Best MLB Betting Sites in Massachusetts

DraftKings Sportsbook

DraftKings Sportsbook is one of the largest sportsbooks currently operating in the state of Massachusetts. A popular sportsbook due to its massive success as a daily fantasy sports (DFS) platform as well, DraftKings also offers plenty of betting opportunities for MLB and often has boosts for Red Sox games.

Not only can you bet on standard bets like moneylines and spreads, but you can also wager on player props. For example, you can bet on whether a player will hit a home run or how many strikeouts a starting pitcher will accumulate in a game.

DraftKings is also known for having a wide array of novelty props and niche betting markets, like odds for Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest and the Academy Awards. Additionally, it offers several promotions and frequent odds boosts that bettors can take advantage of to win extra money.

BetMGM Sportsbook

BetMGM, a product of MGM Resorts International, is one of the sportsbooks that is live in the state of Massachusetts. It frequently offers boosts on Red Sox games throughout the season.

BetMGM provides an array of betting options for all types of sports bettors, and they also have a strong welcome promotion for people who are looking to open an account with them.

FanDuel Sportsbook

FanDuel Sportsbook is regarded as having the smoothest user interface amongst the major sportsbooks that are operating in Massachusetts. It rivals DraftKings in terms of the sheer volume of betting markets available and also offers Massachusetts-specific boosts (including Red Sox games) quite often.

Caesars Sportsbook

Caesars Sportsbook is known for its fantastic loyalty program, awarding bettors points and bonuses for wagering with their app.

Just like the other major sportsbooks, Caesars offers odds on everything in Major League Baseball, including moneylines, runlines, totals and prop bets.

Boston Red Sox betting partnerships

With the legalization of sports betting in Massachusetts, the Boston Red Sox agreed to a partnership with BetMGM in what was the first major pro sports betting partnership in the state.

The partnership means BetMGM has advertisements and a suite at Fenway Park, while also offering VIP fan experiences and co-branded content. BetMGM also offers exclusive Red Sox profit boosts and promotions throughout the season.

Tips for new MLB bettors

Every MLB team has 162 regular season games that bettors can wager on (plus Spring Training and potential postseason games), providing countless betting opportunities throughout the season. Let’s go over some tips to keep in mind when betting on Major League Baseball.

For starters, remember that you aren’t a professional bettor. It’s very difficult to make money in the long run betting on sports, and doing so takes a lot of time and effort. Accordingly, it’s important for casual bettors to bet within their means and not get too emotionally involved Betting should be treated as a fun activity.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Bet the best possible odds that sportsbooks offer. There are several legal sportsbooks in the state of Massachusetts and they all offer slightly different odds on games. Having accounts at multiple sportsbooks is a good way to shop around to find the best odds and maximize your potential payout.
Be wary of parlays. Parlays are fun and attractive because of their potential to turn a small stake into a big payout, but they have long odds for a reason. They’re far riskier and harder to win than single bets, so your odds of success are low. If you want to be a successful bettor, stick to single bets for the bulk of your wagers.
Quality over quantity. With so many games to choose from, the amount of MLB bettng options can be overwhelming. Stick to bets you feel confident in and don’t feel like you need to wager on everything.

While the MLB betting markets on offer can vary by sportsbook, every game will at least have a moneyline, a runline and a total to bet on. If you’re not familiar with sports betting, here’s how these bet types work.

Moneyline is the easiest and most straightforward bet type, as you’re simply picking which team will win the game. It doesn’t matter how many runs the team wins by or how many innings it takes – as long as you pick the correct side, you win.

Here’s what moneyline odds for a divisional game between the Red Sox and Yankees might look like.

Moneyline odds

Yankees +100
Red Sox -130

In the case above, the Red Sox are listed as betting favorites. The above odds are in the format of “American Odds”. If the number has a “-” symbol in front of it, that means you would need to wager that much money in order to profit $100 if it wins. In this example, you would need to wager $130 on the Red Sox to earn a profit of $100 if they win the game.

Meanwhile, the “+” symbol means that’s how much money you would profit if you wager $100, so the inverse of the “-” symbol. In this instance, if you bet $100 on the Yankees and they win, you’ll earn a $100 profit.

The runline, which is baseball’s version of the spread, is a bit more complicated. Rather than betting on the outright winner, you’re betting on a team to win or lose by a certain number of runs.

Here’s an example:

Run line odds

Yankees +1.5 (-190)
Red Sox -1.5 (+170)

In this situation, a bet on the Red Sox would mean they have to win by more than 1.5 runs (so 2 runs or more) to cover the runline. A $100 bet on that would yield a $170 profit if the Red Sox win the game by multiple runs.

