Legally Betting On The Yankees
The New York Yankees need no real introduction, but we’ll take a stab at putting together a short list of why the Bronx Bombers are beloved by dedicated fans at home in NYC and from all over the globe. First of all, the Yanks are probably the world’s most well-known professional team, and, according to a Forbes magazine report, the organization is the second-most valuable sports franchise in the world, being valued at a monumental $3.7 billion. The so-called Evil Empire is also among the most successful teams ever to play professional sports, boasting an all-conquering 27 World Series championships, 40 American League pennants and 18 divisional titles.
With a pedigree like that, does it really come as a shock that many fans are interested in legally betting on the Yankees? This goes double for New Yorkers, who are rightly proud of their team’s historical accolades over the years, especially since federal sports betting laws and restrictive state regulations have made it nearly impossible if not outright illegal to bet on the Pinstripers for years. However, all that has changed thanks to the arrival of 100 percent legal sports betting sites that function as the de facto sportsbooks New York fans have been waiting for since at least the middle of the last century when these oppressive and unfair federal laws were passed.
Our guide to legally betting on the Yankees is aimed at the first-time or prospective bettor as much as it is aimed at the veteran or returning bettor. Both groups may not be aware of the legal option for wagering on sports that exists at the offshore sportsbooks we recommend – those being SportsBetting, BetOnline and 5Dimes. We’ll cover a wide range of topics over the course of this guide, ranging from where and how to find the best odds on Yankees games, how to read the various types of betting lines available, alternative means of wagering and so on. We will also answer some of the most pressing questions related to the legality – and even the ethicality – of betting on sports, so read on if you’re interested in gaining a thorough understanding of how to make a wager on your favorite team.
As we’ve already established (as if it wasn’t already widely known), the New York Yankees are one of the most historically significant clubs in any sports anywhere in the world. It’s only natural that the leading legal sports betting sites like SportsBetting, BetOnline and 5Dimes will have current betting odds on the Yankees. The Bronx-based team is widely understood to pose a major challenge for any conceivable opponent they’re likely to come up against, and almost every game on their schedule each year is going to be equally widely covered by the media, diehard aficionados of America’s pastime and casual baseball fans alike.
All the leading sports betting sites in the industry are generally going to offer odds on the Yankees all the way through the season and into the playoffs, culminating in the American League championship and, later the World Series. They will even have odds on the following year’s World Series almost immediately following the conclusion of the current year’s campaign. There are of course going to be special betting lines available from time to time as well, but the types we’ll discuss soon will fall into three broad types: betting straight up, betting the spread and betting on the over/under.
However, just knowing that these odds are available is not going to cut it when you want to actually get around to placing bets on the Yanks. In the next few sections we will go over the primary different wager types you’re likely to find on the betting boards at the legal sportsbooks sites we think are the best for New York residents and Yankees fans.
Betting On The Yankees Straight Up
Of the three main types of betting lines that will almost always be offered on the Yankees every time they take to the field, betting straight up – also known as betting on the moneyline – is the most common. It’s also the foundational basis for all other betting types in that the way the odds are written typify the essential question of all wagers: “did something happen or didn’t it?” In the case of betting on the Yankees straight up, that essential question is at its most basic form in that this betting type only considers whether a team wins or loses in a given matchup.
The bookies (that’s the betting slang for the betting shop employees that actually handicap the games and determine the odds) will assign one baseball team as the favorite, or the team more likely to win, and the other team as the underdog, or the team more likely to lose. Betting straight up is referred to as betting on the moneyline because it lists odds in terms of units of $100 risked and units of $100 won on a bet.
Betting On The Yankees Point Spread
Similar to betting the moneyline, legally betting on the Yankees via the point spread method also takes into account whether a team wins or loses a given baseball game, bettors choosing to wager against the spread have to also consider the margin of victory before their bet is a winner. That sounds a little obtuse, but if you think about it for a minute it’s actually quite simple to figure out.
In essence, the favorite in the matchup has to win the game in question, but they’ve also got to win by more than the amount of a handicap assigned to them by the bookies, whereas the underdog can either win the matchup or even lose so long as they don’t lose by more than the handicap. In other sports the spread could be nearly any number of points, but in the case of baseball the spread – known colloquially as the runline – is usually but not always going to be 1 ½ runs.
Betting On The Yankees Over/Under
Also known as betting on the total, betting on the Yankees over/under is not concerned at all with the actual outcome of a baseball game, instead focusing on the combined final score of both teams in the matchup. Bets according to this wager type are placed on whether the combined total score is greater than (over) or less than (under) the amount of runs the bookies predict for the game. Betting on the over/under is popular with bettors often a supplementary tool to “hedge their bets” against upsets since it doesn’t consider a win or a loss, which makes it a good way to maximize the amount they hope to win when they cash out their ticket.
