They are the first team to do so since Florida did it back in 2006-07. And, just like that, we have odds for next year’s college basketball national championship. 

The NBA’s final week should be an exciting one. One of the game’s young stars will finally return to the court. The NFL draft is right around the corner too.

What’s trending today?

• Hurley called it: In 2020, UConn head coach Dan Hurley told the basketball world, “you better get us now…because it’s coming.” He was right. With a 75-60 win over Purdue last night, Hurley and the Huskies claimed their second straight NCAA championship. They also set a record becoming the first team to go 6-0 SU and ATS in consecutive tournaments.

• Young is back: Atlanta’s Trae Young was cleared to practice yesterday six weeks after having surgery on his left pinkie. The Hawks made the play-in tournament. They are currently in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.
• Williams still the favorite: USC’s Caleb Williams is still the favorite – around -8000 at most sportsbooks – to be the NFL’s No. 1 overall pick. There has been some talk that LSU’s Jayden Daniels, the Heisman Trophy winner, has overtaken North Carolina’s Drake Maye as the No. 2 pick.

The NBA Is Back Today

After a day off to take care of the NCAA championship, the NBA is back with a ton of games. That means plenty of betting opportunities for you. Sports Hub’s handicappers will be in full-on go mode. Check the members’ area for picks. 

You will also want to check out our NBA Playoffs Bracket Contest. It’s only 10 points to join and you can win up to 1,000 points. Pick your winners, win points, and claim victory! The play-in games will not count toward the contest, but all others do. Stay tuned for more information in the coming days.

Here’s what’s on tap for today.

1. Back in action: There are 14 NBA games tonight. Boston is at Milwaukee and Golden State plays in Los Angeles in the TNT doubleheader. There will be dozens of NBA picks for tonight’s games. Check the picks database throughout the day.

2. Great day for baseball: You can bet on the run line all day in MLB. Detroit and Pittsburgh kick the day off at 12:35 p.m. ET. The day ends with the Cubs at the Padres in a game televised by TBS. 
3. ESPN NHL doubleheader: There are 13 NHL games tonight. ESPN will start its doubleheader with Washington at Detroit. The late game is Minnesota at Colorado. The regular season ends on April 18.
4. Champions League soccer and more: The UEFA Champions League will see Arsenal play Bayern Munich and Real Madrid take on Manchester City today. There is a ton of English soccer too. English League Championship, English League One, English League Two, and the English National League all have multiple matches today.
5. Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters: First round play continues in this event. Later in the day, Round 2 will begin and No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic will take on unseeded Roman Safiullin.

That’s all she wrote. With the college basketball season over, we can now start to focus on the remainder of the NBA and NHL seasons. It will be playoff time soon. Get yourself on the right side of the action with Sports Hub. If you’re not a member, join now (it’s free!) and reap the benefits of more wins!