Bet On The World Series Legally In The US
When you bet the World Series online, you participate in one of the most popular global sports wagers that occurs every year. At this level, the 30 Major League Baseball teams and 298 NCAA Division I colleges have played down to the 2 best teams in each of those leagues, with plenty of opportunities for baseball playoffs betting.
The College World Series uses Regional and Super Regional playoff tiers to decide which 2 teams get to play for the national championship. In MLB action, teams have to make it through a possible wild card round, League Division Series play and then win their League Championship Series to advance to the World Series. The CWS is held annually in June in Omaha, Nebraska and is a best-of-three championship contest.
The MLB World Series is a best-of-seven playoff format, with the home team decided by the winner of the American League versus National League All-Star game. The team from the winning league in the All-Star game retains a one-game home field advantage.
To find out what your wagering options are for betting the World Series in either league, check out our page that looks at types of baseball bets. If you'd like to learn more about the legal status of betting on the world series, you can review our page on baseball betting laws.
Best US Online Sportsbook To Bet On The 2024 World Series
Bovada Sportsbook: Top Rated Site For 2024
The MLB and College Baseball World Series events are all covered at Bovada, with competitive betting lines and odds available 24/7.
- New players are eligible for a 50% sign up bonus worth up to $1,000
- Bovada offers live betting features throughout the baseball seasons, including for the World Series games.
- Bovada is licensed and regulated by the Kahnawake Gambling Commission in Canada
- Bovada is owned and operated by the respected Bodog brand.
Betting the World Series of Major League Baseball
After playing 162 regular-season games, the 2 teams that make it through the multi-leveled MLB playoffs to the World Series have possibly played in 13 playoff matchups. The MLB World Series is a best-of-seven format, so that means that the 2 best professional baseball teams may have played in as many as 182 regular and postseason baseball games by the time a World Series winner is crowned.
Billed as the Fall Classic, when you bet on the World Series you are doing so in October. This means that weather could come into play depending on which teams make it this far. Participants of legal baseball betting looking for an edge will note that, going into the 2014 World Series, the AL has won 63 championships and the NL just 46. However, betting the World Series does not mean waiting till the end of the Major League regular season. Futures World Series bets can be made all year long.
2024 World Series Wrap Up
It looked like the Kansas City Royals were a team of destiny this year. After limping into the postseason as a wild-card game winner, KC went undefeated in the early playoff rounds to land them in the World Series. This was the first time since 1985 that the Royals have made the playoffs. And they would face an equally unimpressive San Francisco Giants team, who also had to sneak into the playoffs by virtue of a wild-card victory. After 6 games the series was tied 3 – 3, with game 7 being played in Kansas City.
The Giants Madison Bumgarner, a starting pitcher, made an unexpected appearance in relief during game 7. He pitched lights out baseball for 5 full innings in relief to pick up the save for San Francisco, less than 72 hours after pitching a complete game victory in which he scattered 4 hits and threw 8 strikeouts. Kansas City and the Giants scored 2 runs apiece in the 2nd inning of game 7, but San Francisco added a run in the 4th, which proved enough to give the Giants their 8th World Series victory. Bumgarner finished the 2014 series with 2 wins, 1 save and an almost nonexistent ERA of 0.43.
Betting the College World Series
The College World Series is very different from its MLB counterpart. In Major League Baseball 2 teams play for the World Series title. But betting on the College World Series means that you have 8 separate teams to wager on. After making it through the Regional and Super Regional Rounds, the 8 remaining teams are divided into 2 separate 4-team brackets.
Double elimination play decides which 2 Division I colleges will play for the CWS title in a best-of-three format. With parlay, spread, money and run line wagering, futures and props betting and teasers and pleasers offered, betting on the College World Series offers plenty of action for the serious sports bettor. And when you bet on the CWS at the legal baseball betting sites we recommend, you receive special baseball bonuses, 24/7/365 mobile access, live betting options and a wide variety of safe and secure deposit methods.
Longshot MLB World Series Bets That Paid Off In a Big Way
Betting World Series futures means you can place a wager on who you believe will win the Fall Classic, long before the baseball season even gets started. And several times throughout the long baseball regular season, the odds on a particular team winning that year's World Series move up and down, sometimes quite considerably. Back on September 12 of 2011, the St. Louis Cardinals had not even managed to put themselves in the wild-card discussion. But that did not keep an anonymous sports fan from betting $250 on the Cards to win the World Series that year. His odds? 999 to 1 from the MGM Grand in Vegas.
A little more than a month later the Cardinals won the World Series and that futures baseball best cashed in for a cool $250,000. And confident baseball futures bettors who backed the Minnesota Twins to win the 1987 World Series before the season started eventually cashed out with odds of 500 to 1. A simple $20 bet returned $10,020. Baseball futures bets are a great way to turn a small amount of money into a life-changing payday. (Baseball Futures Tip: Heading into the 2014 Major League playoff season, 12 teams have finished with the worst regular-season record in baseball one year and won the World Series the following season.)
College World Series Trivia
As of 2014, the University of Southern California Trojans baseball team has won 12 College World Series, and appeared in 21. The Texas Longhorns have won 6 of the 35 CWS playoffs they have been in, with the LSU Tigers college team winning 6 of the 16 times they appeared in the college baseball national championship series. That same Louisiana State program took down a staggering 5 CWS championships in the 1990s alone. Including the 2014 season, Florida State has shown up in a respectable 21 different College World Series playoffs.
However, the best they could manage was coming in second 3 different times, as the Seminoles have never won the college baseball championship. The PAC 12 conference has claimed 17 CWS wins through the 2014 season, the SEC is the next most successful conference with 10 titles, and the Big Ten claims 6 College World Series championships.