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
11/14/2008 - Homestead, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johnny Benson captured his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship Friday with a seventh-place finish in the Ford 200 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Benson finished the season seven points ahead of Ron Hornaday, Jr., who finished one position behind in eighth. It was the second-closest points battle in the 14-year history of the series.
Meanwhile, Todd Bodine won at Homestead, holding off Brian Scott in a green- white-checkered finish. The victory was Bodine's third of the season and the 15th of his Truck Series career.
Scott finished second, and Kevin Harvick was third. Kyle Busch and Dennis Setzer rounded out the top-five.
More details to follow.
<< Young, Sixers overcome big deficit to topple Pacers
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thaddeus Young scored a career-high 25
points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and the Philadelphia 76ers erased a 26-point
first-half deficit and came back to edge the Indiana Pacers, 94-92.
Andre Miller s
<< No. 21 Wake Forest crushes N.C. Central
Winston-Salem, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Freshman Al-Farouq Aminu scored 21 points
and grabbed 10 rebounds, and No. 21 Wake Forest kicked off its 2008-09
campaign with a 94-48 rout of North Carolina Central.
Aminu made 9-of-12 from the
<< Charlotte pulls out victory over short-handed Jazz
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gerald Wallace scored 22 points and grabbed
nine rebounds to lead the Charlotte Bobcats to a 104-96 victory over the
ailing Utah Jazz, who were without three of their top six players.
Deron Williams,
<< Ovechkin and Laich lead surging Caps over Devils
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alexander Ovechkin and Brooks Laich both had
a goal and an assist, as the surging Washington Capitals defeated the slumping
New Jersey Devils, 3-1, in the opener of a home-and-home series at the Verizon
Center.
Harris leads Nets to victory over Hawks >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Devin Harris finished with 30 points,
eight assists and six rebounds, as the New Jersey Nets used a strong fourth
quarter to take a 115-108 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
Vince Carter ended with
No. 12 Oklahoma rolls over American University >>
Norman, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Blake Griffin had 24 points and a career-high 18
rebounds, as 12th-ranked Oklahoma crushed American University, 83-54, in the
season opener for both clubs.
Cade Davis had 11 points while Willie Warren added
Thrashers stay in win column by edging 'Canes >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johan Hedberg finished with 27 saves as the
streaking Atlanta Thrashers downed the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2, in a
Southeast Division battle at Philips Arena.
Marty Reasoner, Eric Perrin and Slav
Posey, Hornets hold off Blazers >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Posey scored 14 points and nailed two
key three-pointers in the fourth quarter, as the New Orleans Hornets pulled
out a hard-fought 87-82 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Chris Paul logged
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