What is a money line in betting? Moneyline odds explained

A moneyline bet is the simplest wager in sports betting: you pick who wins the game, and the price tells you how much you get paid if you are right. There is no point spread to cover and no total to beat. This guide explains how to read a money line in American and decimal odds, what the price says about each team's chances, how the bookmaker's margin is built in, and how the provincial rules in British Columbia and Quebec settle overtime, ties and three-way markets.

Prices in the examples are illustrative. They show how the market works, not what any book is offering on a real game.

What is a money line in betting?

A money line is a bet on the outright winner of a game or match. The favourite carries a lower price because it is more likely to win, and the underdog carries a higher price to make it worth backing.

BCLC's PlayNow Sports Betting Game Conditions (October 2026) describe the basketball money line in plain terms: "Predict the winner of the game. Bets include overtime if played." For baseball, the same document says the money line "is Settled on the winner of the game." Loto-Québec's Mise-o-jeu+ rules call the same idea a winner question with two outcomes.

The term comes from North American odds, where the price itself is called the line. In decimal odds, which most Canadian books and the provincial sites show, the same bet is often labelled "match winner" or "2-way".

How do you read moneyline odds?

American odds use a minus sign for the favourite and a plus sign for the underdog:

• Minus number (favourite): how much you must stake to win $100 profit. At -150, a $150 bet wins $100.
• Plus number (underdog): how much profit a $100 bet wins. At +130, a $100 bet wins $130.

Decimal odds show the total return per $1, stake included. To convert, use 1 + (100 / 150) for a favourite at -150 and 1 + (130 / 100) for an underdog at +130.

A price of +100 (2.00 in decimal) is called even money: you win what you stake. Our odds converter switches between American, decimal and fractional prices if you want to check a line.

What do moneyline odds say about the chances?

Every price implies a win probability. For a favourite, divide the minus number by itself plus 100. For an underdog, divide 100 by the plus number plus 100. In decimal, it is simply 1 divided by the price.

The implied probability is also your break-even rate. Backing favourites at -300 is not safer in any useful sense: you win often, but one loss wipes out the profit of three wins. A bet only has value if the team's real chance is higher than the probability built into the price.

How the bookmaker's margin hides in the money line

Add the implied probabilities of both sides and the total is always above 100%. The excess is the margin, also called the overround or vig.

Take a hockey game priced home -150, away +130:

So the book pays -150 on a team it rates as a -138 shot, and +130 on a team it rates as +138. The difference is what you pay for the bet. Over many bets at this margin, the book keeps about 3.4% of the money staked on the game (1 minus 1 / 1.0348), whichever side wins. Our no-vig calculator does this sum for any two- or three-way market, and the odds explained guide shows the method in more detail.

Moneyline vs point spread

The point spread gives one team a head start so both sides are priced close to even. The money line keeps the result as it is and moves the price instead.

In low-scoring sports the money line is the main market. In the NHL, the spread is the puck line at 1.5 goals, covered in our NHL betting guide. In MLB it is the run line. In football and basketball, the spread gets more attention because favourites are often priced too short on the money line to be interesting.

Two-way and three-way money lines

A two-way money line has only two outcomes, so the rules must say what happens if the game is level. A three-way money line adds the draw as a third outcome and is usually settled on regular time only.

The Mise-o-jeu+ rules (September 25, 2026) set this out in general rule 10.1. For questions with two outcomes, results include "overtime periods, extra innings, shootouts or other if applicable," and if the event still ends in a draw, those predictions are void. When a draw outcome is offered, results are determined "by excluding any overtime periods."

PlayNow's conditions handle it sport by sport. Basketball game markets include overtime, a 2-way money line that ends level is void (push), and the "3-Way Money Line" includes "a possible draw/tie outcome" (sections 12.1, 12.11 and 12.17).

Here is how one hockey result settles in each market at Mise-o-jeu+, where the default includes overtime and the shootout but every three-way question stops at 60 minutes (section 13.1 of the specific rules):

The same opinion, home team wins, can win one bet and lose the other. Three-way prices are longer because the draw takes a share of the probability. With a three-way line of home 2.10, draw 4.10, away 3.00, the implied probabilities add up to 105.3%, so the margin on a three-way market is often higher than on the two-way line for the same game.

How each sport settles a money line

Read the sport section of your book's rules before you bet. The provincial rules are public and show the usual pattern:

Baseball adds one more rule: listed pitchers. Under PlayNow section 11.2, if a bet names the starting pitchers, "those pitchers must start the game or all Selections on that game are void." A bet without listed pitchers has "Action" and stands whoever starts.

Soccer is the sport where the two-way money line is least common. The usual market is the three-way result, and books offer "draw no bet" as the two-way version: Mise-o-jeu+ rule 10.2 says that if the match ends in a draw, those predictions are void.

A worked example

Say a CFL game is priced Montreal +130, Toronto -150, and you bet $20 on Montreal.

• Montreal wins: you get $46 back ($26 profit).
• Toronto wins: you lose $20.
• The game ends tied after overtime: at PlayNow, the money line is void and your $20 comes back (section 24.7(a)).

If you added Toronto at -150 and another favourite at +130 in a two-leg parlay, the decimal prices multiply: 1.667 x 2.30 = 3.83, so $20 returns $76.67 if both win. Each leg carries its own margin, which is why parlays cost more than singles over time. Our parlay guide explains how the margins stack.

Where can you bet on the money line in Canada?

Every provincial lottery corporation sells sports betting, and the money line is on every board: PROLINE+ from OLG in Ontario, PlayNow from BCLC in British Columbia, Mise-o-jeu+ from Loto-Québec, and Sport Select from the Western Canada Lottery Corporation. Ontario has also licensed private operators since April 2022, and Alberta opened its regulated market to private operators in July 2026. Read the house rules of whichever book you use, because the overtime and tie rules above are the provincial ones, and private books write their own. Our guide to whether sports betting is legal in Canada covers who is authorized where.

Responsible gambling

A money line looks simple, which makes it easy to bet on every game. Set a stake limit before the season and treat each bet as a price you have checked, not a team you support. Free and confidential help is available in every province; our responsible gambling page lists the numbers.

Sources

• BCLC: PlayNow Sports Betting Game Conditions (October 2026), sections 11.2, 11.7, 12.1, 12.11, 12.17, 24.1, 24.7 and Schedule A
• Loto-Québec: Mise-o-jeu+ rules (September 25, 2026), general rules 10.1 and 10.2, specific rules 13.1 and 16.1
• OLG: PROLINE+
• Conversions, implied probabilities, margins and parlay returns computed by us in Python