Betting the 2008 World Series
The Fall Classic is finally here and much like with the Super Bowl, a number of people who typically don't risk any money on baseball during the year will have a vested interest in the outcome of the World Series. Many will partake in various box or square pools How to Create Your Own World Series Box Pool, while others will bet on the series winner and on individual games. We'll take a brief look at all three types of betting methods here.
Office Pools
Many hardcore sports bettors snicker at the idea of office pools, but in doing so pass up one of the greatest types of wagers available in that as long as the person running the pool doesn't take out a cut of the prize money for their efforts, all of the money received goes back to the winning player.
State lotteries keep nearly 50-percent of all money received before paying off the winners, while race tracks typically keep about 18-percent of all money wagered. Even sports betting has roughly a 4.55-percent hold. But office pools are the only type of wagering activity that returns 100-percent of the money to the winner. Essentially what this means is that if you play long enough, you should break out even.
While the box pool is the most popular, and generally the one that pays out the most, there are other types of pools that can be done. One popular pool is simply the write the numbers 0-9 down of pieces of paper and have players draw them from out of a hat or box. Add the total score of the game and the player with the corresponding number wins. (For double-digit scores, simply use the last number, so that the winner of a 7-5 game would be the person with No. 2 on their slip of paper.)
The Series Wager
Another popular form of betting on the World Series will be a simple bet on which team wins the best-of-7 game series. This can be done either between friends and co-workers, and is probably done more often that many people think, or through a sportsbook or bookie.
Betting between friends is usually done at even money, meaning they will bet $25 on the series and whoever has the losing team will pay the person who had the winning team $25 and be done with it.
It doesn't work that way when betting through sportsbooks or bookies, however, as one team is generally the favorite. What that means is that bettors have to risk more money that they will win to wager on that team.
This is accomplished by using the money line. If the money line concept is new to you, I would suggest reading Understanding Money Lines.
As of Wednesday morning, the odds on the 2008 World Series are:
Tampa Bay -145
Philadelphia +125
Quickly, what this means is that Tampa Bay bettors risk $145 to win $100, while Phillies backers risk $100 to win $125.
If you can find coworkers who will take the Phillies at even money you will have the odds in your favor, although that doesn't always translate into winning.
Game Wagers
The other primary type of betting will be done on a game-by-game basis and typically follows the same pattern as the series wager, except that bettors wager on the winner of each particular game.
If the wagering is done between friends, it's typically done on an even money basis, while sportsbooks and bookies will again use the money line.
The current line for the first game is:
Philadelphia -105
Tampa Bay -105
So basically the first game is rated as being a toss-up, with neither team having the advantage.
The other type of betting opportunity that goes along with game wagers is betting on the over/under, or total as it is commonly called, which involves wagering on the total number of runs scored by both teams. The sportsbooks will post a number, which in this case is 7.5 for the first game, and bettors can wager that more (over) than 7.5 runs will be scored or that fewer (under) than 7.5 runs will be scored.
There are plenty of opportunities to get involved with the World Series. Have some fun and remember not to get carried away.