A final point worth mentioning about betting on the over/under as a means of legally betting on the Yankees is that a third outcome besides simply winning or losing a wager exists. And that is called the “push,” which occurs when the final combined total score exactly equals the amount the bookies called for when they list the betting line. In the event of a push, all money is refunded to bettors on both sides, no matter whether they chose the “over” or “under” side of bet.
Prop bets are another popular way for fans looking for a way to legally bet on the Yankees. This wager type is defined as being a bet based around a particular question (or a proposition) regarding the individual performance of one player or the performance of the team as a whole in such a way that doesn’t directly impact the final outcome of the game in which the prop takes place. These “what if?” style questions won’t be offered on every single game for most teams, but then the Yankees aren’t every team, and that popularity naturally expands the availability of prop bets on both players and the team as a whole for most games during the season.
In the next couple sections we will provide examples of common varieties of player prop bets and team prop bets, complete with betting odds, just as they might appear before any given game on the betting boards at our most highly recommended legal offshore New York sportbooks SportsBetting.ag, BetOnline.ag and 5Dimes.eu. If you keep up with the ongoing statistical performance of your favorite player (or combination of players) over the long term, choosing to wager via the prop bet method can help you cash out a huge ticket at the end of the Yanks’ next game.
Yankees Player Prop Examples
Starting Pitcher Total Strikeouts Vs. Boston Red Sox
- Total Strikeouts Over 5 (-105)
- Total Strikeouts Under 5 (-160)
Will The Lead-Off Hit Get A Home Run Vs. Boston Red Sox?
- Yes (+800)
- No (-14,000)
Yankees Team Prop Examples
Will The Yankees Win The World Series?
- Yes (+600)
- No (-1,600)
Margin Of Victory Vs. New York Mets In Subway Series
- Yankees 1-2 Runs (-140)
- Mets 1-2 Runs (-110)
- Yankees 3-4 Runs (-120)
- Mets 3-4 Runs (-105)
- Yankees 5-6 Runs (-110)
- Mets 5-6 Runs (+110)
Although we have looked at a tremendous volume of different wager types available at sites that enable legally betting on the Yankees, it’s important for new bettors to realize (and for returning punters to remember) that there are even more opportunities on offer at the best online sportsbooks. These can come in the form of old stalwarts like futures betting – in which you’ll pick the winner of far-off events such as choosing the winner of the World Series several months in advance – or specials; for instance, you might see a betting line on the identity of the Yankees’ next general manager. But outside of those tried-and-true methods, there are other ways to bet on the Yankees that are truly representative of the modern realities of sports betting in the age of the internet.
The first of these new methods of wagering is mobile betting via smartphone app. It’s clear that we are living in a day and time in which most people have more contact with their phones and tablets than they do with their own children, so it’s not so surprising that sports betting will have moved onto this platform as well (though we will discuss this more in-depth in a subsequent section). The other is live or in-game betting on the Yankees, in which the odds and even whole betting lines are subject to being changed throughout a baseball game in real time, all in accordance with the action happening on the field. This more involved betting option is available on many high-profile matchups at the leading New York-friendly sportsbooks, and, let’s face it, almost every game the Evil Empire participates in automatically becomes a high profile contest just by virtue of New York having taken part.
Is Sports Betting Legal For New York Residents?
We’ve talked a lot about all the ways you can legally place wagers on the Yankees, but up until this point we haven’t really elaborated on just what makes sports betting legal for New York residents. Federal anti-gambling laws complicate matters by limiting access to legal outlets for taking action and placing bets, so we’d better take a quick look at laws such as the Wire Act of 1961, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (also known as PASPA) and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (mercifully shortened to UIGEA) first.
All of those aforementioned laws negatively impact New Yorkers and other US residents in different but complimentary ways. The Wire Act and PAPSA combine to make it so that betting on sports via telephone or internet connection is illegal across state lines, meanwhile prohibiting all states except Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon from offering a legal, regulated sports betting markets. Additionally, the UIGEA forbids US-based financial institutions from processing credit card transactions related to wagering of any kind if it’s done online.
Though none of these laws directly target individuals who wager on the Yankees for fun (even if they’re high rollers like we hope you end up being), they still make life pretty miserable for a sports betting enthusiast. However, all is not lost: New York’s own state laws – though they forbid “book-making” and “line-selling” among other prohibited gambling practices – make no mention whatsoever of internet-based gambling. This leaves the legal wiggle room offshore-based sports betting shops like BetOnline, SportsBetting and 5Dimes need to serve those interested in legally betting on the Yankees, being that these sites are actually fully legal, just based in foreign countries and therefore outside the reach of the US’ gambling bans.