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"Would You Like that Action or Listed, Sir?"

by Peter Portero (4/10/06)

Everytime I bet on a baseball game over the phone, I am aked if I want the game action or listed. After gambling for so long, this has become second nature. But I learned that most novice gamblers either do not really understand this as it does not exist for the more popular betting sports.

Since baseball spreads are generated predominantly based on the pitchers, the sportsbook offer you the ability to kind of have "free insurance" on your wager. For example, if you are betting on the Yankees with Randy Johnson on the mound, you are likely to get -220 as the spread. But what if Randy Johnson gets ousted as the starting pitcher and they put in Tanyon Sturtze. There would be so much outrage and corruption in betting baseball if gamblers were forced to take Tanyon Sturtze at -220 in this situation. But in order to have the play no longer count, you would have to use Randy Johnson as the "listed" pitcher.

If your bet is "action", it does not matter who is pitching.

My general rule of thumb is that I consider taking all dogs as "action" and all favorites as "listed". Since teams are underdogs because they have weaker starting pitching, it is generally a good idea to have the game action. Using the example above, if I was going up against Randy Johnson and I had +190, I would still want the +190 against Tanyon Sturtze, right?

As long as your "listed" pitcher pitches the first pitch, the game counts. Some sportsbooks force you to either take both pictures listed or none while others let you pick and choose. So if you handicapping analysis depended a lot on the starting pitching of both squads then you should be taking your bets action.