Betting the 2025 Home Run Derby

The annual Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game festivities is entering a new era in 2025. There will not be a single player who competed in last year’s event in the field this time around at Truist Park in Atlanta, the site of the 2025 MLB All-Star Game.

The Home Run Derby will be held Monday, July 14, at Truist Park. The event begins at 8 p.m. ET.

This year’s Home Run Derby field and current odds to win are as follows:

You can bet these odds at BetOnline.ag

• Cal Raleigh +375
• Byron Buxton +800
• Jazz Chisholm +1300
• Ronald Acuna Jr. +425
• James Wood +550
• Oneil Cruz +340
• Junior Caminero +1100
• Brent Rooker +1000

Odds for regular season home run leader

Oddsmakers still have not yet determined a clear favorite. Cruz actually has a slight advantage over Raleigh and the rest of the field. Cruz has 16 home runs this season. Raleigh, of course, leads the majors with 36 homers this season.

Behind Raleigh is Wood, who has seemed to pique the most public interest thus far. Wood has the second-most homers of anyone in the HR Derby field. He has 24 and bettors also hold the most tickets on Wood (+550) to win. A $100 bettor would win $550 if Wood were to win on Monday night. The largest handle (about 34 percent) is on Wood as well, making him the biggest liability for sportsbooks.

Keep in mind that Acuna, who has the fewest homers of anyone in the field, did not start playing this season until late May. He suffered a knee injury last season and wasn’t ready to return at the start of the 2025 campaign. He’s also competing in front of his home crowd.

If you’re planning on betting the 2025 Home Run Derby, it pays to understand how the competition works. Here is the format for this year’s HR Derby.

Format for the 2025 Home Run Derby

The eight-player HR Derby consists of three rounds: the preliminary round, the semifinals, and the finals.

The eight players have three minutes or forty pitches, whichever comes first, to hit as many home runs as they can in the first round. Additionally, every player has a bonus period that lasts until they record three outs, or any swing that doesn’t result in a home run, during that time. A player’s bonus period is prolonged until they record a fourth out if they hit a home run of at least 425 feet during that time.

The four players who hit the most home runs go to the semifinals. If there is a tie, the player who hits the longest home run during the round advances.

During the semifinals, the format changes to “knockout style,” with the top seed facing the fourth seed and No. 2 facing No. 3. The number of home runs each player hit in the first round is the only used to determine the seeds. In the semifinals and finals, players will have two minutes or 27 pitches, and their first-round home run totals are not carried over.

Ties in the round are broken by a 60-second “swing-off” where there is no extra time given. After the swing-off, if the two players remain tied, they will compete in consecutive three-swing swing-offs until a winner is determined.

In the finals, it’s the top two from the semifinals. The limits are lowered to two minutes and 27 pitches in the finals. The player with the most homers in the finals is the winner of the 2025 Home Run Derby.

Batters are allowed one 45-second timeout during each of the three regulation periods. Timeouts are not permitted during tiebreakers or bonus periods.

Last year, Teoscar Hernandez defeated Bobby Witt Jr. in the final round to claim the title of Home Run Derby champion. Notably, the last player to win a Home Run Derby in his home stadium was Bryce Harper in 2018. 

According to MARCA, the Home Run Derby champion gets a cool $1 Million. The runner up receives $750,000.

The 2025 All Star Game will be played the following day.