Runline Questions?

[Kritz23]

This is my 2nd year of betting so forgive me if these are stupid questions about runlines but I never really bet them last year. I'm trying to develop a system for baseball using the runline. It's coming along good and I've backtracked 2005-2007 the past 3 days and each year had winning results. I'm just trying to determine to the nearest dollar what my results would have been. I switched from Bodog to BetJamaica this year, I didn't see anywhere on the site that BetJamaica uses runlines, but I assume they do? I simply got fed up with Bodog's Christmas colored boxes and late lines. Plus there's higher limits at BetJamaica. Anyways:

1. Is the 1.5 runline ALWAYS given to the away team or is it given to the underdog?

2. How do you figure the odds of the runline? For example if the favorite/home team is -160, how would you figure out the away/underdog's 1.5 runline is?

3. Does matchbook.com use the alternative runline?

[LT Profits]

1. The 1.5 runline is given to the team that OPENS as the underdog. I remember back in the day when if the opening ML underdog would become the favorite, the RL would flip-flop, but not it appears books have stopped doing that, at least from what I have seen. Then again, that could also be due to the increased popularty of the Alt RL, so it doesn't really matter that much as you could usually bet either team +/-1.5 anyway.

2 - If there was a conventional answer to this question, it would make the research much easier. The juice on RLs are set on a case-by-case basis, and they are usually also a function of the total. (i.e., the variance between the odds on the -1.5 and the ML should be greater if the game total is 8 than if the game total is 9.5). If you want a VERY rough estimate for research purposes, move the -1.5 90 cents from ML if the home team is favored and 55 cents if the road team is favored. Again though, it is probably dangerous to use overall averages like that for specific ballparks.

3. I have never seen Alts at Matchbook.

[Kritz23]

Thanks LT, appreciate it. 1 other question. Bodog allowed you to bet +2.5 runs for the favorite. Does BetJamaica offer that option?

[LT Profits]

I may be having a brain fart, but if memory served me, BJ had 1.5 and 2.5 alt lines the first half of last season and then suddenly stopped offering the 2.5 at some point during the year. Maybe someone else can confirm that though.