Why is the runline always -1.5?

[DakotaDog]

I'll admit - I am a newcomer to sports betting. But why does the baseball run line act like the spread of a football or basketball game, but is always -1.5?

-DakotaDog

[Maniac]

No Ties in MLB, so a spread of -0.5 makes no sense as would effectively be the same as the ML price. -2.5 or more would be too big a spread on majority of games when you consider that a pickem game with a total of 9 would have each teams total runs scored prediction around 4.5 runs each, then a runline of -1.5 makes the most sense to stick to all round.

A lot of books these days offer Alternate Runlines though, so you can find different spreads available if you look around.

[tto827]

As maniac said, two+ runs is too big of a spread given the low amount of total runs in a game.

[HedgeHog]

The 1.5 run line is standard everywhere for baseball, but Books like 5D and Heritage have several other alternate run-lines to choose from.

[PD77]

Because around 30% of the games are decided by one run. It could be -1.00001 -1.9999 runs which is of course the same as -1.5. It is the prices attached to the -1.5 that matters.

[Hankwins]

alot of books try to confuse players with many alternative lines that are available when click parlay

[byronbb]

Surprised US books havent gone to "Asian" handicaps. Where is the +1.25 or +1.75 handicap like in soccer? In football they could deal these around the key numbers. Instead of dealing -2.5 -120 or + 3 -120, they go to -2.75.