What's a moneyline bet anyway?

Summary

Summary of "What's a Moneyline Bet Anyway?" - The Indicator from Planet Money

Release Date: January 8, 2025
Host: Adrienne Ma and Wayland Wong
Guest: Annie O'Donnell, Sports Content Creator
Source: NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money

---

Introduction

In the January 8, 2025 episode of The Indicator from Planet Money, hosts Adrienne Ma and Wayland Wong delve into Investopedia's "Top Terms of the Year" list for 2024. This episode offers a comprehensive exploration of the economic terms that captured the public's attention, providing insights into the prevailing economic sentiments and curiosities of the American populace.

Investopedia's Top Terms of 2024

1. Inflation ([02:44] - [03:21])

The conversation begins with Wayland Wong highlighting that "inflation" topped Investopedia's list for 2024. Caleb Silver, Investopedia's Editor-in-Chief, explains that while inflation remains a ubiquitous topic, users are now seeking more nuanced information beyond basic definitions. This shift indicates a deeper concern among the public regarding the persistence and trends of inflation.

Caleb Silver ([03:02]): "What was the inflation rate by president, you know, what is the trend here? Why is it still around? Has inflation gotten better or worse over the last few years?"

2. Tariffs ([03:21] - [03:34])

Following inflation, "tariffs" emerged as the second most searched term, particularly spiking around the time of the second presidential debate. This surge reflects public interest in how trade policies and tariffs influence the economy, especially in the context of political discourse.

3. Nvidia ([03:34] - [04:12])

Nvidia, the leading semiconductor company, secured the third spot due to its significant market movements, including a notable stock split. The discussion clarifies what a stock split entails, using Nvidia's 10-for-1 stock split in June as an example, which made shares more accessible to employees and investors by reducing the individual share price.

4. Stock Split ([04:12] - [04:28])

Closely related to Nvidia's prominence, "stock split" ranks fourth. Caleb Silver notes a substantial number of companies, approximately 340, announced stock splits in 2024, indicating a widespread trend in corporate financial strategies. This term's popularity underscores investors' growing interest in understanding corporate actions that affect stock ownership and valuation.

5. Bitcoin ([04:28] - [05:14])

At number nine, "Bitcoin" reflects the cryptocurrency's resurgence, particularly its impressive performance in late 2024. Caleb Silver attributes the spike in interest to Bitcoin's price rally, which generated FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) among investors, prompting more searches for cryptocurrency-related information.

Caleb Silver ([05:08]): "A lot of people maybe missed this on the first go round now they're really interested because price always drives interest."

6. Moneyline Bet ([06:00] - [08:55])

Rounding out the top ten is "Moneyline Bet," a sports betting term that gained traction as sports gambling became increasingly mainstream. This term's inclusion highlights the intersection of finance, probability, and popular culture, especially as it relates to sports enthusiasts.

Deep Dive: Moneyline Bets and Sports Betting

To elucidate the concept of a Moneyline Bet, the hosts bring in Annie O'Donnell, a sports content creator known as Sweet Annie O.D., who specializes in hockey and baseball. Annie shares her journey into sports betting, initially unfamiliar with the terminology but intrigued by its growing relevance among her followers.

Annie O'Donnell ([07:14]): "Sometimes I'll scroll by something and I don't understand it. And if it's just not in my realm or I'm not interested, I'll be like, okay, not relevant to me..."

Living in California, where real money sports betting is illegal, Annie adapted by placing small bets through friends in other states. Her initial foray involved simple Moneyline Bets—betting on the outright winner of a game without considering the point spread.

Annie O'Donnell ([08:12]): "The Moneyline bet is the easiest way to bet on sports. It could be a complete blowout... but it's just win or lose."

The discussion emphasizes that while Moneyline Bets are straightforward, the sports betting landscape is complex and lucrative, with the American Gaming Association reporting record revenues of $11 billion in 2024. Annie's experience illustrates the broader trend of sports betting permeating content creation and influencing economic interests.

