The World Series is perhaps the most prestigious trophy in all of sports. The first World Series took place in 1903 and it is still going strong today. This combined with the longest season in professional sports, but a short postseason make the World Series one of the most difficult to win.
That first World Series was won by the Boston Red Sox who defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates, two teams who are still active to this day. The Yankees have won the most World Series in history with 27 wins. They also have the record for most World Series played in at 40. The St. Louis Cardinals have the second most wins at 11. There are six currently active teams that have never won a World Series: the Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, Tampa Bay Rays, and San Diego Padres. The Mariners are the only team in MLB history to have never even made it to a World Series.
It is also one of the most fun to bet on. The World Series odds always have great odds as there is so much variation in baseball and you can never truly say a team has no chance. It’s baseball, anything can happen.
This article will cover World Series betting odds. Where to bet them, how to bet them and our strategy for picking winners, let’s get right into it.
Where To Bet World Series Winners:
America: Bovada is usually one of the very first sportsbooks to post betting odds after the World Series ends for the following season and are constantly updating them throughout the year. This site also offers a lot of baseball odds throughout the season and a ton of props.
Canada: It’s not just Blue Jays lines at Sports Interaction, they are always updating their World Series odds during the offseason and regular season. They also offer odds on the AL and NL championships.
Everywhere Else: 888 offers competitive World Series odds from the postseason to the postseason.
What is World Series Winners betting?
A bet on the World Series winner is a futures bet in which you select the team that you think will win the World Series and it pays when the World Series winner is decided (or your team is eliminated from contention). This type of bet can be placed any time from the offseason until the World Series is decided.
The further out you bet, the better the odds are you get. Once you get down to just two teams, the odds aren’t that great. For example, in February of 2017 the Astros were +1600 to win the World Series. By the time of game 1 of the World Series, they were +120. So, a $100 bet on them in February would’ve paid $1600 but the same bet would’ve paid just $120 if made in late October.
Common World Series Winners Questions:
How much does regular season winning percentage matter in the World Series?
The team with the best record in baseball has won the World Series just 5 of 28 times in the Wild Card era (1995). The best team has really paid the price since the addition of the Wild Card.
Of the 113 World Series played, the team with the better record in the series has won 55 times. That is less than half the time, but not so much to be a clear advantage one way or the other. The teams have had the same record three times in history.
What was the biggest World Series upset?
The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the New York Yankees. This series went seven games and the Yankees outscored the Pirates 38-3 in their three wins. The Yankees scored 55 in the series compared to only 27 for the Pirates, but the Pirates still managed to win in a close game seven.
The 2003 Florida Marlins won the World Series over the New York Yankees in another upset. The Marlins had a payroll of $54 million compared to the Yankees payroll of $154 million.
I’d also mention the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals who won the World Series over the Detroit Tigers. The Cardinals had the lowest winning percentage for any eventual champion with an 83-78 regular season record.
How To Bet World Series Winners:
Bovada: From the sportsbook section of the website click “Baseball” under sports then go to “MLB” and “Futures”.
Sports Interaction: From the sportsbook, go to the left sidebar and find “Baseball”, then “MLB” and “Futures”.
888: In the sportsbook, hover over the menu for “Sports A-Z” and click “Baseball”. From there go to “MLB” and you should see it linked on that page.
World Series Winners Betting Strategy:
This is an incredibly hard thing to bet on before the season, but luckily for us we are in a period when the division winners are more predictable than ever. 2017’s projected division winners and playoff teams by popular websites like Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus were only wrong about a few teams.
The projected best teams were the Dodgers, the Cubs and the Nationals in the NL and the Red Sox, Astros and Indians in the AL. All of those teams won their divisions. So if you simply went with the top six from projection systems to lower your selection pool, that would be a good start.
From there you should decide what’s important to you. What team has depth and can withstand injuries, how does the bullpen look, how do the starters look and what teams have power and defense. A certain amount of this will be a guessing game, but the payoff can be exponential.
Of course, the best strategy might be just to wait until midseason. On July 10th, 2017 the Astros were the best team in the American League and you could bet them at +425. While that isn’t the best value, a 4-1 win is still pretty dang good.