When it comes to placing a futures bet on the national pastime of America and several other countries around the world, there is a lot of information you should know before placing that winning wager. We’ve compiled a list of all the important dates, baseball formats, analysis of all baseball future betting odds as well as information on where to place future wagers online legally.
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Important Dates for Baseball Future Betting
2022 MLB Season- Spring Training – March 17, 2022
- MLB Opening Day – April 7, 2022
- End Of Season – October 5, 2022
- MLB Playoffs – October 7, 2022
- 2022 MLB World Series – TBD
- 2023 College Baseball Season
- Opening Day – February 17, 2023
- Regionals – June 2, 2023
- Super Regionals – June 10, 2023
- College World Series – June 16-26, 2023
MLB and College Baseball Format
The format for MLB and college baseball are very different from each other, and we’ve listed their differences below so you know exactly when you can expect your futures bet to be paid out and what requirements a team has to meet in order for you to win your wager.
MLB Format:
In professional baseball, all 30 teams will play a 162-game schedule during the regular season. There are 6 divisions in total, 3 in both the American League (East, Central, West) and National League (East, Central, West). There are 5 teams in each division and to win a division, a team must have a better overall record than the other 4 teams in the division. If two teams are tied, then they must play a tie-breaking 163rd game to decide the division winner.
Teams are seeded for the postseason based on their regular season record i.e. the team with the best record will be the #1 seed, etc. In both the American League and National League, 3 division winners make the postseason and 2 teams with the best record who did not win their division will play each other in a wild card game.
The winner of the wild card game will get the #4 seed and play the #1 seed, and the #2 seed division winner will play the #3 seed division winner with both matchups being a best-of-5 in the division series. The winner from both series will play a best-of-7 to decide who goes to the World Series. The winner from the AL and NL will play a best-of-7 and will determine the World Series Champion.
College Baseball Format:
In college baseball, there are 299 NCAA Division I baseball programs and to win a conference a team must win their conference tournament at the end of the season. Seeding for the conference tournament is based on regular season wins.
For the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, 64 teams are picked by the selection committee after the outcomes of all conference championships. Automatic bids are given to conference champions and during team selection, the top 16 teams are given “national seeds” and host the first tier, called “Regionals”, in a double-elimination bracket.
The winner from each of the 16 regionals go on to play in the “Super Regionals”, where teams play a best-of-3 to decide who makes up “The Omaha Eight” in the College World Series. The eight remaining teams are grouped into two double-elimination brackets and will decide who advances to the championship game. When only two teams remain, they will play each other in a best-of-3 series to determine the College World Series Championship winner.
Types of Future Bets for MLB and College Baseball
When future betting on MLB or college baseball, there are a variety of different wagers you can place. Here is a list of all future betting lines for the 2024 MLB season and the college baseball season the following spring:
2024 Major League Baseball Future Bets:
Postseason Bets:
-World Series Champion
-American League Champion Series winner
-National League Championship Series winner
Division Bets:
-American League East
-American League Central
-American League West
-National League East
-National League Central
-National League West
Note: Sportsbooks do occasionally put up future prop bets for MLB depending on how the season unfolds. Example: If a player has a hit, in say, 30 straight games, sportsbooks will likely put up odds on the player breaking Joe DiMaggio’s 1941 record of 56 consecutive games with a hit. If a sportsbook puts up new future prop bets, then we will post it here as soon as it available.
NCAA Division 1 College Baseball Future Bets:
Note: There are currently no odds available for the upcoming college baseball season. When the sportsbooks update the odds for college baseball, we’ll update this page with all the possible future bets that can be placed.
2024 Baseball Betting FAQs
Q: What is baseball futures betting?
A: Placing a futures bet on baseball is when a bettor places a bet ahead of the actual event, sometimes week or months ahead of time, in order to get better odds and a better payout.
Q: Can I place a futures bet during the baseball season?
A: Yes. Future betting is accepted all the way up to the point where a team or player has met a certain criterion and the winners will need to be paid.
Q: Is it legal to place a futures bet on baseball in the United States?
A: Yes. There are no U.S. federal gambling laws prohibiting online sports betting at legally licensed and regulated offshore betting sites after PASPA was ruled unconstitutional. We can ensure all the online sports betting websites found at the top of the page are 100% legal.
Q: Why place a futures bet on baseball?
A: Typically, futures bets will have better payouts since predicting the outcome of a future event is difficult for both the sportsbooks and the bettor. The farther out an event is, the more uncertain the outcome becomes, and teams or players will have worse odds to win, but a better payout for a winning bet.
Q: Can the future betting odds for baseball change over time?
A: Yes. In fact, future betting odds can change every day and is largely based on how a team is playing, player injuries, and really anything affecting the performance of a baseball team.
Q: What is a hold percentage?
A: A hold percentage, in regards to future betting, is a percentage of vigorish or “juice” in a betting line that determines the cut a sportsbook is expected to make from any given wager on futures.