Meanwhile, a bet on the Yankees would need them to either win the game outright or lose by fewer than 1.5 runs (so lose by 1). If they do, a $190 bet would yield a $100 profit.

The third standard betting market is the total, which is a projected run total for the entire game. The total, also known as the over/under, is the combined run total of both teams, so your bet is for the total to either be over or under a certain number.

Total

Total: 9.5 (Over -105/Under -115)

In this example, if you’re betting on the OVER you’d need at least 10 total runs to be scored in the game. It doesn’t matter how many runs each team scores – as long as they combine for more than 9.5 runs, the OVER wins.

Conversely, you’d need fewer than 9.5 total runs to be scored to hit the UNDER.

Calculating your payout

Regardless of which bet type you place, it will have triple-digit “American Odds”. As explained above, the “-” means that option is more likely to happen and you’d calculate the payout by, in theory, using a $100 unit. The opposite is true for the “+” symbol, where the number given is how much you’d win based on a hypothetical $100 bet.

Let’s take a closer look at it using an imaginary total bet.

Total: 8.5 (Over +100/Under -120)

OVER (positive odds): If you were to bet on the OVER in the above example, the odds are +100. That means if you bet $100, you’d win a $100 profit if it hits. This same math can be used for any bet size is. A $10 bet would yield a $10 profit, a $20 bet would yield a $20 profit and so on.

Calculation for positive odds: Bet amount * (odds/100) = Potential profit

UNDER (negative odds): If you take the UNDER, the odds for that have a “-” next to it. That means you need to theoretically bet that number in order to win a $100 profit. You can use the same math for any bet size. For example, you’d have to bet $12 to profit $10.

Calculation for negative odds: Bet amount/(odds/100) = Potential profit

Other types of MLB bets

Now that we’ve gone over the three basic types of bets as well as how to calculate potential winnings, let’s take a look at other types of bets you can place on Major League Baseball.

Parlays

Parlays are a fun way to bet, but as we mentioned above you shouldn’t wager too much or too often on them since they are extremely difficult to hit.

A parlay is a wager that combines multiple bets (called “legs”) into one wager. In order for the bet to cash, every leg of the parlay must come true. The more legs you add, the higher the odds and payout become.

It depends on the sportsbook, but some will let you add up to 10-20 legs to a single parlay. These legs can be from different games or the same game, depending on your preference.

MLB parlay example:

Red Sox Runline (-120) vs. Orioles
Red Sox/Orioles OVER 9.5 (-105)
Rafael Devers OVER 0.5 Hits (-260)
Chris Sale OVER 6.5 Strikeouts (-110)

For this example, you would need all four separate bets to cash for the parlay to be a winner. If any of the four lose, the parlay loses.

You can see why these are difficult to hit and why sportsbooks love to offer/promote them.

Prop Bets

One way to expand your betting strategy beyond standard bets and parlays is with prop bets, which open up even more betting options for every game.

Prop bets are often on the performance of an individual player. In baseball, player props are usually split up between batters and pitchers.

For batters, you can wager on a specific player to go over a certain number of hits, RBIs, runs, home runs, total bases and more. Here’s an example:

Rafael Devers Over 0.5 Home Runs (+300)

For pitchers, you can wager on things like strikeouts, earned runs, hits allowed, walks, whether they record a win and more. Here’s another example:

Brayan Bello Over/Under 5.5 Strikeouts (Over/Under -120/+100)

In this example, if you take the OVER, Bello would have to notch at least 6 strikeouts. If you take the UNDER, he’d have to finish with fewer than 5 whiffs.

There are also prop bets related to a team or the game in general. For example, you can bet on the Over/Under for how many runs the Red Sox will score in the game, or whether any runs will be scored at all in the first inning. This common prop bet is known as a NRFI bet, which stands for no-run first inning.

Here’s an example of a NRFI:

YRFI (yes-run first inning) -115
NRFI (no-run first inning) -105

If a run is scored by either team in the first inning, the YRFI cashes. If no runs are scored by either team in the first inning, the NRFI cashes.

Futures

Finally, there are future bets. These wagers are long-term wagers on a team or a player that typically aren’t decided until the season is over. Futures are often on things like player awards, team win totals, division winners, pennant winners and World Series winners.

Here are few example of different types of futures bets for Major League Baseball:

World Series Winner
NL Pennant Winner
AL Pennant Winner
AL/NL Cy Young Winner
AL/NL MVP
AL/NL Rookie of the Year
AL East Winner (applies to all divisions)
Regular Season Win Totals
Make or Miss the Playoffs

Here’s what the odds look like for the AL East division this season:

Since futures odds will vary by sportsbook, you’ll want to shop around to make sure you get the best possible odds before tying up your funds for a while.

