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Baseball is one of the most popular sports in America and year after year the number of spectators and fans growths. For example, last year’s World Series was one of the most watched in the last 10 years with 18.9 million viewers.
The interest for the sport grows thanks to the competitive and attractive thing that the MLB has become, with more and more intense and close games. This not only attracts fans who appreciate the sporting aspect but also people interested in trying some luck betting on America’s favorite sport.
People who want to bet on baseball have to consider several factors before they can start:
The influence of the Context
As baseball is an outdoor sport, external factors greatly influence the way players perform and how the game develops. Some of these factors are:
The wind: If a hitter is facing against the wind direction, this will have an adverse effect on their performance and affecting the batting distance. On the other hand, if the batter is downwind when he hits the ball this will be able to travel further.
The weather: obviously the weather will affect the game. For example, if there is a lot of humidity this has an effect on the runs scored. On the other hand, the heat can affect the distance traveled by the ball.
The time of the day: It is not the same to play during the day than at night.
During the day the position of the sun can affect the players who face it. At night some players find it more difficult to see the ball.
The stadium: the baseball stadiums around the country are very different from each other. Unlike other sports, like the basketball or the hockey, where all the courts follow the same regulations and measures. Baseball stadiums do not follow standardized patterns, for example, the distance between the home plate and the outfield wall can vary between 300 and 400 feet. These differences between stadiums create ballparks that can benefit pitchers or hitters, making each game unique depending on the stadium.
People who want to bet on baseball can use what is known in the world of betting as the park factor, to analyze, understand and determine a possible advantage between one team and another depending on how external factors can affect them.
The park factor provides bettors with detailed information on how the stadium can affect or benefit a team’s offense and defense. It even presents data on how the environment will affect left-handed and right-handed players. For example, a stadium with a lot of space like Petco Park benefits the right-handed hitters who have more chances to make a home run.
The Statics:
Baseball is one of the few sports that offer a wide range of statistics to bettors to analyze each layer and stage of a game to make the best betting decision. The statistics are so relevant in baseball that even the teams use them to determine a possible advantage over their rivals. It is because this people who want to bet on baseball should familiarize themselves and understand in depth the statistics to develop their own strategies.
Some of the statistics that bettors have to keep in mind are:
Those related to the pitcher
The MLB has many games in a row, which represents a strong burden for the pitcher, so it is important to be aware of the rotation of the starting pitcher since he provides most of the variables that can affect the development of the game.
Bettors should pay attention to: ERA (Earned Run Average), IP (Innings Pitched), WHIP (Walks Plus Hits per Innings Pitched).
Those related to the hitters
Once the possible performance of the pitcher has been analyzed, the next thing is to analyze how the hitters can face him. The statistics to be taken into account are OBP (On-Base Percentage) PA (Plate Appearances) wOBA (weighted On-Base Average).
There are different types of baseball bets and by gathering the correct information bettors can have an advantage over the bookmaker.
One of the most common types of bet that can benefit the bettors who do their homework and analyze in detail each factor of the game is Totals.
The total bet is based on the fact that the bettor selects the total number of points (runs) scored in a game, being over or under a figure set by the bookmaker. So with 27 outs per team to score as many runs as they can, bettors can easily craft a betting strategy based on the analyses of the influence of the context, the pitcher and hitter stats.
Betting on baseball is a matter of consistency, in order to be successful in baseball bets you have to do it regularly to be able to experiment and try new strategies in order to find things that work and those that do not.