Skybook Baseball Betting Rules
- A baseball game becomes official for money line wagering purposes after 4 1/2 innings if home team is winning, or 5 innings if visiting team is winning. Totals and Run lines will have No Action.
- For run lines and game totals (over/under), a baseball game becomes official after 8 1/2 innings if home team is winning, or 9 innings if visiting team is winning.
DOUBLE HEADERS
- In 2020 the MLB approved 7-inning doubleheaders to be played. With these, games are official after 7 innings of play (6½ innings if the home team is ahead). This includes moneyline, total runs (over/under) and Run Line bets. ( no 1st 5innings line).
EXHIBITION BASEBALL RULES:
- Games must go full 5 innings, or 4.5 if the home team is in the lead to qualify as an official game.
- After the 5th inning, if an inning is not played to completion, then the score will revert to the previously completed inning unless the home team is leading.
- Wagers will also be nullified in the opposite circumstance: a game programmed for 7-innings but switched to 9-innings.
- In both cases, bets can be placed once the new odds are put up.
*** Starting July 16, 2024 *** ALL BASEBALL WAGERS ARE ACTION - "Listed Pitchers" IS NO longer being offered.
Unless otherwise stated, all baseball wagers - MLB, college, softball, and foreign pro leagues - are now “Action” wagers. "Listed Pitchers" is no longer being offered. This applies to sides, totals, Run Lines, team totals, first five innings and inning-by-inning props.
*all wagers have ACTION at the CONFIRMED price. For example, if you selected a team at +150, but due to a pitching change, their price drops to +120, your bet is still locked in at +150.
- MLB: By 5 am (in the respective time zone where the game is played).
- NCAA, Softball and International Leagues: Within 36 hours of the scheduled start time. The venue where the game is resumed doesn’t matter.
- We do not acknowledge postponed games, protests, or reversed decisions for betting purposes. As long as the game starts (first pitch thrown before midnight in the local time) on the scheduled day, all wagers have action. If bad weather (or similar setbacks) delays the start time past midnight local time, but the game is still contested, all bets will have action.
MLB SUSPENDED / POSTPONED GAMES:
- For full game wagers to have action, the game must get to official game time with a winner confirmed by 5 am (in the stadium’s time zone).
- If a game is suspended and is not finalized by 5 am, all wagers on the full game will be null and stakes reimbursed. This applies to games that were suspended either before start time, or games suspended during play time.
- This rule is invalid during the postseason. All playoffs bets have action as long as the game is finished within 30 days from the originally scheduled date.
- All bets placed on markets that already had outcomes determined will have action.
- The league decides the result at the point of suspension is official.
- The game is resumed and finalized by 5 AM (MLB) or in the next 36 hours (NCAA, International & Softball).
- The score of an MLB game is 10-5 in the top of the 11th inning, with the visiting team leading the scoreboard. The game is suspended, and the MLB determines this score will stand as the final result. All bets placed will have action.
- An NCAA game is suspended in the 10th inning, with the score tied 5-5. The NCAA then confirms that the game will be resumed in 6 days. All bets become null since the game won't be finished within 36 hours of the postponement.
- Run Lines are the baseball version of the point spread bets. The Run Line adds runs to the underdog. E.g. +1.5 or takes runs from the favorite. E.g -1.5
- Run Line bets are official after 8.5 innings played if the home team is on the lead, or after 9 full innings if the visiting team is leading.
- On the majority of games, there are alternative Run Lines as well, where the favorite is -2.5 runs and the exact same rules are followed.
BETTING ON TOTALS:
- You can bet on the over/under for the total of runs scored by both sides combined.
- Bets on the totals are official after 8.5 innings if the home team is on the lead, or after 9 full innings if the visiting team is leading.
- In betting, the first half of a baseball game sets from the start of the game until the end of the 5th inning.
- The second half is counted from the top of the 6th inning until the last pitch is thrown.
- If a game goes into extra innings, all runs scored after the 9th inning will count towards the second half bets.
- All first-half bets will have action once the game has 5 innings finished (4.5 if the home team is ahead). If a game is stopped before completing 4.5 or 5 innings, bets will be null unless the game is continued and finished within 36 hours of the originally scheduled start time.
- In little leagues, high school and college baseball, there is a mercy rule that states that a game is finished if a team is leading by a very large gap at a specific point in the game (i.e., if an NCAA team is ahead by 15+ runs after 8 innings played).
- In case that the mercy rule is used, games are acknowledged as completed for betting purposes, and all bets on moneylines, totals and Run Lines will have action.
- Game 1 will always be the first game played, and Game 2 will be the game after. In the case that only one game is finished within the 36-hour time span, the game that was completed will always be regarded as Game 1, and all the wagers on Game 2 will become null.
- Any wagers on Game 2 will only have action if the two games are played by the same teams inside the 36-hour time span.E.g: A day/night double-header is on the schedule. The earlier starting game is postponed due to rain, and only the later game is played. Bets on Game 1 will apply to the game that gets completed, and bets on Game 2 will be reimbursed.
- In the event that a double-header game is scheduled for 7 innings (like it happened in the 2020 MLB season), it must go 7 innings (6.5 if the home team is leading) for wagers to have action and games must be finished, with a winner confirmed:
- MLB: By 5 am (in the venue’s time zone).
- NCAA, International Leagues & Softball: Inside 36 hours of the original start time, regardless of the stadium.
- In case that one of the selections is void, a tie or no action in a parlay, the parlay will regress to the lower level payoff. This doesn’t apply to a two team parlay, where a tie goes back to a straight bet.
This is a bet consisting on the Over/Under of a team's total winning percentage for the regular season.
- The team must play at least 50 games for bets on season winning percentage to have action.
- These kinds of bets do not include any postseason games; they’re exclusive to regular season only.
- Bets will have action as long as 50 games have been played at least; a team does not have to play all its scheduled regular-season games, as long as they get to the 50-game limit.
- The winning percentage shown at the end of the regular season on www.mlb.com will be the one used for official grading purposes.
- Bets on baseball series are based on the first three games completed of each series.
- At least two of the first three games of the series must be completed for bets to have action.
- If only one of the first three games is postponed, or canceled, series bets stand as written.
- If two of the first three matchups are postponed, or canceled, all bets on that series will be classified as No Action and will be reimbursed.
- A called game will be acknowledged as a series bet, provided it is officially stated as a regulation game. The 9 inning rule does not apply.
- If a baseball team changes its name, future bets placed before the name change will not be affected and will keep having action. This applies to any segment of the name being modified (mascot/logo or the city/region).
- For example, if a wager is placed on a team to win the championship, and that team announces that they will use a new mascot before the season starts, the bet stands.
- This also applies to location changes if they happen, such as a team moving their home games to a new venue for either a part of or the entire season. In this case, future bets on that team will have action and this is not to be confused with a stadium being modified for an individual game, in which case the different rules apply and non-future bets might be nullified.
- Future wagers that cover these rules include (but are not restrained to) teams to win a division, conference, or championship, team season win totals, and individual player awards and statistical achievements.
GENERAL:
- Management reserves the right to update any baseball rules, nullify, or revoke bets at its discretion in case of a dispute regarding any misfortunes caused by a force majeure or the Pandemic (Covid-19).