MLB Betting Trends: Tipico Bettors Big on Yankees, Guardians This Season
Bronx Bombers going all the way this year? That’s not our prediction, but it sure seems to be the prevailing sentiment among Tipico bettors up to now this season.
Among Tipico bettors, the New York Yankees are the top pick to win the World Series this season, garnering 16 percent of the total wagering handle. The Guardians are close behind with 15 percent of total handle in futures World Series winner betting.
It’s intriguing to see where our customers are putting their money on Major League Baseball this season, and our Ohio bettors are certainly making their presence known. The Cleveland Guardians rank second in World Series futures handle percentage, third among all teams in moneyline wagers and first to win the American League.
The Guardians are currently in third place in the AL Central — a bit disappointing at this moment — but Cleveland fans are clearly keeping the faith.
"Despite the slow start, customers have been holding out that the Guardians will switch gears and build off their success from last season and make a deep run in October,” Tipico Sportsbook Analyst Ryan Taylor said.
For context, we opened odds World Series winner futures last November 7, AL and NL winner markets later in November and division winners and player awards in early January.
Here are some of the more intriguing data points from our look at the betting numbers:
The Yankees are a popular pick to win the World Series, but curiously, bettors aren’t putting money on an AL pennant win.
Bettors love to pick the Phillies to win the NL, but they aren’t among the World Series futures leaders.
Let’s look at the top teams by handle in a few categories:
To Win the World Series
- Yankees — 16%
- Guardians — 15%
- Braves — 10%
- Mets — 9%
- Padres — 9%
Moneyline Bets
- Yankees — 7%
- Rays — 6%
- Guardians — 6%
- Dodgers — 5%
- Astros — 5%
To Win the American League
- Guardians — 46%
- Astros — 22%
- Orioles — 17%
To Win the National League
- Phillies — 40%
- Padres — 20%
- Mets — 11%
Types of Betting
- Moneyline — 41%
- Spread — 16%
- Total Runs — 14%
- Boosts — 7%
- Total Runs by Inning — 4%
Wagering confidence in the Tampa Bay Rays makes sense. They have the best record in baseball and Yandy Diaz and Randy Arozarena are among the top seven in OPS among all MLB players. Ace pitcher Shane McClanahan is an early Cy Young frontrunner with a 7-0 record, 2.05 ERA and 68 strikeouts.
Which MLB Players Will Lead at Season's End?
The Yankees are also an obvious betting favorite. Aaron Judge is healthy and tearing the seams off the ball again, leading the AL in OPS (1.042) to go with 13 home runs and a .299 batting average. Teammate Anthony Rizzo is 13th in OPS and has 11 home runs and a .302 batting average.
The Philadelphia Phillies aren’t doing much to bolster bettors’ faith that they will win the NL. They are in fourth place in the NL East and have one of the worst records in the NL, although they are only three games under .500.
JOIN OUR MLB CONTEST
Tipico's 'Swing for the Fences' monthly baseball betting contest is literally in full swing, with customers trying to win their share of $100,000 -- including bets on us for an entire year!
The competition kicked off May 1, and already our leaderboard is jumping. Click here to see the latest leaderboard updates and get full details on the 'Swing for the Fences' contest.
This is how it works: For every leg of a bet, you get one point. For each straight bet, you get one point. For a 3-Leg parlay, you get three points. A 4-leg parlay gets you four points. And so on...
Qualifying wagers must be $20 or more on MLB games or events with odds longer than -200 (equivalent to decimal odds higher than 1.5) or parlay wagers with combined odds longer than -200 (equivalent to decimal odds higher than 1.5).
Each month the top 100 bettors will win bets on us for an entire year. There will be five tiers, and the upper tier ('Grand Slam') -- consisting of the top 5 -- will receive $5,000 total in bets on us, spread out at $417 per month for 12 months.
The amount of bets on us for the top 100 monthly will equal $100,000 total.
GET OUR MLB BETTING TIPS
If the idea of a multi-game parlay sounds daunting, don’t let it. We got your bases covered – pun intended – with these baseball betting guides:
The Best MLB Betting Strategies
What’s a Moneyline Bet and How to Do It
Tipico also has a raft of betting guides to help you get the most out of your wagering dollars, including guides on spreads, parlays, player props and more. Check them out here.
Photo credit: IMAGO / NurPhoto
Alex Valdes is Web Content Manager at Tipico North America. He has written, edited and performed user and site analysis at MoneyTalksNews, NBC Sports, MSN, Bing, MSNBC, as well as newspapers and magazines.
