The first thing you should do if you’re betting online is to look at the team’s head-to-head record against their opponents, how they’ve played them throughout the regular season and especially on the road as the wild-card team will start the series away from home. No team wants to get behind early in the series, but if you give the “better team” a head start in the series, you could be digging a hole that you won’t get out of.

Another factor to consider is experience, because Major League Baseball players that have a lot of it won’t be bothered by going into the postseason as a wild-card team or a division winner: when you get to the playoffs, it’s a brand-new season and everyone starts even. Experienced players can pass down that confidence to the younger players, and they can also help them understand that they’re a good team as well. Bad teams don’t make it to the playoffs, so that can spark a wild-card team to a huge win at your favorite sports book.

First, you should do well to figure out what teams are going to win their division, which will give them an automatic berth to the postseason. Then you have to decide which teams are the best of the rest; these are usually the teams that are a darkhorse at your betting sites to win their division, but they don’t have quite enough to get over the top.

Being a wild-card team doesn’t hurt your chances to win the World Series as St. Louis proved last year and once you get to the postseason, all bets are off, the playing field is equal and everyone is playing for the same thing. These wild-card teams are usually well equipped for the playoffs because they have been locked into a wild-card race for probably the last month of the season.

Picking the wild-card teams can be tougher than picking the division winners as it becomes clear which teams will rise to the top of their division, unless you’re Boston last September and you have an epic collapse. Make sure you do all the research you need to do before you head to your sportsbook.

You should always look at the history of a division because you can tell a lot from who has won in the past; some teams just have a strangehold on a division. For example, in the American League East, you can pretty much guarantee that Boston or the New York Yankees are going to be in the mix to take the division, although Tampa Bay has entered the betting picture in recent years and the same goes for the pennant. This can be tough, though, in divisions like the National League Central, which features the World Series champions from St. Louis, but this year, it’s up in the air.

Speaking of the Cardinals, they’re a perfect example of the next tip and that is to check out all the offseason transactions that went down. The Cardinals lost their manager and a Hall of Fame slugger and it’s going to be tough for them to repeat. However, the Los Angeles Angels picked up that slugger (Albert Pujols) and are now thought to be a favorite to win the American League pennant and the World Series. The offseason will definitely affect your online betting choices.

The first thing you need to understand if you’re going to bet on MLB odds is that it’s a marathon, not a race, and a lot of players, especially veterans, treat it as such. They ease into the season and are only probably playing at 75-80% of what they’ll be playing at later in the season. Spring training for older players is just basically getting loose, while the young guys and the non-roster invitees are battling for the remaining spots on the roster. Take that into account as you’re making your early-season picks.

Identify which players made big moves to another team and see how they are fitting into their new digs. Some players struggle with a massive move, such as Carl Crawford, who left Tampa Bay for Boston and never got on track under the bright lights of Fenway Park. All eyes will be on Albert Pujols, who left St. Louis for the Los Angeles Angels, and how the Future Hall of Famer handles his transition not only to a new city, but a new league, will be a massive factor in the Angels’ online sports betting odds this season.

First, you have to figure out what teams are trying to accomplish; unlike 2012 March Madness betting players who know their teams are playing for one purpose, and that is to win, there are many other types of motivation in spring training baseball. Players are looking to make rosters, teams are probably resting their stars to try and fill out their rosters, while seeing what their young players are all about. Teams that went to the playoffs last season probably aren’t doing a lot of tinkering with their main lineups, so take that into account. You also have to watch out for split-squad teams, when teams are split in half so the coaching staff can get a proper look at everyone.

But as we get closer to the regular season, you’ll start to see pitchers go an extra inning or two, and the starters will be out a little longer as they try to shake the rust off, or at least most of it, before the real action starts. Even though it’s a 162-game season, teams can’t afford to get behind the eight-ball early, so starters will see a bit more action, which makes it easier to handicap in your online sports book.

This is a little similar to the first couple of rounds while you are betting March Madness odds, because there are multiple games in a day. It’s really quite simple in terms of what you do; say you bet $50 on the first game of a doubleheader. You can come away with the win and be happy, or you can lose and still manage to make a profit by wagering double on the nightcap.

There are a number of reasons for this and the biggest one is motivation as no team wants to be swept anytime they go out on the field. Roughly just over a quarter of Major League Baseball doubleheaders end in a sweep, so that means the chances are pretty good that you can not only make your money back, but you can make a pretty sweet profit as well.

It’s a great risk to take if you are looking to pad your sports betting account through the season, but of course, you should always do your research in terms of starting pitchers, the overall talent of the two teams and other factors. But don’t be afraid to throw doubleheaders into your rotation when you’re sport betting online.

In the post-steroid era, pitchers have the advantage now as hitters aren’t swatting it out of the park as easily anymore. Even March Madness betting players will tell you that ERAs in both leagues are as low as they have been in the modern era, and pitchers are getting as much publicity as the big bats now.

That means you’re probably not going to find totals coming in very high nowadays, which makes looking at the starting pitcher that much more important. You can take last season’s Cy Young winners, Detroit’s Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and you can see that the totals for their games are probably going to be lower than they would for another pitcher on their team.

Then you have certain parks that don’t normally treat hitters well, and you’ll find lower totals there as well; places like PETCO Park in San Diego or Safeco Field in Seattle, you’re likely to find a lower total there than you would in the Ballpark in Arlington. These are all factors you must consider before making MLB selections in your best online sportsbook.

Those who wager on Superbowl odds will tell you how important it is to pay attention to details, and while this may not seem important, you can make it pay off for you. This entails a team that is coming off a huge performance at the plate, regardless of whether it was on the road or not; if they are starting a new series at home, chances are, they are going to be rated a little higher than usual at your sportsbooks. As with any sport, the home team is typically going to be favored anyway, but after a game where the bats are red-hot, you should expect that team to have a drop-off in the next game.

It is small tips like this that will help you manage the marathon of baseball betting season, but if you’re patient and cover all the bases, it will benefit you at sports betting websites.

Parlays are sometimes called a sucker’s bet because the bettor will receive less-than-ideal odds, because you have multiple matchups in your wager (Superbowl betting players can do this during the conference championship round, but not after). But when it comes to baseball parlays, there are no fixed odds; it all depends on the odds of the two (or more) teams you pick to win in each of your individual matchups. So when you’re choosing to play a parlay, all of the outcomes that you pick have to win. For example, you can bet on the Yankees to beat the Red Sox, and the Rangers to beat the Angels, but if the Angels win, that ruins your ticket.

The trick is to find value where you can, especially if you’re betting on favorites because they don’t offer large payouts to begin with, but if you put enough of them in parlay you can make a quick buck. For example, if you think that two teams that are rated at -175 should be at -200, take them for the sports betting value every time.

Players that work with price per head sports services know that the identity of the starting pitcher is the biggest thing you need to know before you decide to make your pick, and you have to lean towards pitches with a low ERA. The formula for ERA is the number of earned runs a pitcher allows, divided by the number of innings that a pitcher serves, and then you multiply that number by nine. For example, Cy Young winner Justin Verlander allowed 67 earned runs in 251.0 innings of work, which comes out to 0.2669, and you multiply that number by nine to get to 2.40.

You should also know that an earned run is when a pitcher gives up a run without his fielders committing any errors to give you a pure view of a pitcher’s ERA. Hurlers with low ERAs are what you look for in starters and relievers, and these are the pitchers you should back, more often than not, while wagering at betting sites during baseball season.