Baseball — Rules Differences

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Man of Mystery

I opened my Betfair account on 22nd April 2003. I was one of the first subscribers to Adam Todd's BetTrader and was a founding partner of JuiceStorm.com on 17th February 2007.

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Baseball can be a useful sport to arb with some of the foreign bookmakers in the summer when football is scarce. You MUST be very careful as there are 2 situations in which you can find yourself in a nasty mess, and they are not that easy to spot.

The pitcher is very important in baseball and most bookies and Betfair name the pitcher for each team. Make sure the pitchers are the same for both teams at bookie and Betfair because if one of them does not pitch the bet will be void. Some bookies do not name the pitcher – Coral is one. Do not arb baseball with these bookies. You can of course dutch between bookies which do not name the pitcher.

Be aware that American bookies use the terms “action” and “no action” – a bet which has “no action” is void. So their rules may say that for the bet to have action the listed pitchers must play – this would be the same as Betfair. Some American bookies will offer the choice of action or no action markets with regard to the listed pitchers. Be careful of this especially if you are using an odds comparison site to find close matches or arbs.

The other tricky problem with baseball is that the same teams frequently play each other on consecutive days. Because the games are played at around midnight GMT the date is not always terribly helpful. It is quite easy to think you have found an arb and bet on one match and lay on a different one (I have done it!). The pitcher should give you a clue, as they often don’t have the same pitchers 2 days running, but you should always check very carefully that you have the same game.

This is a classic situation where odds comparison sites can easily compare the wrong markets.