Intersection with Politics

The episode also explores the convergence of sports betting with political events, notably the 2024 US presidential election. Caleb Silver observes a "real merger" between sports and political betting, with betting markets proving more accurate than traditional polling in predicting election outcomes.

Caleb Silver ([09:18]): "...this real merger of the world of sports betting and political betting with people betting on the election. And it also turned out that the betting markets were more correct than the polling markets."

This fusion signifies a shifting landscape where financial trading principles overlap with gambling and political forecasting, reflecting the public's multifaceted economic interests.

Future Outlook

As the episode concludes, Wayland Wong speculates on potential future top terms, suggesting "disinflation" as a likely candidate for 2025. Disinflation, which refers to a reduction in the rate of inflation, represents a nuanced aspect of economic trends that could gain prominence as the public continues to seek deeper economic insights.

Wayland Wong ([09:45]): "You know what I think will be big? Is disinflation... maybe this is something we can tease out in a future episode."

Conclusion

This episode of The Indicator from Planet Money effectively captures the evolving economic curiosities of 2024 through Investopedia's top terms. By examining terms like inflation, tariffs, Nvidia, stock splits, Bitcoin, and Moneyline Bets, the hosts provide a window into the complex interplay between traditional economics, emerging financial instruments, and popular culture. The inclusion of guest insights from a sports content creator underscores the pervasive influence of sports betting in today's economic discourse, while Caleb Silver's analysis highlights the dynamic nature of public interests and their reflection in economic indicators.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Caleb Silver ([03:02]): "What was the inflation rate by president, you know, what is the trend here? Why is it still around? Has inflation gotten better or worse over the last few years?"

• Caleb Silver ([05:08]): "A lot of people maybe missed this on the first go round now they're really interested because price always drives interest."

• Caleb Silver ([09:18]): "...this real merger of the world of sports betting and political betting with people betting on the election. And it also turned out that the betting markets were more correct than the polling markets."

• Wayland Wong ([09:45]): "You know what I think will be big? Is disinflation... maybe this is something we can tease out in a future episode."

---

This summary encapsulates the episode's key discussions, providing a coherent narrative for listeners who seek to understand the economic themes that dominated 2024. It interweaves factual information with personal anecdotes and expert insights, ensuring a rich and engaging overview of the episode's content.

Transcript

[NPR]

Npr.

[Adrienne Ma]

This is the Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Adrienne Ma.

[Wayland Wong]

And I'm Wayland Wong. You know, there are lots of ways to gauge how people feel about the economy. We've got different indices of consumer confidence. The New York Fed measures household financial expectations. The list goes on.

[Adrienne Ma]

But we are here to talk today about one particular glimpse into the American economic psyche. It's an indicator that really speaks to our nerdy wordsmith hearts. And that is Investopedia's top terms of the Year.

[Wayland Wong]

That's right. Every year, the online glossary rounds up the 10 financial words and phrases that drew the most interest from its audience. It's a window into what economic topics people were super curious about.

[Adrienne Ma]

And this 2024 list has a bit of everything. Macroeconomics, corporate finance, cryptocurrency, and even sports betting. So today on the show, Investopedia's editor in chief walks us through 2024 in econ vocab.

[Sponsor]

This message comes from Schwab. At Schwab, how you invest is your choice, not theirs. That's why when it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices. You can invest and trade on your own. Plus get advice and more comprehensive wealth solutions to help meet your unique needs. With award winning service, low costs and transparent advice, you can manage your wealth your way at Schwab. Visit schwab.com to learn more. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Energia, where everyone can invest in the world's most profitable renewable energy markets. Since inception, Energia has helped investors realize a 12% return while while earning steady monthly dividends. Make your money. Do [e-mail] NPR that's Energia. E n e r-e a.com past performance is not indicative of future results. All investments carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

[Wayland Wong]

Investopedia has over 14,000 terms on its website, so to make the top 10 list for the year, a word really has to stand out. It has to be something that drew a lot of website traffic and in a sustained way.

[Caleb Silver]

The fascinating thing about Investopedia and our readers is that everybody comes in through a different door.

