Betting line: Explaining wagers as Maryland mobile sportsbook launches

BALTIMORE -- Starting Wednesday morning, Marylanders will be able to place a bet from their mobile devices.

Online sports betting launches at 9 a.m.

If you are new to betting, all of this might be a little bit overwhelming.

There are so many different ways to bet on sports.

"Player props, team props," a bettor said.

Let's talk about the three most basic types of bets for new sports bettors.

The first is a Moneyline bet. That is a type of bet that only includes odds to win. 

Using this weekend's Ravens game as an example, you can tell that the Ravens are the betting favorite in this game because of the minus sign before their odds.

The plus sign before the Jaguars' odds tells you that they are the underdog. 

If you were to bet $100 on the Ravens' Moneyline, you would win a little more than $52 because they are heavily favored. 

If you want to take it to the next level, you can bet using the point spread. 

A point spread bet is a bet on the margin of victory in a sporting event.

The Ravens are 3.5-point favorites in the game.

Think of it like this, if you were to bet Ravens -3.5, you are saying you believe the Ravens will win on Sunday by four or more points. 

A bet on the Ravens against the spread would pay out almost $91.

Now let's talk about the total.

Betting on the total is another popular way to bet on games. It's a bet on the number of points both teams will combine to score in a game. 

The total for Sunday's Ravens game was set at 43.5 points.

So basically, you have to ask yourself if you think the Ravens and jaguars will combine to score more or less than 43.5 points.

There are so many other types of bets.

Some sportsbooks make it easy for their new customers to educate themselves with betting 101-style videos and tutorials. 

The most important thing to remember is to bet responsibly.

WJZ's Alex Glaze has talked to a number of people in the betting field, counselors, and regular people over the last couple of weeks and everyone has echoed the same basic sentiment --know your limit and just have fun.

WJZ compiled a timeline of how mobile sports betting in Maryland became legal. For a list of the seven entities launching on Wednesday, view this story.