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
01/29/2012 - Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Romanian partner Horia Tecau won the Australian Open mixed doubles title on Sunday.
Mattek-Sands and Tecau, seeded No. 8, easily won the match tiebreaker to earn a 6-3, 5-7, (10-3) victory over the fifth-seeded team of Russia's Elena Vesnina and India's Leander Paes.
After the second lasted nearly an hour, Mattek-Sands and Tecau took care of their opponents in the tiebreaker in just 12 minutes. They had six aces and 34 winners in the match.
On Saturday, Paes and Radek Stepanek had ended the three-year Australian Open reign of Bob and Mike Bryan by beating the top-ranked twin brothers in the men's doubles final.
Instead of the Bryans, Mattek-Sands became the only American to win a title at this year's championship.
<< Waldow leads No. 21 Saint Mary's over BYU
Provo, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brad Waldow had 19 points and 11 rebounds to help
No. 21 Saint Mary's to an 80-66 win over BYU.
Clint Steindl had 16 points and Rob Jones added 13 points and nine rebounds
for Saint Mary's (21-2, 10-0 WCC), wh
<< Dudley helps Phoenix down Memphis
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jared Dudley hit the deciding free throws with
three seconds left, as the Suns halted a three-game skid with an 86-84 win
over the Grizzlies on Saturday.
Dudley finished with 20 points and Steve Nash ha
<< Hayward, Miles help Jazz edge Kings
Salt Lake City, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gordon Hayward scored 21 points, C.J.
Miles had 20 and the Utah Jazz survived a tailor-made three-point attempt by
Jimmer Fredette in the final seconds to beat the Sacramento Kings, 96-93, on
Saturda
<< UNLV downs Air Force in OT
Colorado Springs, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Moser had 27 points and 12
rebounds as No. 12 UNLV won its second consecutive overtime game on the road
with a 65-63 triumph over Air Force.
Oscar Bellfield added 15 points and seven a
Kieffer wins maiden Challenge Tour title >>
Ahmedabad, India (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - German Max Kieffer parred the first
playoff hole Sunday to defeat India's own Rahil Gangjee and win The Gujarat
Kensville Challenge 2012.
Kieffer earned his first European Challenge Tour title
Rock wins in Abu Dhabi; Tiger ties for 3rd >>
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robert Rock trumped some of
the best players in the world Sunday, including fellow third-round co-leader
Tiger Woods, to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
Rock shot a two-under 70
Djokovic outlasts Nadal in epic Aussie final >>
Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Novak Djokovic became only the fifth
man in the Open Era to win three straight major titles when he outlasted
Rafael Nadal in Sunday's marathon final at the 2012 Australian Open. Djokovic
and Nadal battl
Bulls kick off monster road trip in Miami >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of Eastern Conference heavyweights square off on the
shores of Biscayne Bay Sunday afternoon when LeBron James and the Miami Heat
play host to Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls in a rematch of last season's
conference
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