[Adrienne Ma]

Caleb Silver is editor in chief at Investopedia, and what he means is that people typically arrive at Investopedia by looking for information on a topic. Caleb gets to see what questions people are typing into search engines that lead them to specific articles on the website.

[Wayland Wong]

And in 2024, the number one term on Investopedia was inflation. Oi, oi, oi, oi I know we are still talking about inflation, but Caleb says would change in 20 was that people had graduated from inflation 101 and they wanted more granular information.

[Caleb Silver]

What was the inflation rate by president, you know, what is the trend here? Why is it still around? Has inflation gotten better or worse over the last few years? So it wasn't just a search for the term itself. It was the all the terms around it that paints a really fascinating picture of what was going on in people's minds. This was the year that a lot of people thought they might do something about it with their vote.

[Adrienne Ma]

Speaking of voting, there was an especially big spike in interest for another term around the second presidential debate. That's the number two term on Investopedia's list for 2024, which was say it with me, tariffs.

[Wayland Wong]

Now we have talked a lot about tariffs on our show. So let's go to numbers three and four on the list. Nvidia and stock split.

[Adrienne Ma]

Nvidia of course is the semiconductor chip powerhouse that at one point last year became the world's most valuable company. As for stock split, that's when a corporation issues more shares to stockholders. So Nvidia actually did a 10 for 1 stock split back in June.

[Wayland Wong]

That meant that if you owned one share of Nvidia priced at $100, you would end up with 10 shares priced at $10 each. You still own $100 worth of Nvidia just split up into more shares than before.

[Adrienne Ma]

Now Nvidia said it was doing this stock split to make it easier for employees and investors to buy into the company, you know, because each individual share is now priced lower than before. And Caleb says Nvidia was the big Stock Split for 2024, but not the only one.

[Caleb Silver]

If you look at when stock splits spiked so much as a term on invested pd. It was right around the time that Nvidia announced that 10 for one stock split. But it turns out that There was about 340 odd companies that announced stock splits in 2024 and some of them were pretty vague, including Walmart.

[Wayland Wong]

Now maybe you find stocks boring and old fashioned. Maybe newer or riskier kinds of investing are more your speed. The final two words on Investopedia's are for you. Clocking in at number nine was Bitcoin, which went on an absolute tear at the end of 2024. Caleb says the run up in Bitcoin's price last year sparked curiosity and FOMO among Investopedia's users.

[Caleb Silver]

A lot of people maybe missed this on the first go round now they're really interested because price always drives interest.

[Adrienne Ma]

Now, Caleb says the Investopedia team decided to start building up its glossary of crypto terms. Back in 2016, he and his colleagues wanted to get ahead of what they expected to be this big surge of.

[Wayland Wong]

More recently, Investopedia made a similar decision with another area of finance that looked like it was blowing up, and that is sports betting. Now, Caleb is not equating gambling with investing, but he says these activities are related.

[Caleb Silver]

We had this feeling that sports betting and stock trading were cousins that might show up at the same barbecue, but weren't necessarily that closely related. But still, there was enough in there to realize that people were thinking about probability, they were thinking about outcomes, they were thinking about risk when they were thinking about sports betting, which are some of the core principles of trading securities.

[Wayland Wong]

Now, this brings us to the final term on Investopedia's top 10 list for 2024. It's a sports betting term. Moneyline Bet. Now, agent, Was this a term that you knew? Because I will admit I had to look it up, you know, on Investopedia, obviously, I hadn't heard it before.

[Adrienne Ma]

No, I mean, when I heard it, I just thought of those, like, old pay telephone numbers that you call, like, you know, for psychics or whatever.

[Wayland Wong]

So you. Are you telling me you used to call up a psychic on a payphone?

[Adrienne Ma]

I didn't personally, but I do remember the commercials.

[Wayland Wong]

You spent the 90s.

[Adrienne Ma]

Yeah.

[Wayland Wong]

Okay. Ms. Cleo, the Investopedia of her day, of course. Well, Caleb says Moneyline Bet was the entry point for a lot of people looking to get educated on sports gambling.