MLB Playoff Betting

After the 162-game regular season concludes, the postseason begins. Six teams make the playoffs in each league (12 total) with three division winners and three wild-card teams.

The top two division winners by record in each league receive a bye to the Divisional Series. The division winner with the worst record and the three wild cards play in the Wild Card Round, which is a best-of-three series to kick off the playoffs.

There are four total rounds in the MLB Playoffs:

Wild Card Round (first round) - Four best-of-three series
Divisional Series (second round) - Four best-of-five series
League Championship Series (third round) - Two best-of-seven series
World Series (Championship) - Best-of-seven series

Throughout the playoffs, bettors can wager on what team will win each series, each league and the World Series. Odds will shift for each while games are played and teams advance.

World Series Betting

There are a couple of different ways to bet on the World Series. Not only can you bet on what team will win the World Series, but you can also wager on what the exact World Series matchup will be or how many games the winner of the World Series will need to win it (4, 5, 6 or 7).

All the options that are available to bet on during regular season games are also available to bet on during playoff and World Series games, including props, parlays, standard bets and more.

MLB Live Betting

Another way to bet on Major League Baseball is live betting.

In addition to betting on games before they start, you can also wager on games once they’re underway. That way, you can get a sense of how the game is going before placing any wagers on it.

Here are some example of types of live bets you can place:

Live moneyline, runline and total
Live player props
The result of the next at-bat

There are some professionals that claim live betting offers the best edge for bettors. Live betting can also present opportunities to “hedge” or “middle” based on your pre-game bet to help limit your losses if the game doesn't go as you anticipated.

Massachusetts MLB TV and Radio coverage

How to watch MLB in Massachusetts

There are several different ways to watch Major League Baseball in Massachusetts, including the Red Sox.

If you live in Massachusetts, you can watch any game not involving the Red Sox on MLB TV. Unfortunately, due to blackout restrictions, Red Sox games will only be available for viewing on cable networks including:

NESN
Fox
FS1
ESPN

How to listen to MLB in Massachusetts

If you’re located in Massachusetts, you are able to listen to the radio broadcasts of all games, including Red Sox games.

You can also listen to games on local radio stations and nationwide Satellite Radio such as Sirius XM.

Massachusetts MLB players

Pitchers

Brayan Bello, Starting Pitcher, Boston Red Sox

While 2023 is only Bello’s second season in the majors, he’s already being heralded as the future ace of the franchise. Bello has shown impressive poise, control, consistency and stuff since making his MLB debut in 2022, getting better as he’s gained experience.

In particular, his change-up has drawn comparisons to another Red Sox legend – Pedro Martinez.

Infielders

Rafael Devers, Third Baseman, Boston Red Sox

Devers is officially the face of the franchise after receiving the largest contract in team history prior to the 2023 season – an 11-year, $331 million extension. He’s the team’s longest-tenured position player and was part of the 2018 title squad. He’s also one of the best hitters in baseball.

Trevor Story, Shortstop, Boston Red Sox

After establishing himself as an offensive force and one of MLB’s best all-around shortstops with the Rockies, Story joined the Red Sox on a six-year, $140 million free-agent deal prior to the 2022 campaign.

While Story has dealt with injuries during his time in Boston, he’s still showcased his elite all-around skill set when healthy.

Outfielders

Masataka Yoshida, Left Fielder, Boston Red Sox

Yoshida came to the Red Sox in 2023 after previously playing in Japan. He immediately established himself as one of the best hitters not just on the team, but in the whole American League. His contact skills and plate discipline are particularly remarkable.

Greatest Massachusetts MLB players of all time

The Red Sox have consistently been blessed with exceptional players since their first season in 1901, including two of the greatest hitters and pitchers in baseball history. Here’s a list of some of the greatest players in team history.

Greatest Players in Boston Red Sox History

Cy Young, Starting Pitcher (1901-1908)
Babe Ruth, Starting Pitcher/Outfielder (1914-1919)
Ted Williams, Left Fielder (1939-1960)
Carl Yastrzemski, Left Fielder (1961-1983)
Roger Clemens, Starting Pitcher (1984-1996)
Pedro Martinez, Starting Pitcher (1998-2004)
David Ortiz, Designated Hitter (2003-2016)

Best MLB Betting Sites in Massachusetts

By Jason Schandl | Aug 23, 2024

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