Odds and prices
What is a money line in betting?
A money line is a bet on the winner and nothing else. The margin does not matter, the handicap does not exist, you just need your side to come out ahead.
The price does the balancing instead of a spread. Favourites pay less than your stake, underdogs pay more.
Two-way and three-way
Basketball and baseball are two-way markets. Somebody wins, so the two prices cover everything.
Hockey runs to overtime and a shootout, and most books settle the money line on the final result including all of that. Soccer usually offers a genuine three-way market where the draw is its own price, and a lot of people lose money learning that the hard way.
When a money line is the right bet
Short favourites on a money line are expensive. Risking C$250 to win C$100 means you need to be right four times in five just to stand still, and nobody is right four times in five.
Underdogs are where the money line stops being a boring bet. A plus price only has to land occasionally to pay for the misses, and the maths is far kinder to somebody who is patient.
On the slip
Money line legs are the cleanest thing to put in a parlay because they settle without ambiguity: no half-point, no push, no void.
Every app puts the money line in the leftmost column of the game row, which is convenient and is also why it is the bet people tap by accident when they meant to tap the spread.