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06/09/2010 - Princeton, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pittsburgh, Texas, Maryland and Illinois will open the 2010-11 basketball season by participating in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
Those teams will serve as the four regional round hosts for the event. The tournament will begin with regional round action from November 8-10.
Pittsburgh will play Rhode Island and Illinois-Chicago at the Petersen Events Center, Texas will battle Navy and Louisiana Tech at the Frank Erwin Center, Maryland will face Seattle and Charleston at the Comcast Center and Illinois will clash with UC-Irvine and Toledo at Assembly Hall.
The four host schools automatically advance to the championship rounds at Madison Square Garden on November 18th and 19th. The rest of the 12-team field will participate in the Subregional rounds.
<< Italy's Pirlo hopes to be ready for final group game
Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Italy midfielder Andrea Pirlo is hoping to be
fit for his team's final group stage match against Slovakia on June 24.
The AC Milan veteran sustained a calf injury in Italy's recent 2-1 friendly
defeat aga
<< Lakers' win earns top ratings for ABC
BOSTON (AP) -The Los Angeles Lakers' victory in Boston in the NBA finals earned the highest television ratings for a Game 3 since 2004.The Lakers' 91-84 win earned an 11.5 overnight rating, 14 percent better than the Lakers and Orlando posted in Gam
<< Fisher and Bryant, friends and champions
BOSTON (AP) -Derek Fisher has earned a place of prominence while winning four NBA championships in two stints with the Lakers lasting 11 seasons.He's the one who can tell Kobe Bryant what's what.Fisher and Bryant have developed a friendship during t
<< Ravens FB McClain signs tender
Owings Mills, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Baltimore Ravens fullback Le'Ron McClain
signed his one-year tender with the club on Wednesday.
McClain, 25, has rushed for 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns in 48 games -- 41
starts -- with the Ravens
Rachel Alexandra versus four in Fleur de Lis >>
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rachel Alexandra, 2009 Horse of the Year,
goes after her first win of 2010 on Saturday in the $200,000 Fleur de Lis
Handicap at Churchill Downs. The 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares will be
the fir
ESPN hoops analyst Phelps recovering from cancer surgery >>
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former college basketball coach and ESPN
analyst Digger Phelps is recovering from successful prostate cancer surgery he
underwent on Tuesday.
The legendary coach was diagnosed on April 28 and had the
'Turfbreaking' set for EWU's red field >>
Cheyney, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tennessee Titans All-Pro tackle Michael Roos
will be in attendance for a "turfbreaking" ceremony at Eastern Washington on
Saturday, as the Big Sky Conference university moves toward installing a red
turf field.
Hewitt lands in Halle QFs >>
Halle, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt was an
easy second-round winner Wednesday at the Gerry Weber Open, a grass-court
Wimbledon tune-up.
The two-time major champion Hewitt humbled Dutchman Thiemo De B
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.
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