Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
07/12/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Following a one week break from voting in the NTRA National Poll, the same two horses remain on top of the tabulation. Champion mare Zenyatta holds a narrow lead over four-year-old colt Quality Road.
With both thoroughbreds perfect this year in three starts, Zenyatta has a four point lead on Quality Road, despite receiving seven more first-place votes.
Zenyatta, undefeated in 17 career starts, has 13 first-place votes and 178 points, one less point than two weeks ago. The six-year-old champion is expected to make her next start on August 7 at Del Mar in the Clement L. Hirsch, a race she has won the last two years.
Quality Road is steady with six first-place votes and 174 points. The winner of the Met Mile will also make his next start on August 7, but in the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course.
The next three spots are unchanged from the last poll: Blame (120), Rachel Alexandra (111) and Lookin At Lucky (101).
Double Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti returns to the top 10 in sixth-place following Saturday's victory in the Man o'War Stakes at Belmont Park, his initial win of the year. Last year's Breeders' Cup Classic runner-up has 58 points with Kentucky Derby champ Super Saver in seventh with 45 points.
Rail Trip, who was edged in Saturday's Hollywood Gold Cup, dropped two rungs to eighth with 42 points. Blind Luck won Saturday's Delaware Oaks and moves up one spot to ninth with 39 points.
Tuscan Evening completes the top 10 with 33 points.
<< Creamer up to No. 7 in world rankings
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paula Creamer finally earned her first
major championship on Sunday at the U.S. Women's Open and the victory moved
her back into the top 10 of the world rankings.
Creamer vaulted up six places to se
<< Jimenez, Price named starters for All-Star Game
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Colorado Rockies right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez
and Tampa Bay Rays lefty David Price have been selected as the starting
pitchers for the 2010 All-Star Game at Angel Stadium.
National League manager Cha
<< Seven finalists return to Walter Payton Award Watch List
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The race for the 2010 Walter Payton Award,
sponsored by Fathead.com, kicked off Monday with The Sportsbook Betting Lines's
announcement that seven finalists from last season are part of a stellar 20-
player Watch List
<< Blackhawks re-sign assistant coach Haviland; add Kitchen to staff
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Blackhawks on Monday re-signed assistant
coach Mike Haviland and named Mike Kitchen an assistant coach.
"Adding Mike Kitchen and bringing back Mike Haviland bolster what is already a
tremendous coaching
Duquesne names two coordinators >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Saint Francis (Pa.) football coach
Dave Opfar was named Duquesne's new defensive coordinator and Niel Loebig was
elevated from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator, Dukes coach Jerry
Schmitt annou
Edoardo Molinari in top 20 of world rankings >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Edoardo Molinari collected his first
European Tour win Sunday at the Scottish Open and in the process, moved inside
the top 20 of the world rankings.
Molinari moved up 22 places to 19th this week.
Serra exits Bastad >>
Bastad, Sweden (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eighth-seeded Frenchman Florent Serra was a
first-round upset victim Monday at the Swedish Open.
Italian Potito Starace stifled Serra 6-2. 6-2 on the red clay at Bastad Tennis
Stadium.
In other first-ro
Hanescu ousted in Stuttgart >>
Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eighth seed and 2009 runner-up Victor
Hanescu was an opening-round upset victim Monday at the Mercedes Cup tennis
event.
The Romanian Hanescu was knocked out by Swiss Marco Chiudinelli 7-6 (7-4), 6
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting