If you are a regular baseball bettor, you’ve been relying on the option to play listed pitchers for years. It’s a simple thing, and it’s been standard issue for bookmakers since baseball betting began.
If you choose to play “listed” instead of “action,” and the listed pitcher is replaced before the game begins, your bet is canceled.
Baseball has used this year’s shortened season as an opportunity to change some of its rules, and several bookmakers and pay per head sites have done the same. Gone is the action vs. listed option.
Now, regardless of a starting pitcher change prior to the game, the bet you place is the bet you’re stuck with.
Placing Bets: Action vs. Listed
There is nothing worse in betting than having $50 on the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw, to suddenly have him scratched and replaced by Dustin May, which happened in Los Angeles’ season opener this year. Nothing against May, but he’s no Kershaw, and the bet you placed is no longer the bet you’re playing. This is why baseball bets come with a choice.
When placing the bet, if you choose “listed,” when Kershaw or another starter gets the boot, your bet is canceled. If instead, you choose “action,” that means you are locked into going ahead with the bet, but at a new moneyline should there be a starting pitching change.
Most experienced baseball bettors don’t like to take “action” because it removes their control. Their knowledge and research are rendered moot. Whereas taking” listed” allows the bettor to look at the new pitcher and the new moneyline and decide if they still want to play it.
Bookmakers that are removing this option from their baseball listings are removing your choice as an experienced baseball bettor.
Why Bookmakers are Making This Change
Under the cover COVID-19 excuses, bookies who have pulled the plug on “listed pitcher” bets say they’re making the change for two reasons.
First, baseball has changed. More relief pitchers are starting the game, giving way to a traditional starter beyond the first inning. The listed starting pitcher is no longer as important.
That is true in the case of a team like the Brewers. But if you’re playing the Nationals and Max Scherzer, he is the traditional starting workhorse that you base your bet around.
The other reason bookies give is that this is how other sports operate. Your Lakers bet doesn’t change because LeBron James sits. Your Ravens bet doesn’t change if Lamar Jackson is a game-time scratch. This just makes baseball equal to those sports.
Nonsense. There is no player in any sport that has the influence on an outcome like a starting pitcher. Being able to bet on the listed starting pitcher is paramount to being a successful baseball bettor.
WagerHome.com Stays Old School
If you are running your bookmaking service with WagerHome.com as your pay per head software provider, your baseball bets are exactly the same as before. And they will always stay that way because WagerHome.com recognizes that old school baseball betting rules are better for you, their client.
Your customers expect a certain service, and by partnering with WagerHome.com, they will always get it.
