Pesapallo is a relatively young sport. It emerged in the 1920s when a Finnish student studying in the United States was fascinated by the American bat and ball game and, upon returning home, decided to invent his own baseball-like sport. In this article, we will tell you the main things that you need to know for those who want to bet on pesapallo in bookmakers.
Pesapallo – Finnish baseball
In Finland, where they had their own games with hitting the ball, the idea of the former student was accepted with a bang, and already in the 40s the first professional pesapallo leagues were organized. It is now one of the most popular sports in Finland, especially outside the big cities. There are also pesapallo teams in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia and Canada.
Regarding the rules, pesapallo is a rather peculiar sport, but it has a lot in common with baseball . The field also consists of an infield and an outfield, while the infield has the same three bases and a house. The attacking players use the bat to bounce the ball thrown by the opposing team’s pitcher, and then begin moving around the bases in order to score a point. There are nine players in defense at the same time, who, like baseball players, have special traps for handling the ball.
The differences relate to both the regulations and the strategy, the dynamics of the game. The bases look completely different, and the infield is by no means square in shape. Outs are counted differently, there are eight innings instead of nine for baseball – more precisely, pesapallo is played in two games of four innings in regulation time.
The game is generally more dynamic than baseball, thanks to the pitcher’s altered way of serving – the ball is tossed over the base rather than towards it, making it easier for the batter to find contact and create a poignant situation on the pitch.
Pesapallo’s high point was 1952, when the discipline was introduced at the Olympic Games in Helsinki as an exemplary sport. However, it was not possible to develop this success, and now Finnish baseball is much inferior in popularity to its American elder brother.
Types of pesapallo bets
At the end . In most cases, this is the only line that can be delivered in Russian offices. Three odds are offered for the outcome in regular time based on the results of two games: a home win, a draw or an away win.
For a double outcome . Less popular and widespread line, but there are no differences from the same football. For a lower odds, you can bet that a certain team will at least not lose in two periods, or that there will be no draw.
For total . In pesapallo, bookmakers usually accept bets not on the number of parties themselves, but on the amount of points accumulated during two games of regular time.
Head start . Here, the calculation is also based on the number of wounds collected in two periods. Even the team that won the match may not have a handicap; such situations arise, for example, even in tennis and volleyball.
Long-term rates . Some bookmakers offer to predict the winner of the season in the Finnish men’s or women’s championship, where the season starts in early May and ends in mid-September. The best team of the year must perform well in the regular season, and then survive in a tough playoff system.
Unpredictability and a short season: essential for a pesapallo betting strategy
One of the main features that unite high-level Finnish and American baseball is the high unpredictability of results. Even a weak team from the depths of the tournament table has a chance to beat the favorite, so bookmakers, as a rule, offer odds on the outcomes that are not very distant from each other.
Especially at the end of the season, when some of the favorites have already solved their tasks of getting into the playoffs and are losing motivation, you can win quite well on bets on underdogs. Also, great value can be found in matches from the first month of the season in the spring.
In general, it can be noted that bookmakers do not pay much attention to pesapallo analysis, so the odds may initially have a high value. But the very scarce statistical information in the public domain, which is incomparably less in comparison with American baseball, will not help you much in preparing a forecast, and a high margin will seriously reduce the chances of the strategy’s profitability.
When trying to get the edge over the line, you shouldn’t miss out on the latest Pesapallo news, so you have to read or translate a lot of information from Finnish-language sites. Also, match-fixing is still considered one of the problems of this sport. In the late 90s, a series of scandals swept through the Finnish league, which negatively affected the reputation of Pesapallo with bookmakers.
Where to bet on pesapallo
Few legal Russian bookmakers accept bets on such an exotic sport as pesapallo. You can make a prediction for the matches of the Finnish men’s and women’s championships, for example, on the websites of the 1xStavka , Winline and Olimp bets .
True, the number of offers is usually very limited, and the margin at best will amount to a significant 10 percent – bookmakers are trying to minimize their risks due to low demand. Betting on pesapallo is much more popular in the homeland of this sport, where offices offer a line with paintings even for the lower divisions.
There is no win-win strategy, and it is unlikely that you will be able to make good money on pesapallo in Russia – even large bookmakers offer not the most favorable odds for this sport. For fun and for a closer acquaintance with Finnish baseball, it is advisable to bet small amounts without putting your bank at great risk.