MLB Betting: Baseball Futures (Current odds at bottom of page)
By Loot, Major League Baseball Handicapper, Lootmeister.com
As the name strongly suggests, “ baseball futures” wagers are when you bet on something far in advance. These types of bets have exploded in popularity over the past decade, but most futures bets in Major League Baseball focus on what will happen by the end of the season. It can either be team performance or individual statistics and honors.
Let’s address the drawbacks of these bets right from the get-go and then you can decide later if you want to incorporate this type of wagering into your routine. With futures bets, your money will be tied up for a while. If making futures bets at the beginning of the baseball season, you’re looking at a good six months before the bet is decided.
In addition, make sure you are dealing with a top-flight book when placing baseball futures wagers. In other words, try to place this action with only long-standing books with a sound reputation. There is nothing worse than sweating a result for 6 months and winning, only to find the book has closed operations and left you in the cold.
Now for the good--futures betting allows you to put your money where your mouth is when it comes to how you think the season will shake out. Maybe you have your eye on a vastly improved team or player. You noticed something before the writing was on the wall for everyone else to see and you can profit from it with futures wagers.
The most popular form of this type of betting is to pick which teams you feel will win the World Series. It’s quite a gamble. Nothing but winning the whole thing will do. At the same time, the odds can be pretty darned good, especially if your pick is not one of the absolute top favorites. If that seems like you’re asking for a lot, you can simply pick a team to win it’s division or their league pennant. There are also wagers where you pick whether or not a team will win a certain number of games.
Player performance has also become a more popular form of futures wagering. You can bet on statistical performance. There are wagers available on who will win the batting crown, the home run title, or awards like MVP, Cy Young Award, or even Rookie of the Year. Then you can just bet on one player and whether or not he will, for example, hit a certain amount of home runs.
In other words, there are two types of futures bets for the most part. You can bet on something against a field of different entries, like what team will win the World Series or which player will win the league home run title. In those bets, you pick one team or player against a bunch of others. Then you have the futures bets that are a yes/no equation, where you have two choices as to whether something will happen or not.
Here are some examples of futures bets you will see that have a field of different entries:
Who Will Lead the American League in Home Runs This Season?
Which Team Will Win the American League Central Division?
Which Team Will Win the World Series?
Who Will be the National League Rookie of the Year?
Then you have other futures bets that are like betting totals, just with team or player performance, where you bet “over” or “under” a posted number. Here are some examples.
How Many Games Will the New York Mets Win This Season?
Over 88.5
Under 88.5
How Many Home Runs Will Miguel Cabrera Hit This Season?
Over 37.5
Under 37.5
How Many Hits Will Robinson Cano Have This Season?
Over 197
Under 197
In addition to these bets, there will sometimes be a match-up futures wagers where you pick who will do more of something between two entities. Like this...
Who Will Win More Games This Season?
David Price
Justin Verlander
Which Team Will Win More Games This Season?
Los Angeles Dodgers
St. Louis Cardinals
Who Will Hit More Home Runs This Season?
Josh Hamilton
Ryan Braun
Futures wagers allow you to get a lot of action for your wagering buck. One wager can provide you with 6 months of action, as you check to see the progress of your bets. That’s a nice little perk. There aren’t many forms of gambling that give you that much action off of one bet. At the same time, it requires a leap of faith. Players can get injured, which is death to a player prop bet and a tough break if you bet on that player’s team to win divisions, pennants, or especially the Series. At the same time, these bets allow you to capitalize on any original analysis you may have created. Futures betting certainly has its pros and cons.