[Caleb Silver]

All of a sudden, you go down the algebra hole looking to learn more about how this betting works.

[Wayland Wong]

Now, as a total newbie to this world, I wanted to find someone who could really hold my hand. So we brought in a ringer.

[NPR]

I was born in a huge hockey family. My dad put us all on skates literally immediately when we could walk.

[Wayland Wong]

Annie O'Donnell is a sports content creator. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok as Sweet Annie O. D. Her specialties are hockey and baseball.

[NPR]

One of my love languages is talking sports. And now I get to live and breathe it.

[Adrienne Ma]

Annie's been immersed in hockey and other sports for basically her whole life. But it was only more recently that sports betting started to be a bigger topic in our world.

[NPR]

Sometimes I'll scroll by something and I don't understand it. And if it's just not in my realm or I'm not interested, I'll be like, okay, not relevant to me, but in my space, when it's people around me, fellow creators, and even sports fans that are asking for this information, I said, okay, this is kind of the way the industry starting to go.

[Wayland Wong]

Annie ordered some books and read up on sports betting. And then she decided to try it herself. Now she lives in California, where real money sports betting is not legal. So she would venmo friends in other states like five bucks at a time and ask them to place bets for her. Her first bets were Moneyline bets.

[NPR]

The Moneyline bet is who wins and loses. So say the Bears are playing the Cowboys. If you're taking the Bears Moneyline, you are betting on them to win the game.

[Wayland Wong]

So that's all it is.

[NPR]

That's all it is. It's Moneyline is the easiest way to bet on sports. It could be a complete blowout. It could be the closest game in the world where you are biting your nails till the end in overtime. But it's just win or lose.

[Adrienne Ma]

Of course, sports betting can get way more complex than that, and a lot of people are risking way more than five bucks at a time. Data from the American Gaming association shows that sports betting revenue hit a record $11 billion in 20.

[NPR]

I'm willing to risk a cup of coffee for, you know, this little test here, but I'm not. I'm not doing anything more. I'm not doing a pair of shoes.

[Wayland Wong]

Even so, the sports betting industry has become unavoidable for content creators like Annie. She's done a couple brand partnerships with gaming companies, including DraftKings, one of the biggest names.

[Adrienne Ma]

And, you know, gambling did not just happen in the world of sports last year. It was also popular in politics. In 2024, online betting markets drew in billions of dollars of wagers on the outcome of the US presidential election. Caleb Silver at Investopedia says the 2024 top 10 list reflects this convergence of all these forces around financial trading, gambling, and politics.

[Caleb Silver]

What we saw this year for the first time was this real merger of the world of sports betting and political betting with people betting on the election. And it also turned out that the betting markets were more correct than the polling markets. So this is the first time that happened, but I don't think it's going to be the last time.

[Wayland Wong]

And this definitely won't be the last time we talk about inflation, tariffs, bitcoin, or sports betting.

[Adrienne Ma]

Waylon, have you got any bets on what this year's top terms are going to be?

[Wayland Wong]

You know what I think will be big? Is disinflation. So, like, we're not talking about inflation going up, we're talking about the rate of inflation, cooling, disinflation, not to be confused with deflation. Maybe this is something we can tease out in a future episode.

[Sponsor]

Love it.

[Wayland Wong]

This episode was produced by Corey Bridges with engineering by Jimmy Keeley. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez, Kicking Ken and edits our show. And the indicator is production of npr.

[Sponsor]

This message comes from Bombas. Their slippers are designed with cushioning so every step feels marshmallowy soft. Plus, for every item purchased, Bombas donates to someone in need. Go to bombas.com NPR and use code NPR for 20% off your first order.

This message comes from NPR sponsor Rosetta Stone, an expert in language learning for 30 years. Right now, NPR listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership to 25 different languages for 50% off. Learn more at rosetta stone.com NPR this.

Message comes from Mint Mobile. From the gas pump to the grocery store, inflation is everywhere. So Mint Mobile is offering premium wireless starting at just $15 a month. To get your new phone plan for just $15, go to mintmobile.com switch.